Regional News
Thailand Military Lifts Curfew in 20 Provinces
A Thai soldier guards a street following a curfew Thursday, May 20, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand. A curfew was imposed on Wednesday after widespread rioting in central Bangkok following an army crackdown on an anti-government encampment. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
BANGKOK – Thailand’s military government lifted a late-night curfew in 20 more provinces on Tuesday, but it remained in place in more than 50 others and in the capital, Bangkok.
The junta said it took the action to ease the burden on people’s lives and because those areas were peaceful. In three of the provinces, several districts remained under curfew.
The military imposed a curfew in all 77 provinces on May 22 when it seized power from a civilian government, saying that months of protests had made the country ungovernable.
The curfew had already been reduced to four hours from seven hours, and lifted in several provinces and resort areas popular with tourists.
The junta has tightly restricted freedom of expression, and said new elections will take at least a year after political reforms occur.
A separate announcement from the junta extended from Tuesday to June 25 a deadline for surrendering privately held weapons of war to the authorities. It said those missing the deadline could face two to 20 years in prison.
Such weapons are fairly common in Thailand, which borders nations that went through decades of warfare. The army has been publicizing the discovery of arm caches in an effort to show that it is combating the threat of conflict among contending political forces.
