The Nation March 7, 2012 1:00 am

& He added that a more lenient emergency decree will be imposed in Pattani's Mae Lan district and Songkhla's four Malay-speaking districts - Thepha, Saba Yoi, Na Thawi and Chana - where violence has decreased and insurgents are less active.

& Yuthasak said he has also ordered relevant agencies to study the plan to create a special administrative zone in the deep South, though he did not explain why he had taken this step or how long the study will take.

& Thawil Pliensri, a former secretary-general of the National Security Council, said the format for making the deep South into a special administrative area had to be carefully defined.

& He said many existing agencies, including the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre, were already working as special administrative authorities in the deep South to suit the unique needs of the population.

& "A special administrative body is necessary to benefit reconciliatory efforts in the long run, but it must be approved and endorsed by the law and the Constitution," he added.

& Army commander General Prayuth Chan-ocha said conventional laws were insufficient to suppress insurgent operations as well as protect innocent civilians.

& He repeated the Army's stance after a group of senators recently called on the government not to impose the emergency decree in the South.

& "Counter-insurgency operations, which are against armed and violent militants, not just common criminals, cannot be carried out using only the procedural criminal code," he warned.

& "The use of normal laws will make military operations against the insurgents difficult if not ineffective; even the emergency decree requires court warrants for search, arrests and raids, while the martial law enables immediate arrests."

& LATEST ATTACK

& Meanwhile, a roadside bomb attack in Yala on a squad of soldiers yesterday killed one and injured another. The dawn attack was targeted at a nine-man squad on foot patrol to escort teachers. The 5-kilogram home-made bomb was hidden in a pile of garbage nearby.

& Police ordnance personnel said the bomb was detonated through radio frequencies meant for police use and via a two-way handset of the same model as the one seized in a recent raid in Satun province.

& Citing a tip-off, police said that more than 100 units of this two-way radio handset had been smuggled into the South in recent months. Yesterday's attack is believed to have been ordered by Ismael Rayalong, who is active in the area that is under the influence of insurgents, police said.