Editing Royal Thai Armed Forces (section)

====Thai military deputized as police====
On 29 March 2016, in a move that the ''Bangkok Post'' said will "...will inflict serious and long-term damage...", the [[National Council for Peace and Order|NCPO]], under a Section 44 order (NCPO Order 13/2559) signed by junta chief [[Prayut Chan-o-cha]], granted to commissioned officers of the Royal Thai Armed Forces broad police powers to suppress and arrest anyone they suspect of criminal activity without a warrant and detain them secretly at almost any location without charge for up to seven days. Bank accounts can be frozen, and documents and property can be seized. Travel can be banned. Automatic immunity for military personnel has been built into the order, and there is no independent oversight or recourse in the event of abuse. The order came into immediate effect. The net result is that the military will have more power than the police and less oversight.<ref name="BP-20160401">{{cite news|title=Affront to justice system |url=http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/917813/affront-to-justice-system|access-date=4 April 2016|work=Bangkok Post|date=2016-04-01|department=Editorial}}</ref>

The government has stated that the purpose of this order is to enable military officers to render their assistance in an effort to "...suppress organized crimes such as extortion, human trafficking, child and labor abuses, gambling, prostitution, illegal tour guide services, price collusion, and firearms. It neither aims to stifle nor intimidate dissenting voices. Defendants in such cases will go through normal judicial process, with police as the main investigator...trial[s] will be conducted in civilian courts, not military ones. Moreover, this order does not deprive the right of the defendants to file complaints against military officers who have abused their power."<ref>{{cite news|title=The Dissemination of the Final Constitution Draft and the issuance of the Head of the NCPO's Order No. 13/2559|url=http://www.mfa.go.th/main/en/media-center/14/66031-The-Dissemination-of-the-Final-Constitution-Draft.html|access-date=4 April 2016|publisher=Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand|date=2016-04-03|type=Press release|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413120956/http://www.mfa.go.th/main/en/media-center/14/66031-The-Dissemination-of-the-Final-Constitution-Draft.html|archive-date=13 April 2016|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

The NCPO said that the reason for its latest order is that there are simply not enough police, in spite of the fact that there are about 230,000 officers in the [[Royal Thai Police]] force. They make up about 17 percent of all non-military public servants. This amounts to 344 police officers for every for every 100,000 persons in Thailand, more than twice the ratio in Myanmar and the Philippines, one and a half times that of Japan and Indonesia and roughly the same proportion as the United States.<ref name="BP-20160403">{{cite news|title=In the dark on army's shadowy powers  |url=http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/919337/in-the-dark-on-armys-shadowy-powers|access-date=4 April 2016|work=Bangkok Post|date=2016-04-03|department=Editorial}}</ref>

In a joint statement released on 5 April 2016, six groups, including [[Human Rights Watch]] (HRW), [[Amnesty International]], and the [[International Commission of Jurists]] (ICJ), condemned the move.<ref>{{cite news|title=Giving soldiers police powers 'wrong': human rights groups|url=http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Giving-soldiers-police-powers-wrong-human-rights-g-30283331.html|access-date=5 April 2016|work=The Nation|agency=Agence France Presse|date=2016-04-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408085338/http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Giving-soldiers-police-powers-wrong-human-rights-g-30283331.html|archive-date=8 April 2016|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>