Article 50

Judges ordered to stay put

Transfer requests will be dealt with next year

POST REPORTERS

All 30-40 judges in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces will have to stay put for the time being, despite filing immediate requests for transfers after last week's daylight murder of a Pattani court judge.

Their requests will not be considered until the annual judicial reshuffle due in April next year.

Some judges were reportedly walking backwards into their houses so they could look out for danger and some received death threats after three gunmen killed Judge Rapin Ruankaew, 37, in downtown Pattani last Friday.

He was the first judge to be targeted since the unrest blamed on Islamic milita! nts erupted in the deep South in January.

Chat Chonlaworn, secretary-general of the Judiciary Office, admitted judges in the South were not safe and said he sympathised with them, but they could not go on leave right now.

``I know they are living in fear. Even judges who formerly served as policemen are frightened. But they will have to wait until the reshuffle on April 1 next year,'' Mr Chat said.

Emergency safety measures had been drawn up, including permission for judges to carry guns and the purchase of bullet-proof vests and vehicles, and endorsement would be sought at a meeting of the Court Administration and judicial commissions in Chiang Mai on Thursday.

Mr Chat said a force of court wardens would also be set up specifically to provide security inside courtrooms.

For now, border patrol police would guard judges and court officials, he said. Police had already lent his agency a bullet-proof vehicle.

Mr Chat denied reports tha! t all cases of violence against the state in the provinces would now b e tried in Bangkok instead.

Justice Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana said he had no objection to southern judges carrying weapons, but did not seem supportive of the idea of wardens being assigned to every court in the region.

If wardens were required for safety reasons alone, police and soldiers were a better choice as they were well-trained.

Some judges have said they do not want protection from the police or military, because these people were themselves targets.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra asked judges to be patient and to continue in their duties. The government believed the situation in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat would improve.

However, Deputy Prime Minister Thammarak Isarangkura na Ayudhaya said the unrest in the South was getting worse.

``A judge has been killed. How can we say the situation is getting better?'' he said.

Gen Thammarak, however, believed the new security plan for the deep South should ease the tro! ubles. National Security Council chief Winai Patthiyakul said security agencies would work much more closely together. Police Region 9 would continue to protect officials in the South, he said, but he admitted there were not enough bodyguards for everyone.