BANGKOK, March 2 (UPI) -- Thailand's military leaders plan to send officers to the nation's provinces as deputy governors for security affairs to help dampen any political unrest.
The move by the Council for National Security was discussed Thursday during a meeting between CNS chairman Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratkalin and about 40 sub-district and village chiefs, The Bangkok Post reported.
Gen. Sonthi is the head of the Royal Thai Army and the Internal Security Operations Command.
The newspaper quoted unidentified sources as saying high ranking military officers - with the rank of colonel or above - had already been dispatched to three provinces: Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. And in Songkhla, a security deputy governor had already taken over security authority in four districts.
Those provinces are all located in the south of Thailand, where government forces are battling Muslim separatists who staged a series of bombing and arson attacks last month.
Gen. Sonthi was said to have indicated the move to appoint military officers as deputy governors was to help activities of "old political cliques," the newspaper reported, but was seen as a move to strengthen the power of military rules in the provinces.
Thailand's military authorities deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last September in a bloodless coup amid charges of corruption and growing political unrest in the country.
Sources said those to be named deputy governor were awaiting their endorsements by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, who was appointed to office by the CNS junta.
