Internal Security Act enforcement during ASEAN summit under consideration
Thailand government has confirmed that more than half of the 16 countries have agreed to the proposal of holding ASEAN + 6 summit on 13th and 14th of June on the island of Phuket. The Jakarta based ASEAN secretariat is working closely with all the member nations to hold the summit next month. The summit was supposed to be held in December of last year was then postponed to April. It was again aborted in April when anti-government protestors stormed the meeting venue and forced the summit’s cancellation.
Despite strong assurance given by the Thai government, many countries have expressed their reservations after the Pattaya incident where the leaders were evacuated by helicopters and the delegates by boats.
Meanwhile to make sure that summit would be held peacefully without an incident, the Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in his weekly television programme said that the internal security law might be enforced to handle the situation.
The act if enforced would help facilitate the security officials to carry out their operations as well as controlling transportation routes. The Prime minister has added that in spite of the law being imposed, the protestors can still during the rescheduled summit but within the framework of the law.
It has been reported that 2,100 local policemen would provide security during the rescheduled summit with reinforcements of 400-700 from the border patrol police and other units.