Army chief doubts police alone can handle security

The Army chief said yesterday that he was not convinced the police alone would be able to provide security during next month's summit of Asean and its dialogue partners in Phuket.

"Frankly speaking, the [local] police force alone is not enough, and they may be unable to deal with it," said General Anupong Paochinda, the commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army.

He was referring to the possibility of another violent protest by the anti-government red shirts, who forced the same summit in Pattaya City to be cancelled after they managed to storm into a hotel that was the meeting venue.

Anupong said Thai authorities would discuss the security plans with advance teams from the 15 other participating countries. He added that certain nations might ask for their security details to be armed if they were not convinced of Thailand's security measures for their leaders.

The general admitted that such an option would further damage Thailand's reputation.

He said that if the military was needed to strengthen security for the Phuket summit, it must be given sufficient legal power to do the job.

"If ordinary law is enough to allow the military to do it, all well and good, but if it is not, the point is what kind of special law is needed," Anupong said.

On Friday, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said he would seek Cabinet approval for enforcement of the Internal Security Act during the upcoming regional meeting.

In Phuket, local police yesterday took part in a crowd-control drill involving about 300 officers from all eight stations in the island province.

The drill involved people pretending to be protesters, a negotiation and the use of fire engines and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Police Lt-General Santhan Chayanond, commissioner of Region 8, which covers Phuket, said yesterday while observing the drill that about 2,100 local policemen would provide security during the summit, with reinforcements of 400-700 from the Border Patrol Police and other units.

He said police would make sure that no roads were blocked by protesters.

"The upcoming summit in Phuket is vital for both Thailand and Asean. The previous failure had an obvious impact on everyone involved. We don't want a repeat of that, because the damage would multiply, and Thailand's credibility would be badly affected," said the police commander.