Agence France Presse

Bangkok, July 25:

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the head of a commission highly critical of emergency powers to tackle unrest in the Muslim south, said today they would forge a united front to end the violence. Thaksin said he and Anand Panyarachun, a respected former premier who heads the National Reconciliation Commission aimed at drawing up peace proposals for the south, would jointly address the nation on television — on a date yet to be determined — to discuss the problem. “Prime minister Anand and I will go on TV together to announce to authorities and the people that the reconciliation process will carry on,” Thaksin told reporters after meeting with Anand at government house. “It does not mean that we give less priority to the reconciliation process when we have the (emergency) decree,” he said.

He was referring to the controversial new powers approved July 15 by Thaksin’s cabinet and endorsed by the King, granting emergency and supreme powers to Thaksin. Anand, too, suggested the address would go towards tamping down any perceived clash between the commission and Thaksin’s administration.

“We are going on television together to speak to the public to show we don’t have any conflict,” he said. “The government and the commission are still working together, even though there is an emergency decree and several commission members have expressed concern about it.” Under the tough emergency measures, authorities can detain suspects for up to 30 days without charge, search and arrest without warrants, and tap phones. Meanwhile, the killing continued in the south today when an informant for the Southern Peace-Building Command was gunned down in Narathiwat province. Manung Nimasu, 38, was sitting at a tea shop in Ra-Nga district when two men on a motorcycle stopped and shot him in the head and cheek, police said today.