U.S. says bomb threat during ASEAN summit

U.S. says bomb threat during ASEAN summit

Reuters, Bangkok

Anti-government groups in Communist Laos may be planning bomb
attacks during a summit of Southeast Asian leaders in the
capital, Vientiane, next month, the United States said.

The Lao government said on Friday it was not aware of any
threat.

The State Department said in a travel advisory it had no
details of potential targets or methods during the Nov. 25-30
annual meeting of the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN).

But it warned U.S. citizens to exercise "extreme caution"
during the gathering of 10 Southeast Asian nations, plus China,
South Korea, India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

"The U.S. Embassy in Vientiane has received information that
during the ASEAN summit conference, persons associated with anti-
Lao government groups may be planning to detonate several
explosive devices in Vientiane," the advisory said.

Its warning also covered the provinces of Bolikhamxai,
Khammouan, Savannakhet, Salavan and Champassak.

But Foreign Ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalansy said Laos had
no information about such threats and urged Washington to share
its information.

"Instead of sharing their intelligence with us, they have made
the warnings in the public. I don't understand why they have done
this," Yong told Reuters from Vientiane.

"Although Laos is a very small country, it is one of the
safest countries in the region," he said. "None of the advanced
security teams from ASEAN told us of their security concern."

Unknown militants have sporadically attacked markets, bus
stations and border checkpoints the past four years in Laos,
which has been under Communist rule since the end of the Vietnam
War in 1975.

The State Department said at least 12 people were killed in
armed attacks on buses and other vehicles between February 2003
and April 2004.

Two Swiss tourists were killed in an attack on a bus in
February last year.

It also cited several clashes between government forces and
"suspected anti-government insurgents" along the main route from
Vientiane to the popular tourist town of Luang Prabang.

The Lao government has previously blamed bandits for the
attacks, but analysts say they may be ethnic minority Hmong
guerrillas, who once fought alongside the United States against
Communist forces in Vietnam and Laos during the war.