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BANGKOK: Supporters of Thailand’s exiled former premier Thaksin
Shinawatra said Tuesday they would hold rallies to block a summit of
Southeast Asian nations, but the government brushed off the threat.
Red-clad Thaksin loyalists have held a series of
protests since new Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva came to power in
mid-December, following a court ruling that removed the former
pro-Thaksin government from power.
They have threatened to seal off February’s
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) meeting in protest at
the new foreign minister, who was involved in a recent blockade of
Bangkok’s airports by anti-Thaksin protesters.
“We will write to all nine Asean ambassadors
to ask them to convey our message that the red-shirts will not allow
Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya to host the Asean meeting,”
pro-Thaksin leader Jatuporn Prompan told Agence France-Presse.
“We will not allow the terrorist Kasit to host
the summit. We will mobilize hundreds of thousands to rally to show
that the majority of Thai people do not accept him,” said
Jatuporn, who is also an opposition lawmaker.
The Asean summit was originally scheduled to
take place in December but was postponed because of the airport
blockade by the yellow-shirted People’s Alliance for Democracy
(PAD) protest movement late last year.
The alliance accused the last government of
being a proxy for telecommunications tycoon Thaksin, who was ousted
in a military coup in 2006 and currently lives abroad to avoid a
jail sentence on corruption charges.
Fixing the date
Abhisit’s new government has since repeatedly
rescheduled the meeting, with the latest unconfirmed dates being in
late February.
The prime minister insisted that Thailand could
hold the summit successfully and urged Thaksin’s supporters not to
block the meeting, saying they should put the country first.
“I want everybody to uphold our national
interest,” Abhisit told reporters. “This is not only about the
government but the entire Thai nation as it affects Thailand’s
status as chairman of Asean.”
Thailand currently holds the chairmanship of the
grouping under a rotating system.
Abhisit rejected opposition claims that Asean
countries were against Thailand hosting the meeting, saying that the
repeated changes of dates were because of a “conflict of
schedules.”
Summit in Bangkok
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, who is
responsible for national security, promised separately that the
summit would not be moved away from Bangkok.
The PAD’s protests had forced the last
government to change the venue from Bangkok to the northern Thai
city of Chiang Mai—a Thaksin stronghold—before it was eventually
postponed until this year.
“I am not concerned and insist that the
meeting will be held in Bangkok and not moved to Phuket,” Suthep
told reporters, referring to Thailand’s southern tourist island,
which had been mooted as an alternative venue.
“The red-shirts are trying to make a move, but
I don’t think it will make Asean members boycott the meeting in
Thailand,” he said.
Asean is a regional bloc of 10 countries, which
include the Philippines.
-- AFP
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