Residents of Phuket in the south of Thailand can relax as the local ‘red shirt’ political group has announced that they don’t intend to interrupt the Asean-led meetings. These meeting will begin early next week and will be held in Cherng Talay.

Actually, the group plan to travel to the northern city of Chiang Mai instead to take part in another meeting.

Phuket UDD leader Wisut Tangwittayaporn is head of the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) movement in Phuket. This week he told a local newspaper in an interview that:

“We have already confirmed with the UDD leadership in Bangkok that we will not take any action during the Asean meetings and that we will oppose any red-shirt members who try to disrupt proceedings. To quell any uneasiness the governor may have, we informed him that all red-shirt leaders in Phuket, about 80 of us, plan to leave Phuket for Chiang Mai to attend a big meeting while the talks are on.”

According to Mr Wisut, there are approximately 20,000 red shirt supporters on the island of Phuket.

-TN