From: kamol@ipied.tu.ac.TH (Kamol Hengkietisak)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai
Subject: Bangkok Post Nov 20: Panel mulls consitutional changes
Date: 20 Nov 1992 13:52:08 +1100
Organization: Mail/News gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: munnari.oz.au


THE extraordinary House committee to study constitutional changes 
yesterday proposed that the Government's power to issue executive 
decrees be curtailed in the wake of controversy over the Amnesty 
Decree.
 
The committee yesterday debated Articles 172 and 173 -- 
controversial elements in the charter which empowers the 
Government to issue an executive decree in case of an emergency 
which requires urgent actions to forestall public disasters or to 
maintain public security.
 
The committee agreed that such provision should be deleted totally 
from the Charter because previous governments had evoked the 
articles to issue executive decrees which run contrary to legal 
spirit, committee spokesman Pinit Charusombat said.
 
The government's power to promulgate executive decrees limited to 
decrees concerning tax and monetary affairs, he said.
 
The spokesman said the committee also discussed the proposal to 
ban the granting of amnesty to those responsible for overthrowing 
a constitutional government.  This was contained in the 1974 
Constitution.
 
The rationale for proposed abrogation of the Government's power on 
executive decrees is that "a good government does not need [power] 
under Article 172 because it can resort to Parliament to legislate 
laws," Mr Pinit said.
 
Controversial decrees include the one restructuring the Judicial 
Commission issued by the Anand Panyarachun II Government and the 
Amnesty Decree by the Suchinda Kraprayoon Government.
 
Both decrees were rejected by the House of Representatives.
 
The Amnesty Decree in particular has raised concern over the 
Government's ability to expediently decree amnesty to absolved 
itself of wrongdoings.
 
The Constitutional Tribunal recently ruled that the blanket 
amnesty granted to all parties involved in the May violence 
including pro-democracy demonstrators as well as those who ordered 
the crackdown stands despite the House rejection.
 
Tribunal member Suthee Arkasarerk has pointed out that there are 
loopholes in the Constitution which do not require the Government 
to justify the emergency which warrants a decree.
 
Article 172 states that the Government, for the purpose of keeping 
public safety, national economic security or forestalling public 
disasters, could issue an executive decree.
 
Clause 2 of the article however stipulates that this can be done 
only in case the Cabinet decided that the decree is needed in 
urgency.
 
Article 173 states that interpretations can be sought from the 
tribunal on whether the issuing of a decree satisfies conditions 
in the previous article.
 
The tribunal handed down a ruling upon the Opposition's motion 
under the Suchinda Government that the Amnesty Decree was 
constitutional and that it is not authorised to interpret the 
second clause of Article 172.
 
Meanwhile, a group of May tragedy relatives yesterday requested 
the police to release their autopsy reports of the dead victims to 
the Office of the Supreme Attorney-General so that an 
investigation can be conducted to establish the identities of the 
dead victims, where, when and how they were killed and by whom.
 
In a letter addressed to Police Director-General Sawat Amornvivat, 
the group, represented by lawyer Adul Khiewboriboon, cited 
paragraph 3 of Article 150 of the Criminal Procedure Code to 
substantiate their case.
 
Paragraph 3 of the article says "In the case of death caused by 
the act of an official alleged to be on the course of carrying out 
his duty, or a person has died while being kept in custody by an 
official alleged to be on the course of carrying out his duty, the 
inquiry official shall, after the inquest has been held, submit 
the file of inquest to the public prosecutor. The prosecutor shall 
apply by motion to the court of the locality where such corpse is 
for an examination and order as to who the deceased was, the 
place, time, cause and circumstances of such death."
 
A total of 44 people were shot dead by authorities during May 
17-21 and about 200 are still unaccounted for.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai