Bangkok readies for economic summit

By Rafael D. Frankel, Globe Correspondent, 10/19/2003

BANGKOK -- It's not every city that has to issue an order for elephants to stay off the streets. But this freewheeling metropolis has done just that amid preparations for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting this week.

Leaders from 21 countries will convene in Bangkok tomorrow and Tuesday. President Bush, who arrived in Thailand late yesterday, will be on hand as the heads of state discuss improving cooperation on counterterrorism and security issues, and expanding economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

Even before the meetings began, some Pacific Rim ministers expressed reservations yesterday about a US drive to put the fight against terror on an equal footing with economic issues. Still, the foreign ministers agreed to a US proposal that would impose new limits on the production, export, and brokering of shoulder-fired antiaircraft rockets, which are capable of bringing down airplanes.

Reports surfaced this month that 10 such missiles were smuggled into Thailand from Cambodia, setting Thai police on a fruitless search for the weapons.

Security precautions have been stepped up amid fears that the forum represents a high-profile terrorist target in a region of the world where terrorists have struck repeatedly in the past few years.

Twenty-thousand Thai police and separate contingents of security forces from each member country are assigned to protect the heads of state and their envoys. An American security official in Thailand said 1,000 US security agents would be in Bangkok to protect Bush, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, and the 500 staff and 200 media members accompanying them.

Meanwhile, the Thai government has gone to great lengths -- some say too far -- to beautify Bangkok for the conference and discourage protests.

Among the more controversial moves was the deportation of more than 600 Cambodian beggars from Bangkok. They were flown back to Phnom Penh by Thailand two weeks ago and told they faced arrest if they returned.

In addition to the warning about elephants, which are seen often on the streets, the government also shipped off thousands of homeless people and thousands of stray dogs from Bangkok for the duration of the meeting. The homeless are being put up at army camps, while the dogs were sent to northern Thailand.

At Phantip Plaza, a five-story mall known for carrying the best selection of pirated software, music, and videos, the same vendors who two weeks ago sold the contraband are now hawking Thai beer, T-shirts, and trinkets.

But security has received the most attention. Although no terrorist attacks have occurred in Thailand, as they have in Indonesia and the Philippines, high-profile terrorists have infiltrated this predominantly Buddhist country of 60 million people.

Al Qaeda's suspected chief of operations for Southeast Asia, Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, was caught an hour north of Bangkok in August in a joint US-Thai operation. In June, a sting operation in Bangkok captured a suspect accused of trying to sell radioactive material fit for use in a so-called dirty bomb.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra issued an order banning demonstrations during the forum but has retreated somewhat by allowing peaceful, approved protests. He has threatened "long and painful consequences" for groups that cause trouble. Thai embassies around the world have been collecting information on certain groups for months to determine who to blacklist from travel visas, singling out groups that have protested against governments of APEC member states and Thailand's neighbors. The groups include Falun Gong sect members and prodemocracy activists from Burma.

But local human rights groups said they will hold protests against free-trade policies and against Bush over the Iraq war.

"Our position is that the people have the right to peaceful assembly and the right to express their concerns," said Somchai Homlaor, secretary general of the pan-Asian human rights group Forum Asia. "I don't think the government has the power to prohibit that; it's a right under our constitution and under international law."

Along the sidelines of the APEC meeting, Bush is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of China, South Korea, and Mexico. The encounter with President Hu Jintao of China will be the first ever face-to-face between the two since Hu assumed the post. They are expected to discuss efforts to dissuade North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and the possible revaluation of the Chinese currency.

©2003 Globe Newspaper Company