BANGKOK, 18 July 2005 — Thailand declared emergency rule across virtually the whole of its Muslim south yesterday in a surprisingly tough move to reign in a raging insurgency.

Invoking new powers, the government declared an emergency in Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani provinces plus four districts in neighboring Songkhla province, where at least 810 people have died in violence since January 2004.

“The decree will cover every district in the three provinces, plus four neighboring districts in Songkhla province. Those districts also need monitoring, because something could happen,” Interior Minister Chidchai Vanasathidya told reporters.

The government had been expected to announce ‘emergency zones’ within the provinces rather than declaring the whole provinces under emergency rule.

Few details of the new measures were announced but authorities will have powers to tap phones, search and arrest without warrant and censor news, among other actions.

Authorities initially will focus on limiting the movement of people in the region, and on news reporting of the insurgency, Chidchai said.

“We will try to take a soft stance on reporting and not infringe on press freedoms,” he said.

A newly formed Council of Ministers — comprising interior, defense and justice ministers among other — will meet today to set out the details on implementing the new orders, Chidchai said.

The emergency was declared under a controversial decree approved at a special Cabinet meeting Friday, one day after militants staged a daring raid on the southern town of Yala in which four people were killed and at least 20 others injured.

The decree centralizes in the prime minister’s office many powers that the military was already using in much of the region along the southern border with Malaysia, which has been under martial law since the insurgency broke out in January 2004.

“When the law takes force, everything will be the same but the enforcement will be more strict,” Army Chief Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters before the security meeting.

“Everything will follow the law. We don’t have to adjust the way we work,” he said.

The decree drew swift condemnation in Thai media and from Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s critics, who warned that placing so much power in his office could escalate unrest which shows no signs of abating.

Two border patrol police were killed and a police car was bombed in separate attacks in Thailand’s restive south, authorities said yesterday.

The pair were shot dead in the Sri Sakhon district of Narathiwat province as they traveled home after finishing their duties on Saturday evening, police said.

Lance Corporals Pari Samoh and Archai Taumoh died on the spot. Their two M-16 rifles and a pistol were stolen by the gunmen.

Meanwhile in southern Yala province early yesterday, two policemen and a passerby were injured when a bomb destroyed an unmarked police car, police said.

The bomb exploded in Yala town while Corporal Abidin Mahansa drove through one of the security checkpoints that dot roads throughout the Muslim-majority provinces near the Malaysian border.

The officer was driving to work in neighboring Pattani province at the time. The explosion ripped apart his car, injuring police Sgt. Maj. Sawan Thangklam, who was on duty at the checkpoint, and 37-year-old passerby Kausao Duerasaw.

Police said they believed the bomb was planted under the car while it was parked at a school overnight and was triggered by a mobile phone.

The three were sent to Yala provincial hospital for treatment.

The blast came three days after the carefully orchestrated raid on Yala that paralyzed the city for more than an hour with a series of bombings, arson attacks and gunfights after its electricity supply was knocked out.

At least 810 people have been killed in shootings, beheadings and bombs in Thailand’s south in past 18 months. Separatists have been blamed for much of the violence, but authorities and analysts say the unrest is also a turbulent mix of organized crime and official corruption.