By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BANGKOK — Thailand has again postponed a regional summit of Asian leaders that was twice canceled because of political unrest, the foreign minister said Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said scheduling conflicts, not security concerns, were behind the decision to put off the meeting of 16 Asia-Pacific leaders again, which had been set for June.
Protesters seeking the resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva forced the cancellation of the summit on April 11 after they stormed the hotel at which meetings were being held in the seaside resort of Pattaya. Some visiting leaders fled by helicopter.
In December, a rival group of protesters shuttered Bangkok's two airports for eight days, forcing the previous government to also postpone the summit.
"Some countries have by-elections, some have general elections while some leaders have a schedule of foreign visits," Kasit said. "No one raised a question about Thailand's capacity to provide security."
Thai officials have proposed to hold the meeting on the resort island of Phuket—an area more distant from the capital and more politically sympathetic to the current government.
Senior officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will discuss the rescheduling later this month, Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat said.
The meeting is to be attended by Asean's 10 member countries and key regional nations—China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Meanwhile Thailand's fugitive former leader Thaksin Shinawatra has acquired a passport from Montenegro and is considering buying a resort island there, an adviser said Wednesday.
Removed from power in a 2006 coup, Thaksin has been on the run since he fled Thailand ahead of a corruption conviction last year. Last month, the Thai government revoked the personal passport of Thaksin, whom it accuses of stoking anti-government riots in Bangkok that left two people killed and hundreds wounded.
Noppadon Pattama, a lawyer who has been an adviser to Thaksin, said the ousted prime minister has a Montenegrin passport and at least a few others.
"Leaders of a few countries have given Thaksin passports because they sympathize with his position and know the injustice he suffered," Noppadon said but did not specify which countries have offered him travel documents.
In January, Nicaragua named Thaksin an "Ambassador on a Special Mission" to bring investment to the Central American country and issued him a passport.
Noppadon said Thaksin has also expressed an interest in buying Sveti Nikola island, despite also recently saying he is short on cash since the Thai government froze his assets after convicting him in absentia violating a conflict of interest law while in office.
"He thinks there is a lot of potential there in terms of developing its tourism business," Noppadon said. "But I am not sure about the status and whether he has officially entered a bidding process or anything."
The acquisition of a new passport is expected to further complicated Thailand's efforts to extradite the ousted premier.
Vice Foreign Minister Panich Vikitsreth said the ministry has ordered several Thai embassies to look into confirming the issuance of the passport.
The ministry has earlier submitted extradition requests through diplomatic channels to the United Arab Emirates and Nicaragua to facilitate the repatriation of Thaksin who fled the country before the court issued its verdict and sentenced him to two years in prison.
Showing posts with label Regional. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Regional. Show all posts
May 14, 2009
May 13, 2009
Climate Change Threatens Millions on Asian Coasts
By GRACE WAKARY / AP WRITER
MANADO, Indonesia — Around 100 million people risk losing homes and livelihoods unless drastic steps are taken to protect Southeast Asia's biologically diverse coral reefs, which could be wiped out in coming decades because of climate change, a report said Wednesday.
The Coral Triangle—which spans Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and East Timor—makes up 30 percent of the world's coral reefs and 35 percent of coral reef fish species.
If carbon emissions are not cut by 25 percent to 40 percent by the year 2020, higher ocean temperatures could kill off vast marine ecosystems and half the fish in them, according to the World Wildlife Fund, which presented its 220-page study at the World Ocean Conference on Wednesday.
One third of around 300 million people now earning a living off of the sea's natural resources could be forced to leave the coast and find new employment. Commercial fishing in the area generates roughly $3 billion in annual income.
"Decisive action must be taken immediately or a major crisis will develop," the report said, citing 300 scientific studies and 20 climate change experts. "Hundreds of thousands of unique species, entire communities and societies will be in jeopardy."
The WWF outlines a series of conservation priorities and emission reduction goals to avert that scenario and recommends they be adopted by governments negotiating a new international climate change treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
The report drives home a message of urgency ahead of the conclusion of those talks at a major meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December and raises the profile of the oceans in the climate change debate.
The US government is providing $40 million in funding for a 5-year program in the Coral Triangle to improve management of marine and coastal resources.
"We are looking to promote better understanding of the role of the ocean in the climate system," said Mary M. Glackin, US deputy under secretary for oceans and atmosphere. "It's really a web of life. So you need to be concerned about the very smallest thing up to the very high predators."
MANADO, Indonesia — Around 100 million people risk losing homes and livelihoods unless drastic steps are taken to protect Southeast Asia's biologically diverse coral reefs, which could be wiped out in coming decades because of climate change, a report said Wednesday.
The Coral Triangle—which spans Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and East Timor—makes up 30 percent of the world's coral reefs and 35 percent of coral reef fish species.
If carbon emissions are not cut by 25 percent to 40 percent by the year 2020, higher ocean temperatures could kill off vast marine ecosystems and half the fish in them, according to the World Wildlife Fund, which presented its 220-page study at the World Ocean Conference on Wednesday.
One third of around 300 million people now earning a living off of the sea's natural resources could be forced to leave the coast and find new employment. Commercial fishing in the area generates roughly $3 billion in annual income.
"Decisive action must be taken immediately or a major crisis will develop," the report said, citing 300 scientific studies and 20 climate change experts. "Hundreds of thousands of unique species, entire communities and societies will be in jeopardy."
The WWF outlines a series of conservation priorities and emission reduction goals to avert that scenario and recommends they be adopted by governments negotiating a new international climate change treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
The report drives home a message of urgency ahead of the conclusion of those talks at a major meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December and raises the profile of the oceans in the climate change debate.
The US government is providing $40 million in funding for a 5-year program in the Coral Triangle to improve management of marine and coastal resources.
"We are looking to promote better understanding of the role of the ocean in the climate system," said Mary M. Glackin, US deputy under secretary for oceans and atmosphere. "It's really a web of life. So you need to be concerned about the very smallest thing up to the very high predators."
Thailand Confirms 2 Cases of Swine Flu; Malaysia Cancels Tournament over Flu Threat
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BANGKOK — Thailand announced on Tuesday its first confirmed cases of swine flu in two people who recently returned from Mexico and have recovered from the illness.
Health Minister Witthaya Keawparadai declined to disclose the identities of the patients, citing doctor-patient confidentiality and the fact that their conditions had improved.
"The two patients have received a full dose of antiviral medicine and have returned to live normal lives," Witthaya said. "There is no outbreak in Thailand."
The cases in Thailand also marked the official arrival of swine flu in Southeast Asia. Other countries on the continent have reported cases, including China, Japan and South Korea.
Following the confirmation, Witthaya said the country's public health officials will step up surveillance by setting up more thermal scanners at airports and border checkpoints.
"We will have to be even more vigilant," he said. "We will also make sure our mobile medical teams are ready to be dispatched in case there is a case and to check on those who had possible contact with patients."
Witthaya said one of the patients had a fever upon returning from Mexico and the other developed a temperature three days after getting back to Thailand, declining to say when that was.
Authorities have contacted passengers who traveled on the same flight as the two patients and "no one has presented any symptoms," said Kumnuan Ungchusak, an official at Thailand's Department of Communicable Disease Control.
Health authorities sent samples from both patients last week to the U.S. Center for Disease Control for final testing, Witthaya said.
Authorities have also monitored eight people close to both patients for a week and none registered any symptoms, Witthaya said. He said an additional 10 people in Thailand were being monitored for swine flu.
Fourteen Thais who returned from an exchange program in Mexico earlier this month were taken to a hospital for observation. All tested negative.
Kumnuan said Thailand has a stockpile of 1.32 million tablets of the anti-flu medicine oseltamivir, and the Health Ministry is expected to buy more raw materials to locally produce at least another 2 million tablets.
Meanwhile, Malaysian football officials have canceled next month's Intercontinental Cup under-23 tournament due to the threat of the spread of swine flu, local media reported on Tuesday.
The Football Association of Malaysia canceled the eight-team tournament after consulting with the nation's Health Ministry, the New Straits Times reported.
Among the teams that had been expected to contest the June 1-14 tournament were Brazil, Mexico and South Korea, which have confirmed cases of swine flu.
"The cancellation of the Intercontinental Cup is due to the threat posed by the influenza virus outbreak which has affected several countries," the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) said in a statement quoted in the domestic media.
"FAM referred the matter to the Health Ministry, and after close consultation with various parties, a conclusion to cancel the tournament was reached as the well-being of those involved comes first."
The number of countries reporting swine flu cases stands at 31, with the World Health Organization confirming about 4,800 cases. At least 61 people have been killed by swine flu around the world: 56 in Mexico, three in the U.S., one in Canada and one in Costa Rica.
The so-called A (H1N1) virus, which is thought to have originated in Mexico, has left Asia relatively unscathed and authorities in the region are taking few chances with its possible spread.
In precautionary measures, competitors arriving in Thailand for next week's youth world weightlifting championships will be monitored by thermal scanners at airports in a bid to identify possible infection, Thai media reported.
Any competitor or support staff appearing unwell, with high body temperature or flu-like symptoms, will be quarantined and forbidden to join the competition, the Nation newspaper reported.
BANGKOK — Thailand announced on Tuesday its first confirmed cases of swine flu in two people who recently returned from Mexico and have recovered from the illness.
Health Minister Witthaya Keawparadai declined to disclose the identities of the patients, citing doctor-patient confidentiality and the fact that their conditions had improved.
"The two patients have received a full dose of antiviral medicine and have returned to live normal lives," Witthaya said. "There is no outbreak in Thailand."
The cases in Thailand also marked the official arrival of swine flu in Southeast Asia. Other countries on the continent have reported cases, including China, Japan and South Korea.
Following the confirmation, Witthaya said the country's public health officials will step up surveillance by setting up more thermal scanners at airports and border checkpoints.
"We will have to be even more vigilant," he said. "We will also make sure our mobile medical teams are ready to be dispatched in case there is a case and to check on those who had possible contact with patients."
Witthaya said one of the patients had a fever upon returning from Mexico and the other developed a temperature three days after getting back to Thailand, declining to say when that was.
Authorities have contacted passengers who traveled on the same flight as the two patients and "no one has presented any symptoms," said Kumnuan Ungchusak, an official at Thailand's Department of Communicable Disease Control.
Health authorities sent samples from both patients last week to the U.S. Center for Disease Control for final testing, Witthaya said.
Authorities have also monitored eight people close to both patients for a week and none registered any symptoms, Witthaya said. He said an additional 10 people in Thailand were being monitored for swine flu.
Fourteen Thais who returned from an exchange program in Mexico earlier this month were taken to a hospital for observation. All tested negative.
Kumnuan said Thailand has a stockpile of 1.32 million tablets of the anti-flu medicine oseltamivir, and the Health Ministry is expected to buy more raw materials to locally produce at least another 2 million tablets.
Meanwhile, Malaysian football officials have canceled next month's Intercontinental Cup under-23 tournament due to the threat of the spread of swine flu, local media reported on Tuesday.
The Football Association of Malaysia canceled the eight-team tournament after consulting with the nation's Health Ministry, the New Straits Times reported.
Among the teams that had been expected to contest the June 1-14 tournament were Brazil, Mexico and South Korea, which have confirmed cases of swine flu.
"The cancellation of the Intercontinental Cup is due to the threat posed by the influenza virus outbreak which has affected several countries," the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) said in a statement quoted in the domestic media.
"FAM referred the matter to the Health Ministry, and after close consultation with various parties, a conclusion to cancel the tournament was reached as the well-being of those involved comes first."
The number of countries reporting swine flu cases stands at 31, with the World Health Organization confirming about 4,800 cases. At least 61 people have been killed by swine flu around the world: 56 in Mexico, three in the U.S., one in Canada and one in Costa Rica.
The so-called A (H1N1) virus, which is thought to have originated in Mexico, has left Asia relatively unscathed and authorities in the region are taking few chances with its possible spread.
In precautionary measures, competitors arriving in Thailand for next week's youth world weightlifting championships will be monitored by thermal scanners at airports in a bid to identify possible infection, Thai media reported.
Any competitor or support staff appearing unwell, with high body temperature or flu-like symptoms, will be quarantined and forbidden to join the competition, the Nation newspaper reported.
May 12, 2009
Indonesian President's Party Wins Elections
By NINIEK KARMINI / AP WRITER
JAKARTA — The secular party of Indonesia's president tripled its share of the vote in parliamentary elections and support for religious parties nose-dived—a sign of how even devout believers in the world's most populous Muslim nation are delinking faith and politics.
Many say they've had enough of unpopular laws and edicts pushed through by hard-liners, regulating women's dress and banning everything from smoking to yoga.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic party won the lion's share of the vote in last month's parliamentary poll—21 percent, according to final results released over the weekend—buoyed by his popularity and reform agenda.
That puts him in an even stronger position to win a second, five-year term when Indonesian's pick their new president in July.
He faces a changing political landscape in this secular nation of 235 million, 90 percent of whom are Muslim.
Though people are becoming more religious at home, that has not translated at the ballot box.
Support for the main Islamist parties in the April 9 polls declined from 39 percent five years ago to just 24 percent, largely because modern, urban voters view them as intolerant.
"It's not moral guidance I'm looking for in government, it's pragmatism," said Rachmadi Khoirin, 29, who works in the back office of a sprawling plastics factory on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta.
He wants leaders who can deliver jobs, put food on the table and fight corruption, which is still considered by many to be the biggest problem the country faces.
So for the first time in his life, he decided to abandon Islam-based parties, voting instead for the Yudhoyono's ruling Democratic Party.
The Democrats now have 148 seats in the 560-member parliament.
Because the remainder are shared between eight other secular and Islamic parties—some getting a few as 15 seats and other just over 100—a mad scramble is under way to form a coalition to push through policies.
The deal-making—and Yudhoyono's fallout with his current, main coalition partner, Golkar—could see various religious parties' political clout strengthened in the next government.
It is now seen as likely that the vice president job or other prominent Cabinet posts could go to the largest and most intolerant of the Islamic group, the Prosperous Justice Party.
Yudhoyono is credited by many with bringing stability following decades of dictatorship and then years of political uncertainty as democracy took root after former military leader Gen. Suharto was ousted amid massive street protests in 1998.
He won popularity by launching a security crackdown that netted hundreds of militants, including several involved in a string of deadly suicide bombings. His administration has overseen the arrest of several high profile politicians and businessmen for corruption.
The former army general has indicated that, despite their drop in popularity, he will bring Islamic groups into his coalition—as he did in 2004 when he became the country's first democratically elected leader.
But this time, because the Democrats hold a larger number of seats in parliament, he will not need Golkar—the secular party of former dictator Suharto and the second-largest vote getter in last month's polls.
"It makes political sense to partner up with the Islamists," said Arbi Sanit, an analyst from the University of Indonesia, noting that the two share a pro-poor, anti-graft platform. "It's an alliance that could both strengthen (Yudhoyono's) hand in parliament and convince people on his 'clean government' commitment."
It helps too that Islamic parties recognize, following their pummeling at the polls, they need to reshape their image. Some people worry that any of their claims of change are politically motivated and that hard-liners would revert to a conservative Islamist agenda once back in office.
The post-Suharto years have seen more open religious expression—women today can be seen proudly wearing headscarves, business executives go on religious retreats with their employees, some regions even have experimented with sharia-based laws.
Yet Islamists are struggling to find their place in politics, as reflected by the unpopularity of laws championed by hard-liners in recent years.
Most Muslims in Indonesia practice a moderate form of the faith, but an increasingly vocal extremist fringe has gained ground, influencing policy and in some cases carrying out terrorist attacks.
Some regions also have passed Islamic-based laws.
There women have faced prostitution charges if they were caught walking alone in the streets after dusk. Others have been forced to wear headscarves regardless of their religion. At least one traditional dance has been discouraged, because it is seen as "erotic."
JAKARTA — The secular party of Indonesia's president tripled its share of the vote in parliamentary elections and support for religious parties nose-dived—a sign of how even devout believers in the world's most populous Muslim nation are delinking faith and politics.
Many say they've had enough of unpopular laws and edicts pushed through by hard-liners, regulating women's dress and banning everything from smoking to yoga.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic party won the lion's share of the vote in last month's parliamentary poll—21 percent, according to final results released over the weekend—buoyed by his popularity and reform agenda.
That puts him in an even stronger position to win a second, five-year term when Indonesian's pick their new president in July.
He faces a changing political landscape in this secular nation of 235 million, 90 percent of whom are Muslim.
Though people are becoming more religious at home, that has not translated at the ballot box.
Support for the main Islamist parties in the April 9 polls declined from 39 percent five years ago to just 24 percent, largely because modern, urban voters view them as intolerant.
"It's not moral guidance I'm looking for in government, it's pragmatism," said Rachmadi Khoirin, 29, who works in the back office of a sprawling plastics factory on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta.
He wants leaders who can deliver jobs, put food on the table and fight corruption, which is still considered by many to be the biggest problem the country faces.
So for the first time in his life, he decided to abandon Islam-based parties, voting instead for the Yudhoyono's ruling Democratic Party.
The Democrats now have 148 seats in the 560-member parliament.
Because the remainder are shared between eight other secular and Islamic parties—some getting a few as 15 seats and other just over 100—a mad scramble is under way to form a coalition to push through policies.
The deal-making—and Yudhoyono's fallout with his current, main coalition partner, Golkar—could see various religious parties' political clout strengthened in the next government.
It is now seen as likely that the vice president job or other prominent Cabinet posts could go to the largest and most intolerant of the Islamic group, the Prosperous Justice Party.
Yudhoyono is credited by many with bringing stability following decades of dictatorship and then years of political uncertainty as democracy took root after former military leader Gen. Suharto was ousted amid massive street protests in 1998.
He won popularity by launching a security crackdown that netted hundreds of militants, including several involved in a string of deadly suicide bombings. His administration has overseen the arrest of several high profile politicians and businessmen for corruption.
The former army general has indicated that, despite their drop in popularity, he will bring Islamic groups into his coalition—as he did in 2004 when he became the country's first democratically elected leader.
But this time, because the Democrats hold a larger number of seats in parliament, he will not need Golkar—the secular party of former dictator Suharto and the second-largest vote getter in last month's polls.
"It makes political sense to partner up with the Islamists," said Arbi Sanit, an analyst from the University of Indonesia, noting that the two share a pro-poor, anti-graft platform. "It's an alliance that could both strengthen (Yudhoyono's) hand in parliament and convince people on his 'clean government' commitment."
It helps too that Islamic parties recognize, following their pummeling at the polls, they need to reshape their image. Some people worry that any of their claims of change are politically motivated and that hard-liners would revert to a conservative Islamist agenda once back in office.
The post-Suharto years have seen more open religious expression—women today can be seen proudly wearing headscarves, business executives go on religious retreats with their employees, some regions even have experimented with sharia-based laws.
Yet Islamists are struggling to find their place in politics, as reflected by the unpopularity of laws championed by hard-liners in recent years.
Most Muslims in Indonesia practice a moderate form of the faith, but an increasingly vocal extremist fringe has gained ground, influencing policy and in some cases carrying out terrorist attacks.
Some regions also have passed Islamic-based laws.
There women have faced prostitution charges if they were caught walking alone in the streets after dusk. Others have been forced to wear headscarves regardless of their religion. At least one traditional dance has been discouraged, because it is seen as "erotic."
May 8, 2009
Terror Suspect Who Fled Singapore Held in Malaysia
By JULIA ZAPPEI / AP WRITER
KUALA LUMPUR — A top Islamic terror suspect who escaped from a high-security jail in Singapore last year has been arrested in Malaysia, an official said Friday, ending a massive manhunt for the man accused of plotting to crash a hijacked plane into Singapore.
Mas Selamat Kastari, suspected commander of the Singapore arm of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, escaped from the jail on Februal 27, 2008, by wriggling out a toilet window in a surprising security breach that sparked a massive manhunt.
The search had largely focused on Singapore and neighboring Indonesia, where the Indonesian branch of Jemaah Islamiyah was thought likely to find him shelter. The group is accused of carrying out the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia.
However, he was arrested in Malaysia's southern Johor state bordering Singapore and is being interrogated by authorities there, said Walter Chia, a spokesman for the Singapore's embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
"The arrest was made possible with the cooperation of the two countries," Chia told The Associated Press.
Mas Selamat was captured April 1 in a joint operation involving the security agencies of both countries, Singapore's Straits Times newspaper said on its Web site, quoting unidentified regional intelligence officials.
Malaysia's home minister was expected to hold a news conference Friday to reveal details.
Mas Selamat, who is known to walk with a limp, is accused of plotting to hijack a plane and crash it into Singapore's international airport. He was being held under the Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial.
Security breaches are virtually unheard of in tightly policed Singapore, an island nation of 4 million people that is a 45-minute boat ride from Indonesia where Mas Selamat is alleged to have links with militant groups.
The Singapore government said Mas Selamat escaped from the high-security Whitley Road Detention Centre because of a "security lapse." He had been taken from his cell to a room where he was waiting for his family to make a scheduled visit. He escaped after being granted permission to visit the washroom, authorities said.
Following his escape, the detention center's superintendent was dismissed and the superintendent's deputy was demoted.
Mas Selamat first came to prominence in December 2001 when he fled Singapore following an Internal Security Department operation against Jemaah Islamiyah.
He was arrested by the Indonesian police on Bintan island in January 2006 and handed over to Singapore authorities.
KUALA LUMPUR — A top Islamic terror suspect who escaped from a high-security jail in Singapore last year has been arrested in Malaysia, an official said Friday, ending a massive manhunt for the man accused of plotting to crash a hijacked plane into Singapore.
Mas Selamat Kastari, suspected commander of the Singapore arm of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, escaped from the jail on Februal 27, 2008, by wriggling out a toilet window in a surprising security breach that sparked a massive manhunt.
The search had largely focused on Singapore and neighboring Indonesia, where the Indonesian branch of Jemaah Islamiyah was thought likely to find him shelter. The group is accused of carrying out the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia.
However, he was arrested in Malaysia's southern Johor state bordering Singapore and is being interrogated by authorities there, said Walter Chia, a spokesman for the Singapore's embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
"The arrest was made possible with the cooperation of the two countries," Chia told The Associated Press.
Mas Selamat was captured April 1 in a joint operation involving the security agencies of both countries, Singapore's Straits Times newspaper said on its Web site, quoting unidentified regional intelligence officials.
Malaysia's home minister was expected to hold a news conference Friday to reveal details.
Mas Selamat, who is known to walk with a limp, is accused of plotting to hijack a plane and crash it into Singapore's international airport. He was being held under the Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial.
Security breaches are virtually unheard of in tightly policed Singapore, an island nation of 4 million people that is a 45-minute boat ride from Indonesia where Mas Selamat is alleged to have links with militant groups.
The Singapore government said Mas Selamat escaped from the high-security Whitley Road Detention Centre because of a "security lapse." He had been taken from his cell to a room where he was waiting for his family to make a scheduled visit. He escaped after being granted permission to visit the washroom, authorities said.
Following his escape, the detention center's superintendent was dismissed and the superintendent's deputy was demoted.
Mas Selamat first came to prominence in December 2001 when he fled Singapore following an Internal Security Department operation against Jemaah Islamiyah.
He was arrested by the Indonesian police on Bintan island in January 2006 and handed over to Singapore authorities.
May 6, 2009
Philippine Military: ‘South Is Not Terror Haven’
By JIM GOMEZ / AP WRITER
MANILA — The Philippine military has rejected a US government assessment that labeled the country's south as a terrorist safe haven, saying Tuesday that many foreign and local Islamic radicals have been captured and others are on the run from relentless offensives.
The US State Department reported last week in its annual assessment of worldwide terrorism that the southern Mindanao region, specifically predominantly Muslim Sulu province, remains a sanctuary for extremists—mostly from Indonesia—despite US-backed efforts to eliminate them.
The province and surrounding areas serve as "terrorist safe havens," the report said.
"The government's control in this area is weak due to rugged terrain, weak rule of law, poverty and local Muslim minority resentment of central governmental policies," the report said, saying the foreign militants belong to Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesia-based group linked to al-Qaida.
Philippine military spokesman Lt-Col Romeo Brawner disputed that assessment Tuesday, saying government troops have captured several foreign extremists and are hunting dozens who find it difficult to launch major attacks because they have to constantly dodge arrest. He said extremists have been forced to abort many terror plots, including planned bombings.
"We respect their view but we strongly disagree with that," Brawner said. "It's not a safe haven. They're not free to go in and out and commit atrocities."
Brawner acknowledged that several members of Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been blamed for a number of major bombings in Southeast Asia, continue to hide on Jolo—Sulu's jungle-clad main island—and outlying regions. But he said most have been identified, along with their networks of supporters.
US Ambassador Kristie Kenney said the kidnapping of three Red Cross aid workers by the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf extremist group in Sulu in January showed that terrorists continue to pose a threat in the region. The al-Qaida-linked group is holding at least seven hostages, including Italian Red Cross worker Eugenio Vagni.
"We have a terrible situation where terrorists have international humanitarian workers kidnapped. There is still work to be done on Jolo," she said.
Maj-Gen Benjamin Dolorfino, who heads the navy's 9,000-strong marines, said Muslim rebel groups have been a lifeline for foreign militants, giving them refuge during military manhunts.
"When we run after them, they flee to these rebel groups. It makes our work difficult," Dolorfino said.
The State Department commended Philippine troops for killing 35 terrorists and capturing 16 others in the first half of 2008, including two bomb-makers.
It said it added three Filipino extremists—Radulan Sahiron, Abdul Basit Usman and Khair Mundos—to its list of most-wanted terrorists last year. The reward for the capture of Sahiron, who is believed to be the Abu Sayyaf's new leader, has been increased to $1 million, it said.
MANILA — The Philippine military has rejected a US government assessment that labeled the country's south as a terrorist safe haven, saying Tuesday that many foreign and local Islamic radicals have been captured and others are on the run from relentless offensives.
The US State Department reported last week in its annual assessment of worldwide terrorism that the southern Mindanao region, specifically predominantly Muslim Sulu province, remains a sanctuary for extremists—mostly from Indonesia—despite US-backed efforts to eliminate them.
The province and surrounding areas serve as "terrorist safe havens," the report said.
"The government's control in this area is weak due to rugged terrain, weak rule of law, poverty and local Muslim minority resentment of central governmental policies," the report said, saying the foreign militants belong to Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesia-based group linked to al-Qaida.
Philippine military spokesman Lt-Col Romeo Brawner disputed that assessment Tuesday, saying government troops have captured several foreign extremists and are hunting dozens who find it difficult to launch major attacks because they have to constantly dodge arrest. He said extremists have been forced to abort many terror plots, including planned bombings.
"We respect their view but we strongly disagree with that," Brawner said. "It's not a safe haven. They're not free to go in and out and commit atrocities."
Brawner acknowledged that several members of Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been blamed for a number of major bombings in Southeast Asia, continue to hide on Jolo—Sulu's jungle-clad main island—and outlying regions. But he said most have been identified, along with their networks of supporters.
US Ambassador Kristie Kenney said the kidnapping of three Red Cross aid workers by the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf extremist group in Sulu in January showed that terrorists continue to pose a threat in the region. The al-Qaida-linked group is holding at least seven hostages, including Italian Red Cross worker Eugenio Vagni.
"We have a terrible situation where terrorists have international humanitarian workers kidnapped. There is still work to be done on Jolo," she said.
Maj-Gen Benjamin Dolorfino, who heads the navy's 9,000-strong marines, said Muslim rebel groups have been a lifeline for foreign militants, giving them refuge during military manhunts.
"When we run after them, they flee to these rebel groups. It makes our work difficult," Dolorfino said.
The State Department commended Philippine troops for killing 35 terrorists and capturing 16 others in the first half of 2008, including two bomb-makers.
It said it added three Filipino extremists—Radulan Sahiron, Abdul Basit Usman and Khair Mundos—to its list of most-wanted terrorists last year. The reward for the capture of Sahiron, who is believed to be the Abu Sayyaf's new leader, has been increased to $1 million, it said.
May 4, 2009
Thai Protest Leader: 'Soldiers Attacked Me'
By JOCELYN GECKER / AP WRITER
BANGKOK — A Thai protest leader who survived an assassination attempt said Sunday he believes he was attacked by soldiers who were assigned to silence him because he knows too much about the shady side of Thai politics.
Sondhi Limthongkul, leader of Thailand's "yellow-shirt" movement that helped topple the government three years ago, spoke in his first news conference since the April 17 attack, in which his car was ambushed by gunmen in pickup trucks firing M-16 and AK-47 assault rifles.
"I am certain that soldiers were behind this assassination attempt," Sondhi said.
He offered no proof but listed factors that he said backed his argument, including the attackers' use of "weapons of war" and the way they positioned themselves during the shooting. "It was obviously the position of well-trained soldiers," he said.
Army spokesman Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd said he could not comment on Sondhi's accusations until seeing the official police report on the attack, which will only be completed after the investigation wraps up.
Sondhi's supporters earlier said they suspected army involvement in the attack, which stunned Thailand. The army chief confirmed that bullets found at the scene of the shooting were issued to a particular military division, and said an investigation was under way to determine how they were "leaked."
"Those who were capable of doing it knew that senior officials would turn a blind eye to them," said Sondhi, who received 43 stitches in his head after doctors removed bullet shards from his skull. His driver was seriously wounded and an aide in the car was also hurt.
He did not say who he believed ordered the attack, or what information he had that would prompt anyone to want him dead.
Police have yet to make any arrests in the shooting, which they say involved at least five attackers, but Sondhi said he counted 10. Police said at least 84 bullet casings were found after the shooting.
Sondhi said he didn't believe that all closed-circuit traffic cameras in the area could have been broken that day, as officials have said. He also questioned how the attack could have been carried out while Bangkok was under a state of emergency with military stationed in the area of the shooting. The attack came after rioting in the capital led by a rival protest group.
Sondhi, an outspoken media tycoon and founder of the People's Alliance for Democracy, led protests that paved the way for a 2006 military coup that ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra for alleged corruption and abuse of power. He resumed protests to bring down two successive governments led by Thaksin allies.
Sondhi's alliance has proposed a new system for Thai politics that it claims would root out corruption. He said that military officials and politicians associated with "the old power" see his campaign as a threat.
"When there is a change in society, people who stick to the old interests lose their benefits and they will provide resistance," Sondhi said. "Resistance in a society like Thailand comes in the form of violence, bloodshed."
BANGKOK — A Thai protest leader who survived an assassination attempt said Sunday he believes he was attacked by soldiers who were assigned to silence him because he knows too much about the shady side of Thai politics.
Sondhi Limthongkul, leader of Thailand's "yellow-shirt" movement that helped topple the government three years ago, spoke in his first news conference since the April 17 attack, in which his car was ambushed by gunmen in pickup trucks firing M-16 and AK-47 assault rifles.
"I am certain that soldiers were behind this assassination attempt," Sondhi said.
He offered no proof but listed factors that he said backed his argument, including the attackers' use of "weapons of war" and the way they positioned themselves during the shooting. "It was obviously the position of well-trained soldiers," he said.
Army spokesman Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd said he could not comment on Sondhi's accusations until seeing the official police report on the attack, which will only be completed after the investigation wraps up.
Sondhi's supporters earlier said they suspected army involvement in the attack, which stunned Thailand. The army chief confirmed that bullets found at the scene of the shooting were issued to a particular military division, and said an investigation was under way to determine how they were "leaked."
"Those who were capable of doing it knew that senior officials would turn a blind eye to them," said Sondhi, who received 43 stitches in his head after doctors removed bullet shards from his skull. His driver was seriously wounded and an aide in the car was also hurt.
He did not say who he believed ordered the attack, or what information he had that would prompt anyone to want him dead.
Police have yet to make any arrests in the shooting, which they say involved at least five attackers, but Sondhi said he counted 10. Police said at least 84 bullet casings were found after the shooting.
Sondhi said he didn't believe that all closed-circuit traffic cameras in the area could have been broken that day, as officials have said. He also questioned how the attack could have been carried out while Bangkok was under a state of emergency with military stationed in the area of the shooting. The attack came after rioting in the capital led by a rival protest group.
Sondhi, an outspoken media tycoon and founder of the People's Alliance for Democracy, led protests that paved the way for a 2006 military coup that ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra for alleged corruption and abuse of power. He resumed protests to bring down two successive governments led by Thaksin allies.
Sondhi's alliance has proposed a new system for Thai politics that it claims would root out corruption. He said that military officials and politicians associated with "the old power" see his campaign as a threat.
"When there is a change in society, people who stick to the old interests lose their benefits and they will provide resistance," Sondhi said. "Resistance in a society like Thailand comes in the form of violence, bloodshed."
China Pulling Southeast Asia into its Orbit
By ANTOANETA BEZLOVA / IPS WRITER
BEIJING — The global financial crisis is proving a boon for a resurgent China, which is poised to exert ever greater influence in Southeast Asia.
While drawing neighboring countries back into China's economic orbit has been part of Beijing's strategy for restoring what it sees as the country's rightful place on the global stage, recent months of recession have furnished Beijing with new opportunities to further its leadership ambitions in the region.
After the political turmoil in Thailand led to the cancellation of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit aimed at tackling the global crisis in April, Beijing made political mileage by inviting regional leaders and chief executive officers to the southern Chinese island of Hainan, where the annual Boao forum this year was billed as a new "platform for emerging economies" to cope with the economic downturn.
With the theme "Asia: Managing Beyond Crisis," the meticulously organized
Boao forum was held as a contrast to the failed Pattaya summit—with China pledging help and leadership to the region.
"Developed economies have long dominated international media," said Long Yongtu, the forum's secretary general. "Our aim is to offer a platform for emerging economies to present their voices. This is particularly important against the backdrop of the current financial crisis."
China's actions to further its leadership role in the region include a US $10 billion investment cooperation fund and an offer of $15 billion in credit to its Southeast Asian neighbors.
These are aimed at helping countries weather the current crisis. The fund will finance infrastructure development linking China and its neighbors while the loans will be offered as rescue packages over the next three to five years.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged that China would take an active role in pursuing closer economic and trade cooperation in the region. "The fate of all nations is tied together. No one is immune from the global financial crisis and is able to conquer it alone" he told the forum.
Wen Jiabao also vowed that Beijing would encourage trade settlement in Chinese yuan with neighboring countries to help ease foreign-exchange shortages and aid bilateral trade and investment. Beijing has already signed currency swap agreements with Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea this year.
At the forum, Chinese economists promoted the use of the Yuan as a regional currency while at the same time blaming the toll of the global economic crisis in Asia on the region's high degree of dependence on the US economy.
"Asia is heavily dependent on US markets partly because of the US dollar's role as an international currency," Fan Gang, a leading Chinese economist, said at the forum. "America's attitude in the past has always been that: 'this is our currency, but it is your problem'. Asia, however, is now in a position to raise demands and choose its foreign exchange reserve currencies."
Commentators in the mainland press have called on Chinese leaders to extend a helping hand to neighboring Asian countries in order to achieve greater trade diversity while using regional markets to absorb excess manufacturing capacity at home. As many neighboring economies are undergoing a flurry of new construction projects, investment is expected to create more employment chances for China's workers.
"Along with the World Bank and other financial institutions, China should use part of its enormous reserves to help developing countries with the hope of promoting its own development and enhance its image as a responsible world power," Ding Yifan, researcher with the Development and Research Centre under the State Council—China's cabinet—wrote in the newspaper China Daily.
Ding Yifan noted that by providing capital to the US and by buying its government treasury bonds, China has been blamed for its "excessively" high savings rates and for causing the credit bubble.
"It [the US] is really an unreasonable debtor," Ding wrote. "If we invest our capital in infrastructure programs of developing countries, there will be no such blame."
The Mekong countries have been a particular focus of attention for China as it tries to further establish itself in Asia. Along with other proposals, Beijing has announced 270 million yuan (39.7 million dollars) in aid to Burma, Cambodia and Laos, and a donation of 300,000 tonnes of rice to an emergency East Asia rice reserve—boosting food security in the region.
"Stressing the Greater Mekong sub-region area is an important part of China's whole periphery strategy of nurturing neighboring friendship," said Zhang Xizhen, professor at the School of International Studies of Beijing University.
A thousand years ago, the modern Chinese province of Yunnan was the centre of the so-called Southern Silk Road, through which was transported tea, salt, spices and medicinal herbs between China, Tibet and India. Through trade and diplomacy, Chinese power spread deep into the Mekong region.
Today the countries that are bound by the Mekong River—Burma, Cambodia,
Laos, Thailand and Vietnam—offer China's southwestern regions the chance to catch up economically with the more prosperous provinces of the country's east coast. The two Chinese provinces within the Mekong region, Yunnan and Guangxi, are being groomed for central roles in China's plan to revive its influence in Southeast Asia.
Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, would be the Chinese terminus of two proposed pipelines—a gas pipeline from central Burma, and an oil pipeline from the Burmese port of Sittwe, which would create a route for Middle Eastern crude and bypass the strategically vulnerable Malacca Strait shipping route.
Guangxi—which has the advantage of being located near the economically vibrant Pearl River Delta in neighboring Guangdong province—is focusing on increasing the seaborne traffic through the Tonkin Gulf.
Central and local government investment will finance infrastructure in the capital city of Nanning and along the coast—aiming to increase Guangxi's access to Mekong region markets and those of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines—creating a new channel for goods to flow between southwest China and Asean.
Cooperation with other Mekong countries is important, not only as a way of boosting foreign trade and development in southwest China and redressing the country's imbalanced economic structure, but also as a diplomatic tool, according to Zhang Xizhen.
"Through cooperation with these countries, China can set up an example of a 'win-win' partnership to prove its peaceful rise to other Asean members and the world, and to counter the spread of 'China threat' theory," he said.
BEIJING — The global financial crisis is proving a boon for a resurgent China, which is poised to exert ever greater influence in Southeast Asia.
While drawing neighboring countries back into China's economic orbit has been part of Beijing's strategy for restoring what it sees as the country's rightful place on the global stage, recent months of recession have furnished Beijing with new opportunities to further its leadership ambitions in the region.
After the political turmoil in Thailand led to the cancellation of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit aimed at tackling the global crisis in April, Beijing made political mileage by inviting regional leaders and chief executive officers to the southern Chinese island of Hainan, where the annual Boao forum this year was billed as a new "platform for emerging economies" to cope with the economic downturn.
With the theme "Asia: Managing Beyond Crisis," the meticulously organized
Boao forum was held as a contrast to the failed Pattaya summit—with China pledging help and leadership to the region.
"Developed economies have long dominated international media," said Long Yongtu, the forum's secretary general. "Our aim is to offer a platform for emerging economies to present their voices. This is particularly important against the backdrop of the current financial crisis."
China's actions to further its leadership role in the region include a US $10 billion investment cooperation fund and an offer of $15 billion in credit to its Southeast Asian neighbors.
These are aimed at helping countries weather the current crisis. The fund will finance infrastructure development linking China and its neighbors while the loans will be offered as rescue packages over the next three to five years.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged that China would take an active role in pursuing closer economic and trade cooperation in the region. "The fate of all nations is tied together. No one is immune from the global financial crisis and is able to conquer it alone" he told the forum.
Wen Jiabao also vowed that Beijing would encourage trade settlement in Chinese yuan with neighboring countries to help ease foreign-exchange shortages and aid bilateral trade and investment. Beijing has already signed currency swap agreements with Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea this year.
At the forum, Chinese economists promoted the use of the Yuan as a regional currency while at the same time blaming the toll of the global economic crisis in Asia on the region's high degree of dependence on the US economy.
"Asia is heavily dependent on US markets partly because of the US dollar's role as an international currency," Fan Gang, a leading Chinese economist, said at the forum. "America's attitude in the past has always been that: 'this is our currency, but it is your problem'. Asia, however, is now in a position to raise demands and choose its foreign exchange reserve currencies."
Commentators in the mainland press have called on Chinese leaders to extend a helping hand to neighboring Asian countries in order to achieve greater trade diversity while using regional markets to absorb excess manufacturing capacity at home. As many neighboring economies are undergoing a flurry of new construction projects, investment is expected to create more employment chances for China's workers.
"Along with the World Bank and other financial institutions, China should use part of its enormous reserves to help developing countries with the hope of promoting its own development and enhance its image as a responsible world power," Ding Yifan, researcher with the Development and Research Centre under the State Council—China's cabinet—wrote in the newspaper China Daily.
Ding Yifan noted that by providing capital to the US and by buying its government treasury bonds, China has been blamed for its "excessively" high savings rates and for causing the credit bubble.
"It [the US] is really an unreasonable debtor," Ding wrote. "If we invest our capital in infrastructure programs of developing countries, there will be no such blame."
The Mekong countries have been a particular focus of attention for China as it tries to further establish itself in Asia. Along with other proposals, Beijing has announced 270 million yuan (39.7 million dollars) in aid to Burma, Cambodia and Laos, and a donation of 300,000 tonnes of rice to an emergency East Asia rice reserve—boosting food security in the region.
"Stressing the Greater Mekong sub-region area is an important part of China's whole periphery strategy of nurturing neighboring friendship," said Zhang Xizhen, professor at the School of International Studies of Beijing University.
A thousand years ago, the modern Chinese province of Yunnan was the centre of the so-called Southern Silk Road, through which was transported tea, salt, spices and medicinal herbs between China, Tibet and India. Through trade and diplomacy, Chinese power spread deep into the Mekong region.
Today the countries that are bound by the Mekong River—Burma, Cambodia,
Laos, Thailand and Vietnam—offer China's southwestern regions the chance to catch up economically with the more prosperous provinces of the country's east coast. The two Chinese provinces within the Mekong region, Yunnan and Guangxi, are being groomed for central roles in China's plan to revive its influence in Southeast Asia.
Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, would be the Chinese terminus of two proposed pipelines—a gas pipeline from central Burma, and an oil pipeline from the Burmese port of Sittwe, which would create a route for Middle Eastern crude and bypass the strategically vulnerable Malacca Strait shipping route.
Guangxi—which has the advantage of being located near the economically vibrant Pearl River Delta in neighboring Guangdong province—is focusing on increasing the seaborne traffic through the Tonkin Gulf.
Central and local government investment will finance infrastructure in the capital city of Nanning and along the coast—aiming to increase Guangxi's access to Mekong region markets and those of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines—creating a new channel for goods to flow between southwest China and Asean.
Cooperation with other Mekong countries is important, not only as a way of boosting foreign trade and development in southwest China and redressing the country's imbalanced economic structure, but also as a diplomatic tool, according to Zhang Xizhen.
"Through cooperation with these countries, China can set up an example of a 'win-win' partnership to prove its peaceful rise to other Asean members and the world, and to counter the spread of 'China threat' theory," he said.
April 30, 2009
Southeast Asian Health Ministers to Meet on Swine Flu
By GRANT PECK / AP WRITER
BANGKOK — Health ministers from Southeast Asian countries will meet, probably in early May in the Thai capital, to discuss how to deal with the swine flu crisis, the head of area's regional grouping said Wednesday.
Surin Pitsuwan, the secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, said the ministers "should get together at the earliest time possible," according to a press release from the group.
None of Asean's 10 member countries have yet confirmed any cases of swine flu, but scores of tests were being carried out on anyone reporting flu symptoms. South Korea was awaiting final test results in a "probable" case, and New Zealand has confirmed 14 infections—the first in the Asia-Pacific region—all in people recently returned from Mexico.
"The Thai Ministry of Public Health has expressed its readiness to host the meeting in Bangkok most probably in early May," Surin was quoted saying after he held consultations with Thailand and the Philippines. The announcement said the Philippines would chair the meeting.
Thailand's reputation as a suitable venue for regional meetings was cast into doubt earlier this month when a mob of anti-government demonstrators broke into a popular resort hotel hosting a summit of Asean and other Asian leaders, forcing its cancellation. Surin is a former Thai foreign minister and was a senior member of the Democrat Party of current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Cambodia's prime minister earlier Wednesday had called for an emergency meeting of Asean members to discuss how to tackle the outbreak.
"We need common measures to prevent and fight against the fast spread of swine flu," Prime Minister Hun Sen said. "Southeast Asian leaders should have an emergency meeting right now."
Governments in Asia have potent memories of the 2003 SARS crisis and bird flu. Bird flu first began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003 and has caused 257 human fatalities, mostly in Southeast Asia.
Surin said in an earlier statement that officials have "the necessary experience" from past outbreaks to coordinate as "swine flu threatens to spread to the region."
Regional health experts who took part in an Asean-organized teleconference discussed the importance of harmonizing measures and initiatives, the group said.
They also discussed specific actions being taken by the individual member states, such as "screening of arrivals from effected countries using thermal scanners and health declaration forms and health advisory to passengers."
Meanwhile global health authorities warned Wednesday that swine flu was threatening to bloom into a pandemic, and the virus spread farther in Europe even as the outbreak appeared to stabilize at its epicenter. A toddler who succumbed in Texas became the first death outside Mexico.
Mexico, taking a drastic step as confirmed swine flu cases doubled to 99, including eight dead, announced it would temporarily suspend all nonessential activity of the federal government and private business from May 1-5. Essential services like transport, supermarkets, trash collection and hospitals will remain open.
New deaths finally seemed to be leveling off after an aggressive public health campaign in Mexico—only one additional confirmed death was announced Wednesday night—but the World Health Organization said the global threat is nevertheless serious enough to ramp up efforts to produce a vaccine against the virus.
"It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic," WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in Geneva. "We do not have all the answers right now, but we will get them."
It was the first time the WHO had declared a Phase 5 outbreak, the second-highest on its threat scale, indicating a pandemic could be imminent.
The first US death from the outbreak was a Mexico City toddler who traveled to Texas with family and died Monday night at a Houston hospital. US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius predicted the child would not be the last US death from swine flu.
The virus, a mix of pig, bird and human genes to which people have limited natural immunity, had spread to at least nine countries. In the United States, nearly 100 have been sickened in 11 states.
BANGKOK — Health ministers from Southeast Asian countries will meet, probably in early May in the Thai capital, to discuss how to deal with the swine flu crisis, the head of area's regional grouping said Wednesday.
Surin Pitsuwan, the secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, said the ministers "should get together at the earliest time possible," according to a press release from the group.
None of Asean's 10 member countries have yet confirmed any cases of swine flu, but scores of tests were being carried out on anyone reporting flu symptoms. South Korea was awaiting final test results in a "probable" case, and New Zealand has confirmed 14 infections—the first in the Asia-Pacific region—all in people recently returned from Mexico.
"The Thai Ministry of Public Health has expressed its readiness to host the meeting in Bangkok most probably in early May," Surin was quoted saying after he held consultations with Thailand and the Philippines. The announcement said the Philippines would chair the meeting.
Thailand's reputation as a suitable venue for regional meetings was cast into doubt earlier this month when a mob of anti-government demonstrators broke into a popular resort hotel hosting a summit of Asean and other Asian leaders, forcing its cancellation. Surin is a former Thai foreign minister and was a senior member of the Democrat Party of current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Cambodia's prime minister earlier Wednesday had called for an emergency meeting of Asean members to discuss how to tackle the outbreak.
"We need common measures to prevent and fight against the fast spread of swine flu," Prime Minister Hun Sen said. "Southeast Asian leaders should have an emergency meeting right now."
Governments in Asia have potent memories of the 2003 SARS crisis and bird flu. Bird flu first began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003 and has caused 257 human fatalities, mostly in Southeast Asia.
Surin said in an earlier statement that officials have "the necessary experience" from past outbreaks to coordinate as "swine flu threatens to spread to the region."
Regional health experts who took part in an Asean-organized teleconference discussed the importance of harmonizing measures and initiatives, the group said.
They also discussed specific actions being taken by the individual member states, such as "screening of arrivals from effected countries using thermal scanners and health declaration forms and health advisory to passengers."
Meanwhile global health authorities warned Wednesday that swine flu was threatening to bloom into a pandemic, and the virus spread farther in Europe even as the outbreak appeared to stabilize at its epicenter. A toddler who succumbed in Texas became the first death outside Mexico.
Mexico, taking a drastic step as confirmed swine flu cases doubled to 99, including eight dead, announced it would temporarily suspend all nonessential activity of the federal government and private business from May 1-5. Essential services like transport, supermarkets, trash collection and hospitals will remain open.
New deaths finally seemed to be leveling off after an aggressive public health campaign in Mexico—only one additional confirmed death was announced Wednesday night—but the World Health Organization said the global threat is nevertheless serious enough to ramp up efforts to produce a vaccine against the virus.
"It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic," WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in Geneva. "We do not have all the answers right now, but we will get them."
It was the first time the WHO had declared a Phase 5 outbreak, the second-highest on its threat scale, indicating a pandemic could be imminent.
The first US death from the outbreak was a Mexico City toddler who traveled to Texas with family and died Monday night at a Houston hospital. US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius predicted the child would not be the last US death from swine flu.
The virus, a mix of pig, bird and human genes to which people have limited natural immunity, had spread to at least nine countries. In the United States, nearly 100 have been sickened in 11 states.
April 29, 2009
Long Before Swine Flu, Asia Tackled SARS, Bird Flu
By MIN LEE / AP WRITER
HONG KONG — Before swine flu emptied restaurants and cinemas and made surgical masks a common sight in Mexico, similar scenes unfolded in Asia earlier this decade as it dealt with the back-to-back health emergencies of SARS and bird flu.
Both of those episodes offered lessons that have helped China, Vietnam and other countries prepare for the latest global health crisis, experts and officials say.
Among the chief lessons: countries must openly and honestly exchange information, vigilantly monitor for illness, aggressively quarantine suspected patients and thoroughly prepare emergency plans.
"If there's anything good that came out from SARS and avian influenza, it's that we now have better preparedness in China as well as in the rest of the world," said Hans Troedsson, head of the World Health Organization in Beijing.
"What is important is a transparency and an openness not only with the WHO but also with the public. It is very important that the public ... the common people, understand the situation" and not have the situation exaggerated, he said.
"The best way to do that is to provide information. That is the lesson we learned both in Vietnam as well in all other countries," he said.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome, better known as SARS, began as a mystery illness that sickened hundreds in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong in late 2002 and early 2003. Chinese officials were flummoxed by the new disease and failed to inform the World Health Organization of the outbreak for weeks, restricting media coverage in order to preserve public confidence.
The disease spread outside the mainland in February 2003 when an infected 64-year-old doctor checked into a Hong Kong hotel. He later died in a local hospital, but not before he had infected 16 other hotel guests. Among them were tourists from Singapore and Canada and an American businessman, who traveled to other places, transmitting the disease and spreading the virus internationally. Also infected was a Hong Kong resident, who became ill and later spread the virus to another 143 people.
Within weeks, SARS had spread worldwide, infecting more than 8,000 people from 37 countries before it disappeared. More than 770 people died—299 from Hong Kong alone.
SARS "gave us a lot of valuable insight and practical experience in managing a large-scale outbreak that eventually spread to other parts of the world. That certainly has prepared us very well for what may come," Hong Kong Undersecretary for Food and Health Gabriel Leung said at a news conference Monday.
In the wake of that epidemic, governments began writing a playbook for dealing with disease outbreaks. Hong Kong built a special hospital unit dedicated to handling infectious diseases and improved isolation facilities and ventilation at other hospitals.
An increased awareness of personal hygiene—wearing masks and washing hands frequently—during SARS also contributed to a sharp decline in regular flu cases in 2003, said Lo Wing-lok, a Hong Kong infectious diseases expert.
Thermal imaging equipment—to detect high temperatures—were installed at airports and border-crossings across Asia and elsewhere.
In Canada, where SARS killed 44 people in Toronto, the government created the Public Health Agency, whose mission is to prevent and control infectious diseases. Thousands of hospitals, schools and churches now have pandemic plans that they didn't have before SARS.
Countries have also built large reserves of anti-viral drugs. Canada has a national stockpile of 55 million dosages of anti-viral drugs. Hong Kong keeps 20 million dosages.
Governments moved more aggressively when only months after SARS a second major crisis hit Asia—avian influenza. Governments slaughtered hundreds of millions of poultry in a bid to contain the virus. Since then, near yearly outbreaks of bird flu have spread to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
More than 250 people have died from bird flu, mostly from direct contact with infected poultry, but each human infection raises the chances that the virus will mutate, becoming more easily passed among humans and unleashing a global pandemic.
Not all lessons are applicable to the swine flu outbreak. Yuen Kwok-yung, a Hong Kong microbiologist who studied the SARS virus, said some people with swine flu may not show symptoms in the early stages, making it hard to know who and when to quarantine—a tactic widely used in controlling SARS.
Governments dealing with swine flu have drawn on these experiences and put into effect emergency plans. Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines dusted off thermal scanners used in the 2003 SARS crisis to check for fever among arriving passengers from North America. South Korea, India and Indonesia also announced screening.
Public health officials are being more forthcoming with information.
"This is an illness that was recognized in Mexico around April 15. We heard about it around the world about 48 hours later," said Allison McGeer, director of infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.
"We've identified the pathogen, we've confirmed it, we've sequenced the virus and if you look at what's happening now, every physician across ontario and probably every physician across Canada has had notification from their public health unit about what's happening," McGeer said.
Even in China, which was sharply criticized internationally for suppressing information about the SARS outbreaks and dragging its feet on bird flu, the government has reminded officials nationwide to use the disease surveillance network and report any cases promptly.
"Once a suspected case is found in China, it must be made public in a timely way," according to a State Council notice on state broadcaster CCTV. "We must be highly vigilant and take strong monitoring and prevention measures."
Associated Press reporters Tini Tran in Beijing and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
HONG KONG — Before swine flu emptied restaurants and cinemas and made surgical masks a common sight in Mexico, similar scenes unfolded in Asia earlier this decade as it dealt with the back-to-back health emergencies of SARS and bird flu.
Both of those episodes offered lessons that have helped China, Vietnam and other countries prepare for the latest global health crisis, experts and officials say.
Among the chief lessons: countries must openly and honestly exchange information, vigilantly monitor for illness, aggressively quarantine suspected patients and thoroughly prepare emergency plans.
"If there's anything good that came out from SARS and avian influenza, it's that we now have better preparedness in China as well as in the rest of the world," said Hans Troedsson, head of the World Health Organization in Beijing.
"What is important is a transparency and an openness not only with the WHO but also with the public. It is very important that the public ... the common people, understand the situation" and not have the situation exaggerated, he said.
"The best way to do that is to provide information. That is the lesson we learned both in Vietnam as well in all other countries," he said.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome, better known as SARS, began as a mystery illness that sickened hundreds in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong in late 2002 and early 2003. Chinese officials were flummoxed by the new disease and failed to inform the World Health Organization of the outbreak for weeks, restricting media coverage in order to preserve public confidence.
The disease spread outside the mainland in February 2003 when an infected 64-year-old doctor checked into a Hong Kong hotel. He later died in a local hospital, but not before he had infected 16 other hotel guests. Among them were tourists from Singapore and Canada and an American businessman, who traveled to other places, transmitting the disease and spreading the virus internationally. Also infected was a Hong Kong resident, who became ill and later spread the virus to another 143 people.
Within weeks, SARS had spread worldwide, infecting more than 8,000 people from 37 countries before it disappeared. More than 770 people died—299 from Hong Kong alone.
SARS "gave us a lot of valuable insight and practical experience in managing a large-scale outbreak that eventually spread to other parts of the world. That certainly has prepared us very well for what may come," Hong Kong Undersecretary for Food and Health Gabriel Leung said at a news conference Monday.
In the wake of that epidemic, governments began writing a playbook for dealing with disease outbreaks. Hong Kong built a special hospital unit dedicated to handling infectious diseases and improved isolation facilities and ventilation at other hospitals.
An increased awareness of personal hygiene—wearing masks and washing hands frequently—during SARS also contributed to a sharp decline in regular flu cases in 2003, said Lo Wing-lok, a Hong Kong infectious diseases expert.
Thermal imaging equipment—to detect high temperatures—were installed at airports and border-crossings across Asia and elsewhere.
In Canada, where SARS killed 44 people in Toronto, the government created the Public Health Agency, whose mission is to prevent and control infectious diseases. Thousands of hospitals, schools and churches now have pandemic plans that they didn't have before SARS.
Countries have also built large reserves of anti-viral drugs. Canada has a national stockpile of 55 million dosages of anti-viral drugs. Hong Kong keeps 20 million dosages.
Governments moved more aggressively when only months after SARS a second major crisis hit Asia—avian influenza. Governments slaughtered hundreds of millions of poultry in a bid to contain the virus. Since then, near yearly outbreaks of bird flu have spread to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
More than 250 people have died from bird flu, mostly from direct contact with infected poultry, but each human infection raises the chances that the virus will mutate, becoming more easily passed among humans and unleashing a global pandemic.
Not all lessons are applicable to the swine flu outbreak. Yuen Kwok-yung, a Hong Kong microbiologist who studied the SARS virus, said some people with swine flu may not show symptoms in the early stages, making it hard to know who and when to quarantine—a tactic widely used in controlling SARS.
Governments dealing with swine flu have drawn on these experiences and put into effect emergency plans. Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines dusted off thermal scanners used in the 2003 SARS crisis to check for fever among arriving passengers from North America. South Korea, India and Indonesia also announced screening.
Public health officials are being more forthcoming with information.
"This is an illness that was recognized in Mexico around April 15. We heard about it around the world about 48 hours later," said Allison McGeer, director of infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.
"We've identified the pathogen, we've confirmed it, we've sequenced the virus and if you look at what's happening now, every physician across ontario and probably every physician across Canada has had notification from their public health unit about what's happening," McGeer said.
Even in China, which was sharply criticized internationally for suppressing information about the SARS outbreaks and dragging its feet on bird flu, the government has reminded officials nationwide to use the disease surveillance network and report any cases promptly.
"Once a suspected case is found in China, it must be made public in a timely way," according to a State Council notice on state broadcaster CCTV. "We must be highly vigilant and take strong monitoring and prevention measures."
Associated Press reporters Tini Tran in Beijing and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
April 28, 2009
10 Killed by Suspected Insurgents in Thailand
By SUMETH PANPETCH / AP WRITER
PATTANI, Thailand — Suspected Muslim insurgents killed ten civilians in a flurry of attacks in the insurgency-plagued southern Thailand, the army said Tuesday, the fifth anniversary of a bloody assault by security forces against militants at a mosque.
In the deadliest incident, at least six gunmen in a pickup truck stormed into a house in Yala province late Monday, opening fire on a Muslim family of five, army spokesman Col Parinya Chaidilok said. Four people were killed.
Parinya says two Muslim rubber plantation workers were later found dead in the compound of a nearby mosque. Thai security officials blamed Islamic insurgents bent on stirring up communal tension between Buddhists and Muslims.
The incidents came ahead of the fifth anniversary of the April 28, 2004, assault on the Krue Se mosque by Thai security forces, in which 32 insurgents were killed.
Other clashes the same day between Muslims and government forces resulted in the deaths of a total of 107 people at the hands of security forces, turning the mosque attack into a symbol of the heavy-handed tactics of Thai authorities.
The killings fueled a nascent insurgency that has claimed more than 3,400 lives in Thailand's three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat and some parts of neighboring Songkhla.
In the latest attack, a Buddhist government official was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting Tuesday in Pattani, Parinya said. In a separate incident Monday evening, gunmen fatally shot a Muslim who served as a government-hired security volunteer in Yala province.
Another Muslim man was killed in a drive-by shooting in the same province Monday evening.
In another district of Yala province, suspected militants fatally shot a Buddhist rubber plantation worker Tuesday.
Insurgent attacks—which include drive-by shootings and bombings—are believed intended to frighten Buddhist residents into leaving the area. They also target Muslims who they believe have collaborated with the government, including soldiers, police, informants and civilians.
The identity and precise goals of the insurgents have never been publicly declared, and responsibility is rarely claimed for attacks. They pursue an ill-defined agenda that sometimes seems to call for an Islamic state separate from Buddhist-dominated Thailand, but is mostly a reaction to a history of discrimination.
Southern Muslims have long complained of discrimination, especial in educational and job opportunities, in Buddhist-dominated Thailand.
PATTANI, Thailand — Suspected Muslim insurgents killed ten civilians in a flurry of attacks in the insurgency-plagued southern Thailand, the army said Tuesday, the fifth anniversary of a bloody assault by security forces against militants at a mosque.
In the deadliest incident, at least six gunmen in a pickup truck stormed into a house in Yala province late Monday, opening fire on a Muslim family of five, army spokesman Col Parinya Chaidilok said. Four people were killed.
Parinya says two Muslim rubber plantation workers were later found dead in the compound of a nearby mosque. Thai security officials blamed Islamic insurgents bent on stirring up communal tension between Buddhists and Muslims.
The incidents came ahead of the fifth anniversary of the April 28, 2004, assault on the Krue Se mosque by Thai security forces, in which 32 insurgents were killed.
Other clashes the same day between Muslims and government forces resulted in the deaths of a total of 107 people at the hands of security forces, turning the mosque attack into a symbol of the heavy-handed tactics of Thai authorities.
The killings fueled a nascent insurgency that has claimed more than 3,400 lives in Thailand's three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat and some parts of neighboring Songkhla.
In the latest attack, a Buddhist government official was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting Tuesday in Pattani, Parinya said. In a separate incident Monday evening, gunmen fatally shot a Muslim who served as a government-hired security volunteer in Yala province.
Another Muslim man was killed in a drive-by shooting in the same province Monday evening.
In another district of Yala province, suspected militants fatally shot a Buddhist rubber plantation worker Tuesday.
Insurgent attacks—which include drive-by shootings and bombings—are believed intended to frighten Buddhist residents into leaving the area. They also target Muslims who they believe have collaborated with the government, including soldiers, police, informants and civilians.
The identity and precise goals of the insurgents have never been publicly declared, and responsibility is rarely claimed for attacks. They pursue an ill-defined agenda that sometimes seems to call for an Islamic state separate from Buddhist-dominated Thailand, but is mostly a reaction to a history of discrimination.
Southern Muslims have long complained of discrimination, especial in educational and job opportunities, in Buddhist-dominated Thailand.
WHO Raises Global Alert Level on Swine Flu
By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO / AP WRITER
MEXICO CITY — The swine flu epidemic entered a dangerous new phase Monday as the death toll climbed in Mexico and the number of suspected cases there and in the United States nearly doubled. The World Health Organization raised its alert level but stopped short of declaring a global emergency.
The United States advised Americans against most travel to Mexico and ordered stepped up border checks in neighboring states. The European Union health commissioner advised Europeans to avoid nonessential travel both to Mexico and parts of the United States.
The virus poses a potentially grave new threat to the US economy, which was showing tentative early signs of a recovery. A widespread outbreak could batter tourism, food and transportation industries, deepening the recession in the US and possibly worldwide.
The suspected number of deaths rose to 149 in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak with nearly 2,000 people believed to be infected.
The number of US cases rose to 48, the result of further testing at a New York City school, although none was fatal. Other US cases have been reported in Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California. Worldwide there were 77 cases, including six in Canada, one in Spain and two in Scotland.
The World Health Organization reported a slightly lower figure, 73. The WHO said it was still awaiting official reports from the UK about the Scottish cases, and it was reporting different numbers in the US (40) and Mexico (26) from what those governments confirmed.
While the total cases were still measured in hundreds, not thousands, Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said the epidemic was entering an extremely dangerous phase, with the number of people infected mushrooming even as authorities desperately ramped up defenses.
"We are in the most critical moment of the epidemic. The number of cases will keep rising, so we have to reinforce preventative measures," Cordova said at a news conference.
The WHO raised the alert level to Phase 4, meaning there is sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus causing outbreaks in at least one country.
Its alert system was revised after bird flu in Asia began to spread in 2004, and Monday was the first time it was raised above Phase 3.
"At this time, containment is not a feasible option," as the virus has already spread to several other countries, said WHO Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda.
Putting an alert at Phases 4 or 5 signals that the virus is becoming increasingly adept at spreading among humans. That move could lead governments to set trade, travel and other restrictions aimed at limiting its spread.
Phase 6 is for a full-blown pandemic, characterized by outbreaks in at least two regions of the world.
It could take 4-6 months before the first batch of vaccines are available to fight the virus, WHO officials said.
Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus amid global fears of a pandemic, an epidemic spread over a large area, either a region or worldwide.
President Barack Obama said the outbreak was reason for concern, but not yet "a cause for alarm."
Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that so far the virus in the United States seems less severe than in Mexico. Only one person has been hospitalized in the U.S.
"I wouldn't be overly reassured by that," Besser told reporters at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, raising the possibility of more severe cases in the United States.
"We are taking it seriously and acting aggressively," Besser said. "Until the outbreak has progressed, you really don't know what it's going to do."
US customs officials began checking people entering US territory. Millions of doses of flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile were on their way to states, with priority given to the five already affected and to border states. Federal agencies were conferring with state and international governments.
"We want to make sure that we have equipment where it needs to be, people where they need to be and, most important, information shared at all levels," said Janet Napolitano, head of the Homeland Security Department.
"We are proceeding as if we are preparatory to a full pandemic," Napolitano said.
She said travel warnings for trips to Mexico would remain in place as long as swine flu is detected.
Mexico canceled school at all levels nationwide until May 6, and the Mexico City government said it was considering a complete shutdown, including all public transportation, if the death toll keeps rising. Labor Secretary Javier Lozano Alarcon said employers should isolate anyone showing up for work with fever, cough, sore throat or other signs of the flu.
Even some of Mexico's most treasured national holidays were affected by the swine flu alert.
Authorities announced Monday the cancellation of the annual Cinco de Mayo parade, in which people in period costumes celebrate Mexican troops' defeat of a French army on May 5, 1862. The national labor umbrella group announced the cancellation of Mexico City's traditional May 1 parade and the National Institute of Anthropology and History said all of its 116 museums nationwide would be closed until further notice.
Amid the warnings, the Mexican government grappled with increasing criticism of its response. At least two weeks after the first swine flu case, the government has yet to say where and how the outbreak began or give details on the victims.
The health department lacked the staff to visit the homes of all those suspected to have died from the disease, Cordova said.
Cordova said 1,995 people have been hospitalized with serious cases of pneumonia since the first case of swine flu was reported April 13. The government does not yet know how many were swine flu.
He said tests show a 4-year-old boy contracted the virus before April 2 in Veracruz state, where a community has been protesting pollution from a large pig farm.
The farm is run by Granjas Carroll de Mexico, a joint venture half owned by Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, Inc. Spokeswoman Keira Ullrich said the company has found no clinical signs or symptoms of the presence of swine flu in its herd or its employees working anywhere in Mexico.
Mexico's Agriculture Department said Monday that its inspectors found no sign of swine flu among pigs around the farm in Veracruz, and that no infected pigs have been found yet anywhere in Mexico.
As if the country did not have enough to deal with, Cordova's comments were briefly interrupted by a 5.6-magnitude earthquake in southern Mexico that rattled already jittery nerves and sent mask-wearing office workers into the streets of the capital.
Aside from the confirmed cases, 13 are suspected in New Zealand, and one is suspected in both France and Israel.
European Union Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou advised Europeans to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico and parts of the United States, although Besser said that including the US in the advisory seemed unwarranted at this time.
State Department spokesman Robert A Wood said Vassiliou's remarks were his "personal opinion," not an official EU position, and therefore the department had no comment.
"We don't want people to panic at this point," Wood said.
The US stepped up checks of people entering the country by air, land and sea, and the State Department warned U.S. citizens to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico. It said those who live in Mexico should avoid hospitals or clinics there unless they have a medical emergency.
The best way to keep the disease from spreading, Besser said, is by taking everyday precautions such as frequent handwashing, covering up coughs and sneezes, and staying away from work or school if not feeling well. He said authorities are not recommending that people wear masks at work because evidence that it is effective "is not that strong."
Besser said about 11 million doses of flu-fighting drugs from a federal stockpile have been sent to states in case they are needed. That's roughly one quarter of the doses in the stockpile, he said.
There is no vaccine available to prevent the specific strain now being seen, he said, but some antiflu drugs do work once someone is sick.
If a new vaccine eventually is ordered, the CDC already has taken a key preliminary step—creating what's called seed stock of the virus that manufacturers would use.
Many of the cases outside Mexico have been relatively mild. Symptoms include a fever of more than 100, coughing, joint aches, severe headache and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea.
European and US markets bounced back from early losses as pharmaceutical stocks were lifted by expectations that health authorities will increase stockpiles of anti-viral drugs. Stocks of airlines, hotels and other travel-related companies posted sharper losses.
WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley singled out air travel as an easy way the virus could spread, noting that the WHO estimates that up to 500,000 people are on planes at any time.
Governments in Asia—with potent memories of previous flu outbreaks—were especially cautious. Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines dusted off thermal scanners used in the 2003 SARS crisis and were checking for signs of fever among passengers from North America. South Korea, India and Indonesia also announced screening.
In Malaysia, health workers in face masks took the temperatures of passengers as they arrived on a flight from Los Angeles.
China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival had to report to authorities.
China, Russia and Ukraine were among countries banning imports of pork and pork products from Mexico and three US states that have reported swine flu cases, while other countries, such as Indonesia, banned all pork imports.
The CDC says people cannot get the flu by eating pork or pork products.
Germany's leading vacation tour operators were skipping stops in Mexico City as a precaution. The Hannover-based TUI said trips through May 4 to Mexico City were being suspended, including those operated by TUI itself and through companies 1-2 Fly, Airtours, Berge & Meer, Grebeco and L'tur.
Japan's largest tour agency, JTB Corp., suspended tours to Mexico through June 30. Russian travel agencies said about a third of those planning to travel to Mexico in early May had already canceled.
MEXICO CITY — The swine flu epidemic entered a dangerous new phase Monday as the death toll climbed in Mexico and the number of suspected cases there and in the United States nearly doubled. The World Health Organization raised its alert level but stopped short of declaring a global emergency.
The United States advised Americans against most travel to Mexico and ordered stepped up border checks in neighboring states. The European Union health commissioner advised Europeans to avoid nonessential travel both to Mexico and parts of the United States.
The virus poses a potentially grave new threat to the US economy, which was showing tentative early signs of a recovery. A widespread outbreak could batter tourism, food and transportation industries, deepening the recession in the US and possibly worldwide.
The suspected number of deaths rose to 149 in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak with nearly 2,000 people believed to be infected.
The number of US cases rose to 48, the result of further testing at a New York City school, although none was fatal. Other US cases have been reported in Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California. Worldwide there were 77 cases, including six in Canada, one in Spain and two in Scotland.
The World Health Organization reported a slightly lower figure, 73. The WHO said it was still awaiting official reports from the UK about the Scottish cases, and it was reporting different numbers in the US (40) and Mexico (26) from what those governments confirmed.
While the total cases were still measured in hundreds, not thousands, Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said the epidemic was entering an extremely dangerous phase, with the number of people infected mushrooming even as authorities desperately ramped up defenses.
"We are in the most critical moment of the epidemic. The number of cases will keep rising, so we have to reinforce preventative measures," Cordova said at a news conference.
The WHO raised the alert level to Phase 4, meaning there is sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus causing outbreaks in at least one country.
Its alert system was revised after bird flu in Asia began to spread in 2004, and Monday was the first time it was raised above Phase 3.
"At this time, containment is not a feasible option," as the virus has already spread to several other countries, said WHO Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda.
Putting an alert at Phases 4 or 5 signals that the virus is becoming increasingly adept at spreading among humans. That move could lead governments to set trade, travel and other restrictions aimed at limiting its spread.
Phase 6 is for a full-blown pandemic, characterized by outbreaks in at least two regions of the world.
It could take 4-6 months before the first batch of vaccines are available to fight the virus, WHO officials said.
Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus amid global fears of a pandemic, an epidemic spread over a large area, either a region or worldwide.
President Barack Obama said the outbreak was reason for concern, but not yet "a cause for alarm."
Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that so far the virus in the United States seems less severe than in Mexico. Only one person has been hospitalized in the U.S.
"I wouldn't be overly reassured by that," Besser told reporters at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, raising the possibility of more severe cases in the United States.
"We are taking it seriously and acting aggressively," Besser said. "Until the outbreak has progressed, you really don't know what it's going to do."
US customs officials began checking people entering US territory. Millions of doses of flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile were on their way to states, with priority given to the five already affected and to border states. Federal agencies were conferring with state and international governments.
"We want to make sure that we have equipment where it needs to be, people where they need to be and, most important, information shared at all levels," said Janet Napolitano, head of the Homeland Security Department.
"We are proceeding as if we are preparatory to a full pandemic," Napolitano said.
She said travel warnings for trips to Mexico would remain in place as long as swine flu is detected.
Mexico canceled school at all levels nationwide until May 6, and the Mexico City government said it was considering a complete shutdown, including all public transportation, if the death toll keeps rising. Labor Secretary Javier Lozano Alarcon said employers should isolate anyone showing up for work with fever, cough, sore throat or other signs of the flu.
Even some of Mexico's most treasured national holidays were affected by the swine flu alert.
Authorities announced Monday the cancellation of the annual Cinco de Mayo parade, in which people in period costumes celebrate Mexican troops' defeat of a French army on May 5, 1862. The national labor umbrella group announced the cancellation of Mexico City's traditional May 1 parade and the National Institute of Anthropology and History said all of its 116 museums nationwide would be closed until further notice.
Amid the warnings, the Mexican government grappled with increasing criticism of its response. At least two weeks after the first swine flu case, the government has yet to say where and how the outbreak began or give details on the victims.
The health department lacked the staff to visit the homes of all those suspected to have died from the disease, Cordova said.
Cordova said 1,995 people have been hospitalized with serious cases of pneumonia since the first case of swine flu was reported April 13. The government does not yet know how many were swine flu.
He said tests show a 4-year-old boy contracted the virus before April 2 in Veracruz state, where a community has been protesting pollution from a large pig farm.
The farm is run by Granjas Carroll de Mexico, a joint venture half owned by Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, Inc. Spokeswoman Keira Ullrich said the company has found no clinical signs or symptoms of the presence of swine flu in its herd or its employees working anywhere in Mexico.
Mexico's Agriculture Department said Monday that its inspectors found no sign of swine flu among pigs around the farm in Veracruz, and that no infected pigs have been found yet anywhere in Mexico.
As if the country did not have enough to deal with, Cordova's comments were briefly interrupted by a 5.6-magnitude earthquake in southern Mexico that rattled already jittery nerves and sent mask-wearing office workers into the streets of the capital.
Aside from the confirmed cases, 13 are suspected in New Zealand, and one is suspected in both France and Israel.
European Union Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou advised Europeans to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico and parts of the United States, although Besser said that including the US in the advisory seemed unwarranted at this time.
State Department spokesman Robert A Wood said Vassiliou's remarks were his "personal opinion," not an official EU position, and therefore the department had no comment.
"We don't want people to panic at this point," Wood said.
The US stepped up checks of people entering the country by air, land and sea, and the State Department warned U.S. citizens to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico. It said those who live in Mexico should avoid hospitals or clinics there unless they have a medical emergency.
The best way to keep the disease from spreading, Besser said, is by taking everyday precautions such as frequent handwashing, covering up coughs and sneezes, and staying away from work or school if not feeling well. He said authorities are not recommending that people wear masks at work because evidence that it is effective "is not that strong."
Besser said about 11 million doses of flu-fighting drugs from a federal stockpile have been sent to states in case they are needed. That's roughly one quarter of the doses in the stockpile, he said.
There is no vaccine available to prevent the specific strain now being seen, he said, but some antiflu drugs do work once someone is sick.
If a new vaccine eventually is ordered, the CDC already has taken a key preliminary step—creating what's called seed stock of the virus that manufacturers would use.
Many of the cases outside Mexico have been relatively mild. Symptoms include a fever of more than 100, coughing, joint aches, severe headache and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea.
European and US markets bounced back from early losses as pharmaceutical stocks were lifted by expectations that health authorities will increase stockpiles of anti-viral drugs. Stocks of airlines, hotels and other travel-related companies posted sharper losses.
WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley singled out air travel as an easy way the virus could spread, noting that the WHO estimates that up to 500,000 people are on planes at any time.
Governments in Asia—with potent memories of previous flu outbreaks—were especially cautious. Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines dusted off thermal scanners used in the 2003 SARS crisis and were checking for signs of fever among passengers from North America. South Korea, India and Indonesia also announced screening.
In Malaysia, health workers in face masks took the temperatures of passengers as they arrived on a flight from Los Angeles.
China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival had to report to authorities.
China, Russia and Ukraine were among countries banning imports of pork and pork products from Mexico and three US states that have reported swine flu cases, while other countries, such as Indonesia, banned all pork imports.
The CDC says people cannot get the flu by eating pork or pork products.
Germany's leading vacation tour operators were skipping stops in Mexico City as a precaution. The Hannover-based TUI said trips through May 4 to Mexico City were being suspended, including those operated by TUI itself and through companies 1-2 Fly, Airtours, Berge & Meer, Grebeco and L'tur.
Japan's largest tour agency, JTB Corp., suspended tours to Mexico through June 30. Russian travel agencies said about a third of those planning to travel to Mexico in early May had already canceled.
April 27, 2009
Countries Race to Contain Swine Flu
By RAY LILLEY / AP WRITER
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand reported suspected swine flu cases Monday in a second group of teenage students returning from Mexico, as Asian nations with potent memories of SARS and bird flu outbreaks screened travelers for fever with thermal scanners.
Hong Kong assigned a team of scientists to find a quick test for the latest virus to raise global fears of a pandemic, following confirmed human cases of the disease in Mexico, United States and Canada.
World Health Organization spokesman Peter Cordingly said the new virus was spreading quickly in Mexico and the southern United States, and it could be expected to turn up anywhere.
"These are early days. It's quite clear that there is a potential for this virus to become a pandemic and threaten globally," Cordingly, WHO's spokesman for the Western Pacific, told AP Television News.
"But we honestly don't know," he added. "We don't know enough yet about how this virus operates. More work needs to be done."
Mexico's Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said late Sunday the number of suspected swine flu cases in his country had climbed to 1,614, including 103 deaths.
In New Zealand, Health Minister Tony Ryall said two students and a parent among a group of 15 that had just come back from a class trip to Mexico had mild flu and were being tested for swine flu. On Sunday, officials said nine students and one teacher from a separate group that also were in Mexico "likely" have swine flu.
Results from a WHO-registered laboratory were expected within days.
All the New Zealand students and teachers along with their families had voluntarily quarantined themselves at home. In addition, Ryall said three small groups of returned travelers were being monitored after reporting flu symptoms following recent trips to North America. He gave no further details.
Prime Minister John Key said everyone showing flu symptoms was being treated with Tamiflu as a precaution. Other passengers and crew on the suspect flights were also being given the antiviral drug, said health department official Julia Peters.
Tests were also under way on people with flu-like symptoms in Israel, France and Spain.
In Hong Kong, Thomas Tsang, controller for territory's Center for Health Protection, said the government and universities aim to develop a quick test for the new flu strain in a week or two that will return results in four to six hours, compared to existing tests that can take two or three days.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan on Sunday held teleconferences Sunday with staff and flu experts around the world, and urged governments to step up their surveillance of suspicious outbreaks.
Officials wasted no time taking that advice.
Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines dusted off thermal scanners used during the 2003 SARS crisis and were checking for signs of fever among passengers arriving at airports from North America. South Korea and Indonesia introduced similar screening.
In Malaysia, health workers wearing face masks took the temperatures of passengers as they arrived from a flight from Los Angeles.
Officials said travelers with flu-like symptoms would be given detailed health checks.
Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said visitors returning from flu-affected areas with fevers would be quarantined.
Australian Health Minister Nicola Roxon said pilots on international flights would be required to file a report noting any flu-like symptoms for passengers aboard their planes before being allowed to land in Australia.
China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival had to report to authorities.
China and Russia banned imports of pork and pork products from Mexico and three U.S. states that have reported cases of swine flu, and other governments were increasing their screening of pork imports.
Indonesia—the country hardest hit by bird flu—said Monday it was banning all pork imports to prevent swine fever infections.
In Serbia, health officials said all international passengers arriving at airports in the capital of Belgrade and the southern city of Nis would be checked, interviewed and instructed where to go in case they develop any symptoms.
Many nations issued travel warnings for Mexico.
The United States has confirmed at least 11 cases of swine flu, and Canada six cases.
Many measures recalled those taken across Asia during the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic and used more recently to monitor bird flu.
Drawing on their fight against SARS, experts in Hong Kong warned that swine flu seems harder to detect early and may spread faster.
The virus could move between people before any symptoms show up, said John Simon, a scientific adviser to Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection.
"Border guardings, thermal imaging will not detect much of this flu when it eventually comes through because a lot of people will be incubating," he said.
A New Zealand student who was among those sickened said her group had stayed with Mexican families in their homes during the last few days of their trip, to better their Spanish language skills.
Cordingly said the WHO estimates that up to 500,000 people are traveling aboard planes at any given time, giving human-to-human viruses an easy way to spread globally quickly.
Some people were resigned to swine flu appearing in their country.
"Since the world is now globalized, there are many foreign tourists here in Korea and many Koreans also go abroad. As the whole world is like one village, I am afraid that this flu will quickly become Korea's problem," said Sun Moon-bi, 56, a businessman in Seoul.
Associated Press writers Fernando Sepe Jr. in Manila, Gillian Wong in Beijing, Frank Jordans in Geneva, Min Lee in Hong Kong, David Koop in Mexico City, Alex Kennedy in Singapore, Rohan Sullivan in Sydney, Jae Hee Suh in Seoul, Julia Zappei in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand reported suspected swine flu cases Monday in a second group of teenage students returning from Mexico, as Asian nations with potent memories of SARS and bird flu outbreaks screened travelers for fever with thermal scanners.
Hong Kong assigned a team of scientists to find a quick test for the latest virus to raise global fears of a pandemic, following confirmed human cases of the disease in Mexico, United States and Canada.
World Health Organization spokesman Peter Cordingly said the new virus was spreading quickly in Mexico and the southern United States, and it could be expected to turn up anywhere.
"These are early days. It's quite clear that there is a potential for this virus to become a pandemic and threaten globally," Cordingly, WHO's spokesman for the Western Pacific, told AP Television News.
"But we honestly don't know," he added. "We don't know enough yet about how this virus operates. More work needs to be done."
Mexico's Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said late Sunday the number of suspected swine flu cases in his country had climbed to 1,614, including 103 deaths.
In New Zealand, Health Minister Tony Ryall said two students and a parent among a group of 15 that had just come back from a class trip to Mexico had mild flu and were being tested for swine flu. On Sunday, officials said nine students and one teacher from a separate group that also were in Mexico "likely" have swine flu.
Results from a WHO-registered laboratory were expected within days.
All the New Zealand students and teachers along with their families had voluntarily quarantined themselves at home. In addition, Ryall said three small groups of returned travelers were being monitored after reporting flu symptoms following recent trips to North America. He gave no further details.
Prime Minister John Key said everyone showing flu symptoms was being treated with Tamiflu as a precaution. Other passengers and crew on the suspect flights were also being given the antiviral drug, said health department official Julia Peters.
Tests were also under way on people with flu-like symptoms in Israel, France and Spain.
In Hong Kong, Thomas Tsang, controller for territory's Center for Health Protection, said the government and universities aim to develop a quick test for the new flu strain in a week or two that will return results in four to six hours, compared to existing tests that can take two or three days.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan on Sunday held teleconferences Sunday with staff and flu experts around the world, and urged governments to step up their surveillance of suspicious outbreaks.
Officials wasted no time taking that advice.
Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines dusted off thermal scanners used during the 2003 SARS crisis and were checking for signs of fever among passengers arriving at airports from North America. South Korea and Indonesia introduced similar screening.
In Malaysia, health workers wearing face masks took the temperatures of passengers as they arrived from a flight from Los Angeles.
Officials said travelers with flu-like symptoms would be given detailed health checks.
Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said visitors returning from flu-affected areas with fevers would be quarantined.
Australian Health Minister Nicola Roxon said pilots on international flights would be required to file a report noting any flu-like symptoms for passengers aboard their planes before being allowed to land in Australia.
China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival had to report to authorities.
China and Russia banned imports of pork and pork products from Mexico and three U.S. states that have reported cases of swine flu, and other governments were increasing their screening of pork imports.
Indonesia—the country hardest hit by bird flu—said Monday it was banning all pork imports to prevent swine fever infections.
In Serbia, health officials said all international passengers arriving at airports in the capital of Belgrade and the southern city of Nis would be checked, interviewed and instructed where to go in case they develop any symptoms.
Many nations issued travel warnings for Mexico.
The United States has confirmed at least 11 cases of swine flu, and Canada six cases.
Many measures recalled those taken across Asia during the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic and used more recently to monitor bird flu.
Drawing on their fight against SARS, experts in Hong Kong warned that swine flu seems harder to detect early and may spread faster.
The virus could move between people before any symptoms show up, said John Simon, a scientific adviser to Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection.
"Border guardings, thermal imaging will not detect much of this flu when it eventually comes through because a lot of people will be incubating," he said.
A New Zealand student who was among those sickened said her group had stayed with Mexican families in their homes during the last few days of their trip, to better their Spanish language skills.
Cordingly said the WHO estimates that up to 500,000 people are traveling aboard planes at any given time, giving human-to-human viruses an easy way to spread globally quickly.
Some people were resigned to swine flu appearing in their country.
"Since the world is now globalized, there are many foreign tourists here in Korea and many Koreans also go abroad. As the whole world is like one village, I am afraid that this flu will quickly become Korea's problem," said Sun Moon-bi, 56, a businessman in Seoul.
Associated Press writers Fernando Sepe Jr. in Manila, Gillian Wong in Beijing, Frank Jordans in Geneva, Min Lee in Hong Kong, David Koop in Mexico City, Alex Kennedy in Singapore, Rohan Sullivan in Sydney, Jae Hee Suh in Seoul, Julia Zappei in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
Thai PM: Postponed Summit Will Be in June
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BANGKOK — Thailand's prime minister said Sunday he hopes a regional summit meeting will be rescheduled for June after it was canceled earlier this month when anti-government protests stormed the venue.
Abhisit Vejjajiva, speaking in his weekly radio and television address to the nation, said the rescheduling of the meeting of government leaders in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is now being coordinated among the 15 other countries involved.
Protesters seeking Abhisit's resignation forced the cancellation of the summit on April 11 after they stormed the hotel in which meetings were being held in the seaside resort of Pattaya. Some visiting leaders were evacuated by helicopter, adding to Thailand's embarrassment.
The country's reputation was further damaged the following week as riots by the protesters gripped the capital, Bangkok, in which two people were killed and 122 injured. The army suppressed the violence after several days, and the state of emergency in the capital was lifted Saturday.
"Every country wants to have the meeting soon so we can discuss ways to solve the global financial crisis," Abhisit said. "They want to see peace and order in our country and practical security measures."
Thai officials have said the meeting could be rescheduled for June in the Andaman Sea resort island of Phuket—an area more distant from the capital and more politically sympathetic to Abhisit.
Senior officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are expected to discuss the rescheduling at a meeting in Manado, Indonesia, on May 6-8.
The aborted meeting was supposed to be attended by Asean's 10 member countries and the leaders of its so-called dialogue partners—China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.
BANGKOK — Thailand's prime minister said Sunday he hopes a regional summit meeting will be rescheduled for June after it was canceled earlier this month when anti-government protests stormed the venue.
Abhisit Vejjajiva, speaking in his weekly radio and television address to the nation, said the rescheduling of the meeting of government leaders in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is now being coordinated among the 15 other countries involved.
Protesters seeking Abhisit's resignation forced the cancellation of the summit on April 11 after they stormed the hotel in which meetings were being held in the seaside resort of Pattaya. Some visiting leaders were evacuated by helicopter, adding to Thailand's embarrassment.
The country's reputation was further damaged the following week as riots by the protesters gripped the capital, Bangkok, in which two people were killed and 122 injured. The army suppressed the violence after several days, and the state of emergency in the capital was lifted Saturday.
"Every country wants to have the meeting soon so we can discuss ways to solve the global financial crisis," Abhisit said. "They want to see peace and order in our country and practical security measures."
Thai officials have said the meeting could be rescheduled for June in the Andaman Sea resort island of Phuket—an area more distant from the capital and more politically sympathetic to Abhisit.
Senior officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are expected to discuss the rescheduling at a meeting in Manado, Indonesia, on May 6-8.
The aborted meeting was supposed to be attended by Asean's 10 member countries and the leaders of its so-called dialogue partners—China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.
April 24, 2009
Thai Prime Minister Lifts State of Emergency
By AMBIKA AHUJA/ AP WRITER
BANGKOK — Thailand’s prime minister lifted a state of emergency on Friday that was imposed in the capital following anti-government riots by supporters of ousted former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, while authorities tried to locate the fugitive tycoon abroad.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva made the announcement at the end of a two-day special parliamentary session aimed at finding a solution to the country’s political crisis.
“Lifting the state of emergency is one of the measures to find a solution for the country,” Abhisit told the parliamentary session. Many opposition lawmakers had urged the prime minister to remove the emergency decree which they said inflamed the still-tense situation in Thailand.
“The government wants reconciliation and to move the country forward,” Abhisit told lawmakers early Friday. The debate ran for two marathon 15-hour sessions dominated by partisan bickering over who was to blame for the violence, but did little to resolve Thailand’s deepening political divide.
The protests were part of Thailand’s long-running political turmoil, which revolves around Thaksin’s ouster in a 2006 military coup for alleged corruption and abuse of power. Thaksin, a telecommunications tycoon, fled the country last year ahead of a corruption conviction.
Thaksin’s supporters, who are known as the “red shirts,” rioted in Bangkok last week, calling for Abhisit’s resignation and new elections. Two people were killed and 123 injured as protesters clashed with troops and residents.
Thaksin, who still enjoys wide support among Thailand's rural poor because of his populist policies while in office, addressed demonstrators from exile via video link during the run-up to the riots, and at one point called for a “revolution.”
He changed his message after the rioting and joined political rivals in calling for reconciliation.
The state of emergency was imposed April 12 amid rioting in Bangkok. The decree had banned gatherings of more than five people and news reports that threatened public order and allowed the government to call up military troops to quell unrest.
Thaksin’s whereabouts continue to dominate headlines in Thailand and taunt the government, who holds him responsible for the recent violence and is trying to extradite him.
Up until last week, Thaksin was in Dubai but now appears to be in Africa.
Thaksin traveled to Liberia earlier this week to inquire about investing in diamonds, officials said, continuing his global wanderings in pursuit of business ventures. Liberia, known as a tax haven, is keen to lure foreign investors as it tries to move beyond its dark history of a civil war that was funded and fueled by so-called “blood diamonds.”
Liberia’s Information Minister Cletus Sieh told The Associated Press that Thaksin had been in Liberia earlier this week and met with the country’s vice president and other officials.
“He's trying to invest in Africa and he came to Liberia to explore the possibility of investing in the gold and diamond sector,” Sieh said, adding that Thaksin had arrived in Liberia on Tuesday and left the next day.
Sieh said he believed that Thaksin went on to Ghana and Ivory Coast. His current location could not be immediately confirmed.
Thaksin’s most recent hub was Dubai. He earlier used London as a base until Britain revoked his visa because of the Thai conviction. While in Britain, Thaksin bought the English Premier League soccer team Manchester City, which he subsequently sold to Abu Dhabi investors.
Thaksin recently has claimed that he’s running out of money, but says that Thailand’s move to freeze his assets may have helped safeguard his vast wealth from the financial crisis.
Thaksin’s fortune was estimated at US $2.2 billion in 2006 by Forbes Asia magazine. By 2008, his net worth was pegged at $400 million after Thailand froze more than $1.8 billion of his family’s assets pending the outcome of corruption cases against him.
It is unclear which passport Thaksin is using to travel. The government has revoked Thaksin’s personal and diplomatic passports, but the former Thai prime minister now has a diplomatic Nicaraguan passport and is alleged to have others.
The red shirts, mostly from the rural poor who benefited from Thaksin’s social welfare programs, claim Abhisit, who was appointed by Parliament in December, came to power illegitimately after court rulings removed two Thaksin-allied governments.
Their protests came after three years of sporadic protests by Thaksin’s opponents, the “yellow shirts,” whose rallies paved the way to the 2006 coup and the later court dismissals of Thaksin’s allies. The yellow shirts come mainly from the urban, middle class and educated elite of Thai society, including royalists.
BANGKOK — Thailand’s prime minister lifted a state of emergency on Friday that was imposed in the capital following anti-government riots by supporters of ousted former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, while authorities tried to locate the fugitive tycoon abroad.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva made the announcement at the end of a two-day special parliamentary session aimed at finding a solution to the country’s political crisis.
“Lifting the state of emergency is one of the measures to find a solution for the country,” Abhisit told the parliamentary session. Many opposition lawmakers had urged the prime minister to remove the emergency decree which they said inflamed the still-tense situation in Thailand.
“The government wants reconciliation and to move the country forward,” Abhisit told lawmakers early Friday. The debate ran for two marathon 15-hour sessions dominated by partisan bickering over who was to blame for the violence, but did little to resolve Thailand’s deepening political divide.
The protests were part of Thailand’s long-running political turmoil, which revolves around Thaksin’s ouster in a 2006 military coup for alleged corruption and abuse of power. Thaksin, a telecommunications tycoon, fled the country last year ahead of a corruption conviction.
Thaksin’s supporters, who are known as the “red shirts,” rioted in Bangkok last week, calling for Abhisit’s resignation and new elections. Two people were killed and 123 injured as protesters clashed with troops and residents.
Thaksin, who still enjoys wide support among Thailand's rural poor because of his populist policies while in office, addressed demonstrators from exile via video link during the run-up to the riots, and at one point called for a “revolution.”
He changed his message after the rioting and joined political rivals in calling for reconciliation.
The state of emergency was imposed April 12 amid rioting in Bangkok. The decree had banned gatherings of more than five people and news reports that threatened public order and allowed the government to call up military troops to quell unrest.
Thaksin’s whereabouts continue to dominate headlines in Thailand and taunt the government, who holds him responsible for the recent violence and is trying to extradite him.
Up until last week, Thaksin was in Dubai but now appears to be in Africa.
Thaksin traveled to Liberia earlier this week to inquire about investing in diamonds, officials said, continuing his global wanderings in pursuit of business ventures. Liberia, known as a tax haven, is keen to lure foreign investors as it tries to move beyond its dark history of a civil war that was funded and fueled by so-called “blood diamonds.”
Liberia’s Information Minister Cletus Sieh told The Associated Press that Thaksin had been in Liberia earlier this week and met with the country’s vice president and other officials.
“He's trying to invest in Africa and he came to Liberia to explore the possibility of investing in the gold and diamond sector,” Sieh said, adding that Thaksin had arrived in Liberia on Tuesday and left the next day.
Sieh said he believed that Thaksin went on to Ghana and Ivory Coast. His current location could not be immediately confirmed.
Thaksin’s most recent hub was Dubai. He earlier used London as a base until Britain revoked his visa because of the Thai conviction. While in Britain, Thaksin bought the English Premier League soccer team Manchester City, which he subsequently sold to Abu Dhabi investors.
Thaksin recently has claimed that he’s running out of money, but says that Thailand’s move to freeze his assets may have helped safeguard his vast wealth from the financial crisis.
Thaksin’s fortune was estimated at US $2.2 billion in 2006 by Forbes Asia magazine. By 2008, his net worth was pegged at $400 million after Thailand froze more than $1.8 billion of his family’s assets pending the outcome of corruption cases against him.
It is unclear which passport Thaksin is using to travel. The government has revoked Thaksin’s personal and diplomatic passports, but the former Thai prime minister now has a diplomatic Nicaraguan passport and is alleged to have others.
The red shirts, mostly from the rural poor who benefited from Thaksin’s social welfare programs, claim Abhisit, who was appointed by Parliament in December, came to power illegitimately after court rulings removed two Thaksin-allied governments.
Their protests came after three years of sporadic protests by Thaksin’s opponents, the “yellow shirts,” whose rallies paved the way to the 2006 coup and the later court dismissals of Thaksin’s allies. The yellow shirts come mainly from the urban, middle class and educated elite of Thai society, including royalists.
April 23, 2009
Khmer Rouge Defendant: Pol Pot Feigned Ignorance
By SOPHENG CHEANG / AP WRITER
PHNOM PENH — The late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot was lying when he said he was unaware that his 1970s communist regime operated a torture center, the man accused of running it testified Wednesday.
Kaing Guek Eav told Cambodia’s UN-assisted genocide tribunal, which is trying him for crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture, that he knew of no document authorizing the notorious prison, but that “whatever Pol Pot decided everybody had to implement.”
An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died under the 1975-79 communist Khmer Rouge regime from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions.
Kaing Guek Eav, 66, better known by his alias Duch, commanded Phnom Penh’s S-21 prison, also known as Tuol Sleng, where as many as 16,000 people are believed to have been tortured before being sent to their deaths.
Pol Pot said in a 1997 interview he knew nothing of the prison.
According to the interview by US journalist Nate Thayer for the magazine Far Eastern Economic Review, Pol Pot claimed that S-21 was set up for propaganda purposes by the Vietnamese, who invaded the country and toppled his regime in 1979. Pol Pot died in 1998.
Duch said that he decided to talk about S-21 to journalists who found him in hiding in 1999 because he could not bear Pol Pot’s false account.
“Pol Pot claimed that S-21 was a fabrication of the Vietnamese. I rejected Pol Pot’s statement on this topic,” he said.
According to Duch, even though there was no written order establishing the prison, “Pol Pot was the one who initiated the idea, Son Sen implemented it and Nuon Chea is the one who did the follow up. This is from my observation and from the surviving documents.”
Son Sen was the Khmer Rouge military commander, killed under murky circumstance by his comrades as the group fell apart in 1997. Nuon Chea, the group’s ideologist, is one of the four other senior Khmer Rouge being held for trial by the tribunal.
In other testimony Wednesday, Duch said that “Christ” led British journalist Nic Dunlop to discover him after he had disappeared and went underground in 1979.
Duch became a teacher and a born-again Christian after leaving the Khmer Rouge and gave lengthy accounts of his work to Dunlop and a UN human rights investigator before turning himself in to Cambodian authorities.
Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. The other four in custody are likely to be tried in the next year or two.
PHNOM PENH — The late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot was lying when he said he was unaware that his 1970s communist regime operated a torture center, the man accused of running it testified Wednesday.
Kaing Guek Eav told Cambodia’s UN-assisted genocide tribunal, which is trying him for crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture, that he knew of no document authorizing the notorious prison, but that “whatever Pol Pot decided everybody had to implement.”
An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died under the 1975-79 communist Khmer Rouge regime from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions.
Kaing Guek Eav, 66, better known by his alias Duch, commanded Phnom Penh’s S-21 prison, also known as Tuol Sleng, where as many as 16,000 people are believed to have been tortured before being sent to their deaths.
Pol Pot said in a 1997 interview he knew nothing of the prison.
According to the interview by US journalist Nate Thayer for the magazine Far Eastern Economic Review, Pol Pot claimed that S-21 was set up for propaganda purposes by the Vietnamese, who invaded the country and toppled his regime in 1979. Pol Pot died in 1998.
Duch said that he decided to talk about S-21 to journalists who found him in hiding in 1999 because he could not bear Pol Pot’s false account.
“Pol Pot claimed that S-21 was a fabrication of the Vietnamese. I rejected Pol Pot’s statement on this topic,” he said.
According to Duch, even though there was no written order establishing the prison, “Pol Pot was the one who initiated the idea, Son Sen implemented it and Nuon Chea is the one who did the follow up. This is from my observation and from the surviving documents.”
Son Sen was the Khmer Rouge military commander, killed under murky circumstance by his comrades as the group fell apart in 1997. Nuon Chea, the group’s ideologist, is one of the four other senior Khmer Rouge being held for trial by the tribunal.
In other testimony Wednesday, Duch said that “Christ” led British journalist Nic Dunlop to discover him after he had disappeared and went underground in 1979.
Duch became a teacher and a born-again Christian after leaving the Khmer Rouge and gave lengthy accounts of his work to Dunlop and a UN human rights investigator before turning himself in to Cambodian authorities.
Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. The other four in custody are likely to be tried in the next year or two.
Thai Parliament Meets for Reconciliation Talks
By JOCELYN GECKER / AP WRITER
BANGKOK — A special joint session of Parliament aimed at resolving Thailand’s political crisis degenerated into partisan bickering on Wednesday, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pointing fingers at each other for deepening the divide in Thai society.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva opened the two-day debate by listing the recent violence that has battered Thailand’s image and embarrassed his government—rioting last week by anti-government protesters, a violent attack on his car that he narrowly escaped, the storming of a regional Asian summit that forced its cancellation.
“Today is the day that we decide if we will use [Parliament] to heal the wounds of society, or if we will be another part of the conflict,” Abhisit told lawmakers as he urged them to “help Thailand find a way out” of the crisis through political reforms.
But few lawmakers proposed concrete solutions and the argument turned to who started the violence, whether soldiers who dispersed protesters killed some and hid their bodies and larger questions about what protesters say is injustice and discrimination in the country’s troubled democracy.
Many opposition lawmakers accused Abhisit of inflaming the situation by imposing a state of emergency in Bangkok on April 12. The decree bans gatherings of more than five people, forbids news reports that threaten public order and allows the government to call up military troops to quell unrest—as it did last week.
“This emergency decree should be used as briefly as possible,” Abhisit told lawmakers, adding that he hoped to lift the decree “within days.”
The recent protests were part of Thailand’s long-running political turmoil, which revolves around former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s ouster in a 2006 coup.
Thaksin’s supporters, who are known as the “red shirts,” rioted in Bangkok last week, calling for Abhisit’s resignation and new elections. Two people were killed and more than 130 injured in the unrest.
The red shirts, mostly from the rural poor who benefited from Thaksin’s social welfare programs, claim Abhisit, who was appointed by Parliament in December, came to power illegitimately after court rulings removed two Thaksin-allied governments.
Their protests came after three years of sporadic protests by Thaksin’s opponents, the “yellow shirts,” whose rallies paved the way to the 2006 coup and the court dismissals of Thaksin’s allies. The yellow shirts come mainly from the urban, middle class and educated elite of Thai society, including royalists.
Chaiya Phromma, an opposition lawmaker and member of a pro-Thaksin party, accused the government of inflaming the crisis by using a heavy hand against Thaksin’s supporters. He and several opposition lawmakers argued that nothing was done to crack down on the yellow shirts who last year occupied the prime minister’s office for three months and then shut down Bangkok’s two airports for a week.
“It’s a shame that the government decided to use the emergency decree to disperse the demonstrations,” Chaiya said. “It’s as if the government wanted to turn politics into war.”
Sataporn Manirak, another lawmaker from the pro-Thaksin opposition, echoed the red shirts’ demands for Abhisit to step down.
“You have to take responsibility,” he said. “I am the first politician to call for Parliament to be dissolved.”
Many of the anti-government protesters want Thaksin—who went into self-imposed exile to avoid a corruption conviction—to return to power.
Abhisit’s government earlier said that legislators could use the debate to propose amendments to the constitution—a key demand of Thaksin’s allies—that could help end the political impasse. The debate was scheduled to run for two marathon, 12-hour sessions.
The current constitution was drafted under military guidance in 2007 after generals ousted Thaksin. It is aimed in part at keeping political leaders from holding too much power.
Last week’s violence has further damaged Thailand’s tourism industry and economy, already reeling after the airport closures. Thailand’s Tourism Council estimated that the number of foreign tourists is expected to drop from 14.1. million in 2008 to 10.9 million this year—a 23 percent plunge.
BANGKOK — A special joint session of Parliament aimed at resolving Thailand’s political crisis degenerated into partisan bickering on Wednesday, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pointing fingers at each other for deepening the divide in Thai society.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva opened the two-day debate by listing the recent violence that has battered Thailand’s image and embarrassed his government—rioting last week by anti-government protesters, a violent attack on his car that he narrowly escaped, the storming of a regional Asian summit that forced its cancellation.
“Today is the day that we decide if we will use [Parliament] to heal the wounds of society, or if we will be another part of the conflict,” Abhisit told lawmakers as he urged them to “help Thailand find a way out” of the crisis through political reforms.
But few lawmakers proposed concrete solutions and the argument turned to who started the violence, whether soldiers who dispersed protesters killed some and hid their bodies and larger questions about what protesters say is injustice and discrimination in the country’s troubled democracy.
Many opposition lawmakers accused Abhisit of inflaming the situation by imposing a state of emergency in Bangkok on April 12. The decree bans gatherings of more than five people, forbids news reports that threaten public order and allows the government to call up military troops to quell unrest—as it did last week.
“This emergency decree should be used as briefly as possible,” Abhisit told lawmakers, adding that he hoped to lift the decree “within days.”
The recent protests were part of Thailand’s long-running political turmoil, which revolves around former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s ouster in a 2006 coup.
Thaksin’s supporters, who are known as the “red shirts,” rioted in Bangkok last week, calling for Abhisit’s resignation and new elections. Two people were killed and more than 130 injured in the unrest.
The red shirts, mostly from the rural poor who benefited from Thaksin’s social welfare programs, claim Abhisit, who was appointed by Parliament in December, came to power illegitimately after court rulings removed two Thaksin-allied governments.
Their protests came after three years of sporadic protests by Thaksin’s opponents, the “yellow shirts,” whose rallies paved the way to the 2006 coup and the court dismissals of Thaksin’s allies. The yellow shirts come mainly from the urban, middle class and educated elite of Thai society, including royalists.
Chaiya Phromma, an opposition lawmaker and member of a pro-Thaksin party, accused the government of inflaming the crisis by using a heavy hand against Thaksin’s supporters. He and several opposition lawmakers argued that nothing was done to crack down on the yellow shirts who last year occupied the prime minister’s office for three months and then shut down Bangkok’s two airports for a week.
“It’s a shame that the government decided to use the emergency decree to disperse the demonstrations,” Chaiya said. “It’s as if the government wanted to turn politics into war.”
Sataporn Manirak, another lawmaker from the pro-Thaksin opposition, echoed the red shirts’ demands for Abhisit to step down.
“You have to take responsibility,” he said. “I am the first politician to call for Parliament to be dissolved.”
Many of the anti-government protesters want Thaksin—who went into self-imposed exile to avoid a corruption conviction—to return to power.
Abhisit’s government earlier said that legislators could use the debate to propose amendments to the constitution—a key demand of Thaksin’s allies—that could help end the political impasse. The debate was scheduled to run for two marathon, 12-hour sessions.
The current constitution was drafted under military guidance in 2007 after generals ousted Thaksin. It is aimed in part at keeping political leaders from holding too much power.
Last week’s violence has further damaged Thailand’s tourism industry and economy, already reeling after the airport closures. Thailand’s Tourism Council estimated that the number of foreign tourists is expected to drop from 14.1. million in 2008 to 10.9 million this year—a 23 percent plunge.
April 22, 2009
Thai FM Links Thaksin with Sondhi Attack
By JOHN HEILPRIN / AP WRITER
NEW YORK—Thailand's top diplomat on Tuesday linked exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to last week's violent attack on a prominent Thai protest leader.
In a speech to the Asia Society in New York, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya accused Thaksin of playing a role in Friday's shooting of Sondhi Limthongkul. Sondhi was the leader of a movement that helped topple Thaksin's goverment in 2006 and paralyzed the capital last year.
Sondhi, whose "yellow shirt" movement helped install the current government, "was supposed to have lunch with me at noon, but he was shot before. But I think he is recovering quite well," Kasit said. "So how did this turn into this situation where politicians cannot move along quite freely?"
Kasit, answering his own question, said that "it's been survival for a few of us. Thaksin failed on the populist movement and now I think he has resorted to some sort of assassination attempt."
He did not elaborate or provide any evidence. But he made clear he believed that he and four other ministers in Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's cabinet are also targets.
"I have been feeling I have been in captivity for the past few weeks," Kasit said. "In the last several weeks I am surrounded by several fully armed marines."
If there is "fighting to the death," he added, then "several of us would go to the ashes."
Sondhi was shot and wounded as he was being driven to work before dawn.
At least two men in a pickup truck ambushed his car and opened fire with an M-16 and an AK-47, first aiming to shoot out the tires and then spraying the vehicle with bullets, police said. Sondhi's driver was also wounded.
The shooting occurred just days after troops cracked down on rioting protesters from the rival, anti-government "red shirt" movement.
"If there were to be any one death caused by the security forces, I think Thailand is a situation that would turn itself into a civil war," Kasit explained.
Thailand was destabilized last year by months of protests by both supporters and opponents of Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup for alleged corruption and abuse of power.
Sondhi's People's Alliance for Democracy staged protests most of last year to demand that allies of Thaksin resign from government. His supporters come mainly from the middle class and educated elite of Thai society, and include royalists, academics and retired military.
Abhisit's government took control after a court ruled that the previous pro-Thaksin ruling party was guilty of election fraud. Critics say the court ruling and Abhisit's appointment followed pressure from the military and other unelected groups.
Kasit, 64, is a career diplomat who graduated from Georgetown University and served as ambassador to the US, Japan, Germany, Indonesia and the former Soviet Union.
But he is one of the most unpopular ministers in Thailand's four-month-old government, with many people calling for his resignation.
Opposition members accuse him of being unfit to serve in government because he supported street demonstrations that culminated in the seizure of Bangkok's two airports.
Kasit defended the government against the deepening turmoil and protests in Thailand.
"There must not be any sort of protests in the manner that could lead to violent means," Kasit said. But, he added, "There is no point in pretending that things are normal."
NEW YORK—Thailand's top diplomat on Tuesday linked exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to last week's violent attack on a prominent Thai protest leader.
In a speech to the Asia Society in New York, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya accused Thaksin of playing a role in Friday's shooting of Sondhi Limthongkul. Sondhi was the leader of a movement that helped topple Thaksin's goverment in 2006 and paralyzed the capital last year.
Sondhi, whose "yellow shirt" movement helped install the current government, "was supposed to have lunch with me at noon, but he was shot before. But I think he is recovering quite well," Kasit said. "So how did this turn into this situation where politicians cannot move along quite freely?"
Kasit, answering his own question, said that "it's been survival for a few of us. Thaksin failed on the populist movement and now I think he has resorted to some sort of assassination attempt."
He did not elaborate or provide any evidence. But he made clear he believed that he and four other ministers in Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's cabinet are also targets.
"I have been feeling I have been in captivity for the past few weeks," Kasit said. "In the last several weeks I am surrounded by several fully armed marines."
If there is "fighting to the death," he added, then "several of us would go to the ashes."
Sondhi was shot and wounded as he was being driven to work before dawn.
At least two men in a pickup truck ambushed his car and opened fire with an M-16 and an AK-47, first aiming to shoot out the tires and then spraying the vehicle with bullets, police said. Sondhi's driver was also wounded.
The shooting occurred just days after troops cracked down on rioting protesters from the rival, anti-government "red shirt" movement.
"If there were to be any one death caused by the security forces, I think Thailand is a situation that would turn itself into a civil war," Kasit explained.
Thailand was destabilized last year by months of protests by both supporters and opponents of Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup for alleged corruption and abuse of power.
Sondhi's People's Alliance for Democracy staged protests most of last year to demand that allies of Thaksin resign from government. His supporters come mainly from the middle class and educated elite of Thai society, and include royalists, academics and retired military.
Abhisit's government took control after a court ruled that the previous pro-Thaksin ruling party was guilty of election fraud. Critics say the court ruling and Abhisit's appointment followed pressure from the military and other unelected groups.
Kasit, 64, is a career diplomat who graduated from Georgetown University and served as ambassador to the US, Japan, Germany, Indonesia and the former Soviet Union.
But he is one of the most unpopular ministers in Thailand's four-month-old government, with many people calling for his resignation.
Opposition members accuse him of being unfit to serve in government because he supported street demonstrations that culminated in the seizure of Bangkok's two airports.
Kasit defended the government against the deepening turmoil and protests in Thailand.
"There must not be any sort of protests in the manner that could lead to violent means," Kasit said. But, he added, "There is no point in pretending that things are normal."
UN Official Says War on Drugs Has Failed
By MICHAEL CASEY/ AP WRITER
BANGKOK—The war on drugs has been a failure and nations should take a softer approach in dealing with addicts by providing them with access to treatment and respecting their human rights, a top UN rights official said on Tuesday.
Manfred Nowak, special rapporteur on torture for the UN Human Rights Council, told The Associated Press that many countries take a punitive approach to dealing with addicts. They lump the addicts in with traffickers and have laws that sentence them to lengthy prison terms or even death with little or no access to treatment.
Singapore, for instance, canes drug users while still others deny users treatment or access to drugs in order to force confessions from them, Nowak said in a phone interview, after attending a drug policy conference in Bangkok called Harm Reduction 2009.
"We need a paradigm shift. We have to get away from a punitive approach and replace it with a human rights-based approach," Nowak said of drug policies. "As the war on terror failed, so has the war on drugs failed. We don't have less drug users and drug traffickers than when the war on drugs started in the 1980s."
He said international drug policies are among the leading causes of "human rights violations."
Nowak said there are some countries, especially in Europe and South America, that are shifting away from a punitive approach, offering needle exchange programs and drug substitutes like methadone treatment. But Nowak said many others, led by the United States, Russia and countries in Asia, continue to toe a hard line, though he hoped the US policy would change under President Barack Obama.
"These are policies that regard drug users as criminals, rather than persons who are actually in need of medical treatment," Nowak said. "In quite a number of countries particularly in Asia, prisons are overcrowded with drug offenders."
He said the slow pace of change could be seen on the UN's Commission on Narcotics Drugs in Vienna, the main UN body that deals with drug policy. He said efforts to introduce non-punitive policies and those dealing with human rights have been rejected by the Commission.
"According to the United Nations system, human rights should form an integral part of policies and that has been implemented in security, development and other areas," he said. "But not in relation to the international drug policy."
Nowak's criticism of global drug policy follows a report last month by the billionaire philanthropist George Soros' Open Society Institute, which also called for fresh thinking on the issue. The report found the tougher stand against drugs worldwide has led to a spike in rights violations, increased incarceration rates and the spread of disease without cutting down on the demand for narcotics or the numbers of people who use them.
BANGKOK—The war on drugs has been a failure and nations should take a softer approach in dealing with addicts by providing them with access to treatment and respecting their human rights, a top UN rights official said on Tuesday.
Manfred Nowak, special rapporteur on torture for the UN Human Rights Council, told The Associated Press that many countries take a punitive approach to dealing with addicts. They lump the addicts in with traffickers and have laws that sentence them to lengthy prison terms or even death with little or no access to treatment.
Singapore, for instance, canes drug users while still others deny users treatment or access to drugs in order to force confessions from them, Nowak said in a phone interview, after attending a drug policy conference in Bangkok called Harm Reduction 2009.
"We need a paradigm shift. We have to get away from a punitive approach and replace it with a human rights-based approach," Nowak said of drug policies. "As the war on terror failed, so has the war on drugs failed. We don't have less drug users and drug traffickers than when the war on drugs started in the 1980s."
He said international drug policies are among the leading causes of "human rights violations."
Nowak said there are some countries, especially in Europe and South America, that are shifting away from a punitive approach, offering needle exchange programs and drug substitutes like methadone treatment. But Nowak said many others, led by the United States, Russia and countries in Asia, continue to toe a hard line, though he hoped the US policy would change under President Barack Obama.
"These are policies that regard drug users as criminals, rather than persons who are actually in need of medical treatment," Nowak said. "In quite a number of countries particularly in Asia, prisons are overcrowded with drug offenders."
He said the slow pace of change could be seen on the UN's Commission on Narcotics Drugs in Vienna, the main UN body that deals with drug policy. He said efforts to introduce non-punitive policies and those dealing with human rights have been rejected by the Commission.
"According to the United Nations system, human rights should form an integral part of policies and that has been implemented in security, development and other areas," he said. "But not in relation to the international drug policy."
Nowak's criticism of global drug policy follows a report last month by the billionaire philanthropist George Soros' Open Society Institute, which also called for fresh thinking on the issue. The report found the tougher stand against drugs worldwide has led to a spike in rights violations, increased incarceration rates and the spread of disease without cutting down on the demand for narcotics or the numbers of people who use them.
April 21, 2009
Thai Anti-govt Leader Promises More Protests
By GRANT PECK / AP WRITER
BANGKOK — Thailand's anti-government movement will stage new protest actions in the next few days following a military crackdown that ended deadly rioting last week, the group's fugitive leader said.
Jakrapob Penkair also said Monday that the violence unleashed at the protests was instigated by military agents disguised as demonstrators in an effort to discredit their movement.
Speaking by phone from a location he declined to disclose, Jakrapob said the "red shirt" movement he helps direct was planning new demonstrations that would be small and legal as well as a new protest outside the prime minister's office at a date not yet set.
An estimated 100,000 demonstrators took to the streets of the Thai capital earlier this month after tens of thousands occupied Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's office for several weeks.
The group later shut down a regional meeting of Asian leaders at the seaside resort of Pattaya, and running street battles between soldiers and protesters broke out early last week in Bangkok injuring hundreds of people.
The army suppressed the rioting within a day but not before two Bangkok residents were shot dead after clashing with the "red shirts," named for their preferred color.
The group comprises mostly loyal followers of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a 2006 military coup but whose allies took power in subsequent elections. Some factions are left-wing activists opposed to the country's elite—the military, judiciary and other unelected officials—whom they accuse of undermining democracy by interfering in politics.
Two governments led by Thaksin's allies were dismissed by court rulings last year following massive protests by the People's Alliance for Democracy—royalists known as the "yellow shirts" for their garb. Those protests culminated in the weeklong occupation of Bangkok's two airports. The rulings paved the way for Abhisit to take power.
The red shirts allege Abhisit's four-month-old government took power illegitimately and want new elections.
Jakrapob is one of several leaders of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship who went into hiding after arrest warrants were issued last week.
He accused the military of using provocateurs to stir up the violence and discredit their movement, suggesting air force commandos were disguised as red shirts to carry out acts such as burning city buses.
"It was made to be chaotic and it was made to be bloody by design, and it was not by us," Jakrapob said, while acknowledging some of the group's followers may have "unknowingly followed" the people who started the trouble.
Jakrapob said an assassination attempt last week on the head of the rival yellow shirt movement—media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul—was the work of "the establishment," which he said included members of the military and ruling Democrat Party.
"I believe the establishment has now given a green signal that their forces would destroy all colors—the yellow shirts and the red shirts," said Jakrapob. "Sondhi was targeted in an assassination attempt because he knew too much and he needs to be silenced."
Sondhi's vehicle was sprayed with gunfire Friday on a busy Bangkok street in a gangland-style attack. Sondhi is recovering in a hospital with non-life threatening bullet wounds.
BANGKOK — Thailand's anti-government movement will stage new protest actions in the next few days following a military crackdown that ended deadly rioting last week, the group's fugitive leader said.
Jakrapob Penkair also said Monday that the violence unleashed at the protests was instigated by military agents disguised as demonstrators in an effort to discredit their movement.
Speaking by phone from a location he declined to disclose, Jakrapob said the "red shirt" movement he helps direct was planning new demonstrations that would be small and legal as well as a new protest outside the prime minister's office at a date not yet set.
An estimated 100,000 demonstrators took to the streets of the Thai capital earlier this month after tens of thousands occupied Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's office for several weeks.
The group later shut down a regional meeting of Asian leaders at the seaside resort of Pattaya, and running street battles between soldiers and protesters broke out early last week in Bangkok injuring hundreds of people.
The army suppressed the rioting within a day but not before two Bangkok residents were shot dead after clashing with the "red shirts," named for their preferred color.
The group comprises mostly loyal followers of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a 2006 military coup but whose allies took power in subsequent elections. Some factions are left-wing activists opposed to the country's elite—the military, judiciary and other unelected officials—whom they accuse of undermining democracy by interfering in politics.
Two governments led by Thaksin's allies were dismissed by court rulings last year following massive protests by the People's Alliance for Democracy—royalists known as the "yellow shirts" for their garb. Those protests culminated in the weeklong occupation of Bangkok's two airports. The rulings paved the way for Abhisit to take power.
The red shirts allege Abhisit's four-month-old government took power illegitimately and want new elections.
Jakrapob is one of several leaders of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship who went into hiding after arrest warrants were issued last week.
He accused the military of using provocateurs to stir up the violence and discredit their movement, suggesting air force commandos were disguised as red shirts to carry out acts such as burning city buses.
"It was made to be chaotic and it was made to be bloody by design, and it was not by us," Jakrapob said, while acknowledging some of the group's followers may have "unknowingly followed" the people who started the trouble.
Jakrapob said an assassination attempt last week on the head of the rival yellow shirt movement—media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul—was the work of "the establishment," which he said included members of the military and ruling Democrat Party.
"I believe the establishment has now given a green signal that their forces would destroy all colors—the yellow shirts and the red shirts," said Jakrapob. "Sondhi was targeted in an assassination attempt because he knew too much and he needs to be silenced."
Sondhi's vehicle was sprayed with gunfire Friday on a busy Bangkok street in a gangland-style attack. Sondhi is recovering in a hospital with non-life threatening bullet wounds.
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