Surin confident protesters will not storm WEF
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Asean Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan on Thursday is optimistic that the crowds protesting against the controversial reconciliation law will not storm the ongoing World Economic Forum in a repeat of the Asean Summit in Pattaya in 2009.
The protesters led by People’s Alliance for Democracy, known as yellow shirts, are gathering in front of the Parliament to protest against the law as it is aimed at whitewashing exThai premier Thaksin Shinawatra and his cohorts and bringing Thaksin home.
During the Abhisit Vejjajiva government, red shirts protesters, supporters of Thaksin, stormed into a Pattaya hotel where the Asean Summit was being held, resulting in the abrupt cancellation of the meeting. Asean leaders had to be escorted from the hotel with some being flown by helicopter back to the airport to return home.
Surin, who is in Bangkok to attend the WEF, said as Asean chief he was also in that Pattaya hotel.
“If an invasion were to really happen, it would not be worse than last time. However, no one wants to see the repeat of the incident,” he said.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of Thaksin, has repeatedly declined to comment on the law, claiming it is the duty of the parliament to decide.
