Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has issued a new order under Section 44 of the interim constitution enabling soldiers to enforce laws to tackle forest and public land encroachment and to safeguard the public interest.
Under Order No.4 issued on Wednesday night, soldiers have been given authority to act as law enforcers performing the duties of police and other officials to confront encroachment of national parks, forests and public land.
Gen Prayut exercised his power as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) leader in issuing the order, invoked under Section 44 of the interim constitution.
Section 44, which was invoked on April 1 to replace martial law, enables the NCPO chief to exercise the powers of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government in order to promote reform and unity, and to suppress any threats to national security, the monarchy and the economy.
Gen Prayut explained in the order that violations of laws protecting the public interest are rampant and that law enforcement was not currently efficient enough to deal with the problems, which would hinder national reform efforts.
The problems include encroachment on public land, national forest reserves, national parks, and the illegal occupation of public areas that leads to the obstruction of traffic and causes disruption to people's daily lives.
Under the order, cabinet ministers can seek the military's assistance by filing a request asking the defence minister to send troops to support law enforcement.
The NCPO chief will then appoint soldiers and give them authority to enforce strict compliance with various laws. The soldiers will have the same authority as law enforcers over those particular laws.
The soldiers will also be given the authority to perform the duties of administrative officials and senior police officers under the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.
Non-military officials conventionally tasked with law enforcement must cooperate with the military or they will be seen as committing serious disciplinary offences.
Gen Prayut said yesterday that the new order was intended to allow soldiers to team up with police and forest officials to combat forest encroachers when there are not enough officers to handle the tasks.
The new order aims to expedite forest protection operations, and boost efficiency and use of manpower in the tasks, Gen Prayut said.
He stressed that soldiers involved in the tasks still have to follow the laws governing forest and natural resources protection.
Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said the measure would only be temporary and many other ministries were seeking such military assistance to carry out their tasks.
Mr Wissanu said that over the past several months, ministerial law enforcement officials have failed to fulfil the tasks of protecting public interests and natural resources because of a lack of manpower or inefficiencies.
Such officials must be more careful to avoid getting involved in corruption now that soldiers have been sent to work alongside them, Mr Wissanu said.
He said the order will be lifted when all the problems have been solved.
Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya said yesterday the Justice Ministry has several agencies to enforce laws to deal with encroachers.
Gen Paiboon said several problems such as forest encroachment and human trafficking had been ignored and left unresolved by the previous government.
The current government has stepped in to solve them and the government needs a "special tool" to fix things quickly while it still has time in office, Gen Paiboon said.
If it had not inherited the problems from the previous government, the present government would be better able to focus on developing the country, he said.
National police chief Somyot Pumpunmuang said on Thursday he supports the order.
He said the order would shorten legal procedures and allow swifter prosecution of illegal encroachers.
Pol Gen Somyot said that in cases involving forest encroachment, it often takes a long time before courts rule to seize back encroached land.
He added that under the new order, soldiers will not replace policemen as the police would still act as law enforcers and they would only seek help and support from the military when they run into trouble.
Pol Gen Somyot said he believed that all police officers were willing to comply with the order and cooperate fully with the military.