Asia-Pacific

Thailand gets post-coup PM

(AP)
Updated: 2006-10-01 15:51

BANGKOK - Thailand's military rulers announced a stop-gap prime minister and constitution on Sunday, fulfilling a promise to step back in favor of civilians within two weeks of last month's coup against Thaksin Shinawatra.

As the tanks that stood outside Government House since the September 19 putsch rolled back to the barracks, the coup leaders released four of Thaksin's most powerful ministers from army custody, a sure sign of the situation stabilizing.

Thai troops withdraw from the Royal Plaza in Bangkok on October 1, 2006, after guarding the area for almost two weeks. Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej endorsed a stop-gap constitution on Sunday which the army says will be in place until a new long-term charter is drawn up in around nine months after September's bloodless military coup. [Reuters]

Shortly after television stations announced the interim constitution, army chief and coup leader Sonthi Boonyaratglin confirmed that Surayud Chulanont, a retired general, would be prime minister under a gradual plan to restore democracy.

"I went to his house and spent half an hour convincing him to take the job while the country is in crisis. He has agreed to take it," General Sonthi told reporters at a news conference.

A formal swearing-in ceremony was set for 4.45 pm (0945 GMT).

Under the new charter endorsed by revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 63-year-old Surayud will be in charge to keep the economy ticking over while a panel of eminent Thais draws up a new long-term constitution.

According to the generals' "democracy roadmap," this should take about nine months, at the end of which there will be a referendum and national elections.

MILITARY MAN AS CIVILIAN PM

Although a career military man, Surayud -- until now a senior royal adviser -- has a reputation as a reformer who recognized the need to keep soldiers out of politics in a country which has now seen 18 coups in seven decades of democracy.

The coming months could well test his patience.

Despite promises not to interfere, doubts remain about the Council for Democratic Reform (CDR), as the coup leaders call themselves, given that they are staying on as a Council for National Security (CNS) with the power to fire the interim government.

"People respect him very highly, but it's not about him any more. It's not about Surayud as a person. It's all about the CDR," said one Bangkok-based human rights worker who asked not to be identified.

Having ousted Thaksin without a shot being fired, Sonthi promised to hand power to civilians within two weeks, a pledge that ensured goodwill from Thais but failed to stop international condemnation of Thailand's first coup in 15 years.

The interim charter guarantees basic human rights and sets up an assembly of 2,000 eminent persons to start work on a long-term constitution, but it also enshrines the coup leaders' security role and their ability to hire and fire governments.

CALMING FEARS

However, officials have tried to assuage worries about the army overshadowing the return to democracy, saying the authority to sack the government is largely hypothetical.

"It is a power that is in reserve. I don't think they foresee a situation to resort to it," senior Foreign Ministry official Krit Garnjana-Goonchorn said.

Sonthi told Reuters on Friday the CNS would play a role only in security matters, such as tackling an insurgency in the Muslim far south where over 1,700 people have been killed since 2004.

"I can assure you it is impossible that we will control the government," he said in an interview at Army Headquarters. "We will be the government's tool to keep peace."

Sonthi said Thaksin, a telecoms billionaire who won election landslides in 2001 and 2005 but now lives in exile in London, should not return to Thailand as the "domestic situation has not settled yet."

However, his four most trusted aides -- Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya, chief of staff Prommin Lertsuradej, Prime Minister's office Minister Newin Chidchob and Environment Minister Yongyut Tiyapairat -- have been released from 10 days of army custody.

"It is the police's job to look after them from now," Sonthi said.

In one of the few signs of public opposition to the coup, Thai newspaper Web sites reported on Saturday that a taxi daubed with slogans saying "Destroying the country" and "Die for the country" rammed a tank in Bangkok.

The taxi was badly damaged and the driver taken to hospital with damaged ribs. The tank was unscathed.