Thai PM suspends military conscription for 3 months

Thailand’s mandatory annual military conscription has been put on hold due to the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak. The Ministry of Defence, under an order from PM and Defence Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, has postponed this year’s round of the draft, which was scheduled for April 1 to 12, for up to 3 months.

Conscription in Thailand is traditionally done by drawing lots of black or red balls. Red means conscription, black means no involuntary service.

Under the order, issued under the state of emergency now in force, Thai men who have received official notification to report for conscription will not be granted any additional time after this 3 month postponement.

Meanwhile the PM, as head of the Covid-19 Situation Management Centre, yesterday signed a ministerial order for its reorganisation.

Under the revised structure, the command centre will have a secretary-general’s office, to be headed by the deputy secretary-general for politics at the PM’s Office, a coordination office to be headed by the secretary-general of the National Security Command, and eight other centres.

These will be the centres for medical emergencies, for prevention and public assistance, for the distribution of face masks and medicines, for product price control, for travel control, for telecommunications and social media, for security affairs and an information operations centre.

All eight of the new centres and two offices will report directly to the PM.

SOURCE: Thai PBS World