Thailand calls terror alert as jamboree begins
Thailand calls terror alert as jamboree begins
Associated Press, Bangkok
Thailand's National Security Council has ordered a nationwide
terrorist alert over the New Year's holiday and will offer
special protection to some 20,000 boy and girl scouts from 80
countries gathering for a world jamboree, a spokesman said
Friday.
A golf course, located in the middle of Bangkok's
international airport, has been declared off-limits to the public
as the scouts fly in for the 20th World Jamboree, which begins on
Friday at a seaside camp southeast of the Thai capital.
Police Lt. Gen. Pongsaphat Phongcharoen, spokesman for the
national police, said more than 200,000 police have been ordered
to provide security for both Thais and foreigners at all tourist
destinations and other places of where large numbers will gather.
"So far we have no information about a terrorist threat or the
possibility of terrorists sneaking into the country. But the
National Security Council has ordered maximum precautions at big
gatherings of foreigners, especially at the jamboree," said
Police Maj. Tritot Ronrithichai of the police department's
Special Branch.
He said Special Branch police and military intelligence
personnel have been deployed to gather information and provide
protection at the jamboree, which ends Jan. 7. He said three
countries had made a special request for the protection but
declined to name them.
The precautions follow terrorist bombings on the Indonesian
resort island of Bali and in the Philippines, which have sent
shocks across Southeast Asia.
The Bali bombings, in a nightlife district frequented by
Western tourists, killed 192 people and prompted Thai authorities
to tighten security at popular tourist spots like the island of
Phuket and the beach resort of Pattaya - while issuing almost
daily statements assuring foreign visitors that they are safe.
The Bangkok Post said that only government officials,
accompanied by at least one member of the air force, would be
allowed to play on the airport golf course until the jamboree
ends. The course has also been fitted out with surveillance
devices and metal detectors.
The golf course is said to contain the only fairways in the
world situated between airport runways.
The newspaper quoted Kamrob Leeyavanich, the air force
secretary, as saying the precautions were taken in light of the
recent missile attack on an Israeli airplane in Kenya.