Thai PM cancels trip to APEC summit
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-11-06 14:36

Thailand's premier has cancelled his trip to the APEC summit in Chile this month amid fears of continuing violence after 87 Muslim protestors died in the country's strife-hit south.

A total of 87 Thai Musilms were killed on October 25, including 78 after the riot when hundreds were rounded up and put on trucks in which many suffocated or were crushed. Thailand's premier has cancelled his trip to the APEC summit in Chile this month amid fears of continuing violence after 87 Muslim protestors died in the country's strife-hit south. [AFP]

Thaksin Shinawatra called off the trip as revenge killings continued in the Muslim-majority south after dozens of Muslim men died from suffocation after being rounded up and piled into trucks following a riot 12 days ago.

"The prime minister will not be travelling to Chile to attend the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit," Yongyut Tiyapirat, secretary general to the Prime Minister told AFP.

Thaksin, who had been due to leave for Chile on November 18, said he would travel to the southern province of Narathiwat on Sunday to chair a meeting with security officials as the violence continued.

Thaksin, who has been criticised within Thailand and abroad over his hardline tactics in the south, showed few signs of softening his approach during his weekly radio address on Saturday.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra sits after reading a statement at Government house in Bangkok, October 29, 2004. He decided to cancel his trip to APEC summit in Chile amid fears of new violence in Thailand. [Reuters]

He rejected any negotiations with separatists battling for some autonomy in the Muslim majority region and warned that anyone found with assault rifles or bombs faced the death penalty.

"For the militants who thought that by staging more violence the government will surrender and negotiate with them for secession, I will not yield," he told his radio audience.

"Anyone who illegal possesses a war weapon will face the death sentence but innocent people do not have to panic. The government will apply a softer approach," he said.

Two more Buddhists have been shot dead since Friday afternoon taking the death toll to at least 537 this year from a long-running insurgency that sparked back into life in January.

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