Security law enforcement starts ahead of ASEAN summit

BANGKOK, Oct 12 (TNA) – Thailand’s Internal Security Act (ISA) was put into effect on Monday in the seaside communities of Hua Hin and Cha-am southwest of the capital ahead of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit which opens there in 10 days.

Giving assurances that the October 23-25 ASEAN summit will take place without problems, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, in charge of security affairs, said the security arrangements now in place under the control of the defence minister.

Mr Suthep said he would ask the Cabinet on Tuesday to approve invoking the Internal Security Act in Bangkok as well from Thursday (October 15) through the close of the ASEAN event on October 25.

The deputy prime minister said earlier that the government may invoke the ISA in the capital if security agencies evaluating the situation recommend using the act to keep the peace in the kingdom. There has been no indication that the rallies would lead to violence.

The anti-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) plans the next rally in Bangkok on Saturday, one week before the ASEAN summit open on Friday October 23.

Using the Internal Security in Cha-am and Hua Hin from today is aimed to preventing any untoward incident such as the protest which forced cancellation of the Pattaya summit in April this year.

In Hua Hin, officials started issuing vehicle stickers to local motorists who registered earlier with the authorities.

Using vehicle ID stickers is a security measure to allow officials to more effectively identify vehicles in the summit vicinity.

The prime minister said in his weekly TV programme Sunday that the ISA is being invoked for security reasons and may somehow affect local residents, but the 15th ASEAN summit was very significant to Thailand.

The UDD Red Shirts stormed the key venue of the ASEAN summit in Pattaya on April 11, forcing its cancellation, before the demonstrations turned into rampaging riots in the capital, leaving two people dead and 123 injured. (TNA)