Thai leader takes sweeping security powers

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra took broad powers from the military Friday, centralising control of security forces after insurgents staged a dramatic overnight attack. At an emergency meeting called after Thursday's raid on Yala town in south, the Thai cabinet authorised Thaksin to invoke a range of measures including curfews, wiretaps and the power to close down publications.
"We have to be decisive now," Thaksin said before the emergency cabinet session. "Otherwise the unrest could spill over to other provinces."
Most of the measures approved Friday were already in effect in large swathes of the Muslim provinces along the border with Malaysia, which have been under martial law since the insurgency broke out in January 2004.
But the executive decree moves decision-making away from southern military commanders to the prime minister's office in Bangkok.
The restrictions could be imposed - with the approval of the cabinet and a council of ministers - in areas deemed "emergency zones" by Thaksin. King Bhumibol Adulyadej's approval, a formality, was expected within two days.
Security forces would be allowed to search and arrest without warrants, while Thais could be barred from leaving the country and foreigners suspected of supporting the insurgents could be deported.
Parliamentary approval is not necessary. An emergency decree would also ban weapons possession and allow those detained to be held for seven days without charge.
"The raid (Thursday) in Yala town was the last straw," government spokesman Chalerdej Jombunud said, explaining the sudden change. Around 60 militants attacked late Thursday, bombing a power station and knocking Yala, a city of 150,000 residents, into darkness.
Minutes later, four other bombs hit a department store, two hotels, and a restaurant. The attackers then used Molotov cocktails in four separate arson attacks, ambushed two police posts and threw a grenade at a convenience store.
One militant and two police officers were killed in a gunbattle that followed the ambush of a police post at a railway crossing, security officials said. At least 21 people were injured in the attacks and six suspects have been arrested, police said.