No new deputy PMs ’suitable to take charge’

Gen Yutthasak Sasiprapa has been asked by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to carry on his work of tackling southern security problems despite his removal from the post of deputy prime minister.

“The prime minister told me it is necessary that I be replaced as cabinet member and I understand that,” said the former deputy prime minister for security affairs.

However, he said the premier has asked him to remain active in suppressing insurgency violence in the deep South.

Gen Yutthasak is expected to take on an advisory role in addressing southern security matters.

Gen Yutthasak was removed as deputy premier in the government’s latest cabinet reshuffle.

The new cabinet appointees will officially take their posts after they have been sworn in.

No deputy prime ministers-designate were suitable to take charge of southern problems, Gen Yutthasak said, adding that Ms Yingluck should lead the security agencies related to the southern security while he and the army chief provide assistance.

Meanwhile, in Raman district of Yala yesterday, a suspected insurgent core member died in a gun battle with security officers.

About 100 security officers stormed a house in tambon Yata where insurgent suspects were believed to be hiding.

Occupants of the house shot back, triggering a gun battle in which Mana Masaejuenarong, 35, a suspected core insurgent member, and Usman Wari, 26, also believed to be an insurgent member, were shot and killed.

Two border patrol policemen suffered gunshot wounds to their legs.

Mr Mana was allegedly involved in the killings of three military rangers and one housewife on a pickup truck in Yala’s Muang district on Sept 15.

Also in Raman district, Doromae Saou, 49, and his 11-year-old son, Akmal, were shot dead inside their pickup truck on a local road in Bukaebueranga village in tambon Asong.

Another son, Asmin, 9, was seriously injured and taken to a hospital.

In Yala’s Muang district, police were alerted to an unexploded M79 grenade at the Yala Home for Boys, a state-run child care facility, in tambon Sateng yesterday morning.

Police believed the perpetrator had been aiming for the Border Patrol Police Sub-Division 443 nearby, but missed their target.

The grenade was successfully recovered and demolished, officials said.

In Pattani, five policemen were wounded, two critically, in a blast caused by a bomb-rigged motorcycle in Nong Chick district last night.

Meanwhile, army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha yesterday lambasted the insurgents, saying the attacks they carried out showed they had no religious faith.

“Law-abiding Muslims want an end to the violence,” he said. “But the perpetrators kill children, women, monks, officials and innocent people every day without saying what they really want.”

He said the attackers are connected to drug-smuggling gangs and he encouraged the public to reject the criminal activity.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/319003/gen-yutthasak-keeps-south-job-despite-cabinet-exit