Amid Protests, Asian Summit Is Canceled

ATTAYA, Thailand — A summit meeting of Asian nations was abruptly canceled here Saturday after hundreds of protesters forced their way past security forces into a convention center where leaders were preparing to discuss the global economic crisis.
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Times Topics: Association of Southeast Asian Nations
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Wong Maye-E/Associated Press
A member of the Thai government security watched the protesters approached.
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Sukree Sukplang/Reuters
Supporters of ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra clashed with pro-government supporters near the location of the summit in Pattaya, Thailand.
About half of the leaders at the meeting were evacuated by helicopter, including those of Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines, Thai officials said. Some officials fled by boat.
Abhisit Vejjajiva, the embattled Thai prime minister who has faced a week of large-scale street demonstrations, declared a state of emergency to secure the departure of leaders from Southeast Asia, China, South Korea and Japan. The emergency decree was lifted once the leaders had safely left Pattaya, a resort town about 90 miles east of Bangkok, officials said.
The cancelation of the meeting, involving leaders of theAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, was deeply embarrassing for Thailand and a missed opportunity for Asian leaders to discuss the severe economic downturn that is causing some of the region』s export-dependent economies to contract.
Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank andDominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of theInternational Monetary Fund, were among the heads of international financial institutions scheduled to attend the meeting over the weekend.
The ability of protesters to breach security at a location relatively easy to protect — the venue is on a bluff overlooking the Gulf of Thailand and accessed only by two roads — raised questions about the functioning of the Thai government and its ability to manage its security forces.
The spokesman of the prime minister』s party, Theptai Senpong, said Saturday that the 「work of the police and the military did not meet expectations.」
Mr. Abhisit apologized for the cancelation of the summit but did not take responsibility for the breach in security, which he said was 「not the act of the government.」
Shouting 「Abhisit get out! Abhisit get out!」 protesters entered the compound in the early afternoon Saturday by pushing past the thousands of military and police personnel guarding the resort. Once inside, the demonstrators paraded through the hallways of the venue, the Royal Cliff Beach Resort, chanting, cheering, blowing whistles and waving Thai flags.
Diplomats and other officials fled at the sound of shattering glass.
A small group of demonstrators reached the section of the complex where leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were eating lunch. Video footage showed protesters there being stopped at gunpoint by commandos and dropping to their knees.
Arisaman Pongruengrong, one of the protest leaders, said the goal was to force the resignation of Mr. Abhisit, who took office in December.
In a measure of the animosity between the government and its opponents, Mr. Arisaman said he had instructed his followers to 「catch」 the prime minister. 「When you see him, catch him and do whatever you like to him,」 he said.
The shutting down of summit meeting was the latest dramatic gesture carried out by street demonstrators in Thailand. Royalist protesters, the arch-rivals of the group that raided the beach resort here, shut down Bangkok』s two airports late last year, severely damaging the economy and stranding hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors. Both groups have separately succeeded in blockading the prime minister』s office, the seat of government.
The subtext of the country』s political crisis is an ailing king and disagreements about the future of the monarchy, friction between opposition politicians and a powerful influential military and, not least, an ailing economy.
The country』s political crisis, now three years running, pits lower-income supporters ofThaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister ousted in the September 2006 coup, against the royalist elite that backed the coup.
The protesters who raided the venue Saturday wore red, the color of backers of Mr. Thaksin, who since being convicted of abuse of power in a highly politicized trial last year has remained overseas.
Protesters said they were angered after being confronted early Saturday by pro-government demonstrators, and clashes ensued.
Mr. Arisaman, a former pop singer and member of parliament, displayed bullet casings that he said came from at attack by pro-government demonstrators. Two anti-government protesters were shot, and one of them died, he said.
Suphachai Jaismut, the government』s deputy spokesman, denied that anyone had died and said that 13 people had been wounded in clashes, all of them government sympathizers.
The East Asia summit, as the gathering is known, might be rescheduled for later in the year, official said. In addition to the 10 members of Asean the summit was to include Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.
The prime ministers of China and Japan and the president of South Korea were in hotels several miles from the venue when the summit was to begin. Protesters successfully blocked their paths on the way to the summit meeting. They allowed them to drive to a nearby airport once the meeting was canceled.
「If you compare it to a boxing match, we won the first round,」 said
Prasong Hassanoi, a 55-year-old cab driver who is from northeastern
Thailand who drove his taxi to the protest. 「We are now more confident.」
Janesara Fugal contributed reporting.