Tight security as Tak prepares for Suu Kyi visit

 

Provincial police also are being assigned to provide safety for her and her team, as it is expected that a large number of Myanmar people will show up to greet her.

Security will also be tightened at the camp, which houses more than 40,000 Karens, an informed source said, adding that the security team will comprise territory defence volunteers.

Suu Kyi is visiting Thailand to attend World Economic Forum that will end on Friday and is taking the opportunity to visit the camp and the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot district. The clinic, which is also known as Dr Cynthia’s clinic after its founder Dr Cynthia Muang, serves as a community hospital in Tha Song Yang district and provides good quality healthcare to the refugee and migrant populations in the area.

Meanwhile Taweekit Jatucharoenkun, executive of TK Garment, which operates in Mae Sot district, said his firm and others would not prevent their workers, mostly Burmese, from receiving Suu Kyi on Saturday. However, he said that not all Myanmar workers would stop working on that day to see Suu Kyi.

To his knowledge, each factory would allow 20 to 30 workers to see Suu Kyi, who is adored and respected among migrants in the area.

Meanwhile Pol Col Yot Waneesorn, immigration police chief, said immigration at the border in Mae Sot district, which sees about 1,000 and 2,000 Myanmar people crossing the border daily, will be tight. He expected to see double the number of Myanmar people coming into the province to receive Suu Kyi.