April 18, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 11, 1429

BANGKOK: Thailand’s prime minister Samak Sundaravej vowed on Thursday to lift martial law, imposed after the 2006 coup, in most of the kingdom after his party swept to victory in last year’s polls.

Samak, whose People Power Party is closely allied with ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said the restrictions were no longer needed. “At today’s (Thursday’s) meeting of the National Security Council, we agreed to lift martial law rule in 179 districts of 31 provinces,” he told reporters.

Martial law will remain in the three southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, which are in the grip of a separatist insurgency, he said. The army toppled Thaksin on Sept 19, 2006, and swiftly imposed martial law throughout the kingdom.

They gradually lifted it, region by region, but when elections were held last December nearly half of Thailand’s 76 provinces remained partially or completely under martial law.—AFP