Thailand to Maintain Martial Law in South

[DuctapeFatwa]

Thailand is to keep martial law in the Muslim south, ensuring soldiers can continue to detain civilians without charge despite an outcry from religious leaders, the army said Tuesday.

Muslim clerics complain that martial law has made some people too frightened to go to work, especially rubber tappers who head out in darkness in a region where rubber is a major industry.

They also complain about searches at Islamic schools and interrogations of Muslims and their clerics and they were incensed last week by the search of an Islamic school owned by the head of the provincial Muslim committee in Pattani.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20040210_131.html