Bomb attacks might hurt Laos tourist sites: Envoy

Bomb attacks might hurt Laos tourist sites: Envoy

BANGKOK (Agencies): A series of bomb attacks in the Laotian capital of Vientiane could hit tourism this year, the country's ambassador to Thailand said on Tuesday.

Hiem Phommachanh told Reuters the authorities feared that tourists were concerned by the recent bomb attacks and some had decided to avoid traveling to Laos.

"We understand that tourists may feel scared by what has been happening in Laos, and we wish those bombs had not taken place," he said in a telephone interview.

Laos started its two-year "Visit Laos" campaign in 1999, and had successfully increased tourist numbers, Hiem said. He said that in the first half of 2000 alone around 600,000 tourists visited, greater than the annual figure of around 500,000 visitors in previous years.

"We thought we could achieve a target of one million visitors this year, but with the series of bomb incidents, it might be difficult," Hiem said.

Vientiane is also due to host the 13th meeting between Southeast Asian and European Union foreign ministers in December, and the recent spate of bomb attacks has added to security fears.

The latest incident took place on Monday at the Vientiane Post Office, where a bomb blast injured seven people.

Hiem said no arrests had yet been made in connection with the blast.

The state-owned English-language Vientiane Times newspaper reported on Tuesday that around 100 people had been at the post office when the bomb exploded, and a handicapped man in a wheelchair was among the injured.

The explosion was in the parcel collection service point in the main building of the post office, the newspaper reported. Hiem branded the bomb a "terrorist act". "Nobody knows what these people want to achieve politically, they have not said what they want from these acts," he said. "If they want to achieve something politically, they should use proper channels, not a terrorist act."

Asked how delegates from Southeast Asian nations and the European Union would be protected during December's meeting, Hiem said a major security operation would be conducted then.

Lao authorities declined to say who they believed were responsible for the post office bomb, but have blamed the series of recent explosions on anti-government elements within the Hmong, an ethnic group spread across highland regions in several countries of Southeast Asia.

The Hmong have denied responsibility. The Monday incident followed confirmation by Laotian authorities that a time bomb had been found in a toilet at Vientiane's Vat Tai airport on Sunday morning. Airport security officials defused the bomb.

Other bombings include one which injured about 10 building workers in Vientiane on June 28 and another on May 28, when an explosion in a busy market in the capital hurt 20 people.

A Vientiane restaurant bombing on March 30 wounded at least nine foreign tourists and four local people.

Meanwhile, a fire was raging on Tuesday next to the main market in the Lao capital Vientiane, the focus of a mysterious four-month-old bombing campaign, diplomats and residents said.

The witnesses said the fire was burning on a densely populated plot of government land adjacent to the Interior Ministry, where shanties and food stalls have been built.

It started at about 4:00 p.m. (4 p.m. Jakarta time) and was still burning two hours later. It was not known how the fire started or whether anyone had been injured.

Diplomats in Vientiane confirmed there was a fire but could not say what the cause was, or whether it may have been the latest bombing attack to hit the city.

At least seven explosions have shattered the calm of Laos's normally sleepy capital since late March -- including two in or next to the morning market.