Thailand: Security To Be Tightened for ASEAN Meeting; Scams at Bangkok Airport

By Larry Habegger | Permalink | No Comments | July 1st, 2009 | Trackback

Authorities plan to invoke an internal security act to prevent disruption of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum to be held in Phuket July 10-24. The declaration will permit the military to help police keep order on the island of Phuket and within three miles around it. The move comes on the heels of the April cancellation of a major summit in Pattaya because of protests that authorities failed to contain. In other news, a British couple who were falsely accused of shoplifting at a duty-free store in Bangkok’s airport were detained for five days until they paid £8,000 (more than $13,000) in bribes to be allowed to leave. The extortion scam, they alleged, involved tourist police and an interpreter. Their release order acknowledged that there was no evidence against them, and since their ordeal occurred in late April at least one other foreigner, a Danish woman, has been snared by the same interpreter, at a cost of £4,500 (about $7,400).

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