PM: We will return happiness to Hat Yai
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Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra flew into Hat Yai yesterday morning - two days after a tremendous blast ripped through a major hotel - to inspect the scene, console the victims and spur on investigating officials.
“I am so sorry for what happened,” Yingluck said. Deadly explosions rocked Hat Yai district in Songkhla as well as Yala on Saturday, sending shock waves across the country.
She pledged that her government would urgently approve compensation for the injured, families of those killed and the owners of damaged property.
“We will provide assistance and we will return happiness to Hat Yai,” she said. “The government will stand by you.”
She urged locals to be strong and join hands in overcoming the unrest in the South.
Yingluck was speaking at badly burned Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel located in downtown Hat Yai.
Her schedule was tight.
After chairing the Cabinet meeting at Government House for just half an hour, she left hurriedly with acting PM’s Secretary Maj General Thawat Boonfuang and many Cabinet members to visit Hat Yai, then rushed to an official engagement in Chon Buri before departing for Cambodia for a summit in the evening.
Senator Somchai Sawangkarn attacked the government for being unfair to the victims of southern violence, saying that while the government gave about Bt7.5 million to each of the families of those killed in the political violence, the families of those killed in the southern violence received much less.
Somchai told the Senate floor that he wanted to ask the prime minister about the double standard, but Justice Minister Pracha Promnok responded by saying that the differences seemed unfair but the southern victims had also received other forms of assistance.
The conflict in the deep South has dragged on for many years with deadly attacks on an almost daily basis.
Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha said that for public safety, the governor, police and civil defence volunteers were responsible for urban areas.
“The military has mainly been in charge of forest and mountainous areas,” he said.
Severe violence erupted whenever authorities started to relax security, he said.
“We have to adopt stringent measures and everyone must watch out,” he said.
Security officials could not negotiate with armed insurgents if they were going to press for something illegal, such as demanding a special administrative zone or secession.
Prayuth accompanied Deputy Prime Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha during his trip to see four injured victims at Yala Hospital.
