Thai PM cancels APEC attendance

Thai PM cancels APEC attendance

THAILAND: Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who hosted last
year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, will not
attend this year's meeting later this month in Chile, a
government spokesman said on Sunday.

Thaksin said on Friday he would not take part in the APEC
summit if violence escalated in his country's Muslim-dominated
southern provinces, where killings of Buddhists have become daily
occurrences.

Government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair, without citing reasons,
said Thaksin would send Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit
Yongchaiyudh to the 21-nation summit in Santiago, scheduled for
Nov. 20 and Nov. 21.

But Jakrapob said the Thai leader would attend the summit of
the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
later this month in Vientiane, Laos. The conference is to be
attended by ASEAN heads of state as well as officials of partner
nations such as the United States, China, Australia, Japan and
India.

More than 400 people have been killed this year in Thailand's
southern region, with the government blaming Muslim separatists
for the violence. --AP