Thailand postpones Asia leaders summit again

The Star Online

http://thestar.com.my

Wednesday May 13, 2009

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand will try to reconvene a summit of Asian leaders in October, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said on Wednesday, the latest postponement of a meeting disrupted by violent protests last month.

Thailand planned to host the East Asia Summit on the tourist island of Phuket on June 13-14, two months after protesters forced the cancellation of the meeting near Bangkok.

But some leaders said the June meeting conflicted with their schedules, Kasit said. He insisted security concerns had not been a factor.

"Thailand's ability to provide security was not an issue because there were no questions about this in the correspondence with Thailand," he told reporters.

The chaos in April -- when leaders of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand were to discuss the global financial crisis -- was a huge embarrassment for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Some leaders were evacuated by helicopter after protesters invaded the venue in the beach resort of Pattaya, about 150 km (90 miles) south of Bangkok.

Abhisit was forced to impose emergency rule in Bangkok for 12 days to quell the street campaign by red-shirted supporters of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.

The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), a por-Thaksin group demanding new elections, held its biggest rally since April in Bangkok last weekend. But the group said it would not try to disrupt the Phuket summit.

The political unrest has added to the gloom overhanging Thailand's economy as the global downturn slashes demand for Thai exports and dampens tourism, a key employer.

By hosting the leaders in Phuket, a stronghold of Abhisit's Democrat Party leading a nearly five-month old ruling coalition, the government had hoped to "save face" and reconvene the meeting under tighter security.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said on Tuesday the visiting leaders could even bring their own armed bodyguards, an offer that irked some senior Thai security officials, according to newspaper reports.

Abhisit, who was elected in a December parliamentary vote with the help of former Thaksin allies, has promised constitutional reforms in a bid to defuse the country's long-running political crisis.

But nothing concrete has been proposed so far, and there are doubts such reforms would be enough to heal the deep political rifts in Thai society.