Bangkok, Oct 17: After clearing Bangkok's streets of garbage and snarling traffic for next week's Apec summit, Thailand has imposed an unprecedented security clampdown across the normally frenetic capital to stop the type of violent protests that have disrupted other world trade gatherings. Also worried by shadowy terrorism threats against US president George W. Bush and other world leaders, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has put thousands of soldiers and police on alert.
A tough immigration blacklist against hundreds of known foreign activists and pressure on domestic demonstrators has practically assured that the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting on Monday and Tuesday will be protest-free.
Critics of Thaksin say it will also be democracy-bereft. Bureau Report