Thai Deputy PM still heads Emergency Operations Command
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Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban is still the head of the Center for the Resolution of Emergency Situations (CRES), CRES spokesman Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd said Saturday afternoon.
Suthep, who is the deputy prime minister in charge of security affairs, has still overseen operation plans and set up a policy for the overall operation of the CRES, Thai News Agency quoted Col Sansern as saying.
The Center for the Resolution of Emergency Situations is also known as the Emergency Operations Command.
Meanwhile, national Army Commander-in-Chief General Anupong Paochinda has been authorized by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva from Friday night to use forces to ensure peace and order if necessary.
The authorization for the Army Commander-in-Chief is aimed to cut short of the command line in a move to prevent and encounter with terrorists, Col Sansern said.
Col Sansern's clarification came after media reports that General Anupong would replace Step as the head of the CRES, the website by Bangkok Post reported.
The news media's reports said Suthep's removal was made after the Friday's failure of the CRES attempt to arrest the "red-shirt" leaders at the SC Park Hotel in capital Bangkok.
The CRES structural adjustment was made amid the on-going mass anti-government rally by the "red-shirts" at the Rathchaprasong Intersection in the center of capital Bangkok.
They have demanded Prime Minister Abhisit to "immediately" dissolve the lower House of parliament and hold a new general election.
The "red-shirts" have insisted that, apart from the House dissolution, there is no other solution to the country's on-going political conflict.
