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You snooze, you lose
31/03/2002 08:06 - (SA)
Bangkok - Scores of dogs were shot with tranquiliser darts as part of a
tight security clampdown for Thai Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra's visit to a Buddhist temple in southern Thailand, news
reports said on Sunday.
The dogs, who live at the Chonlathara Singhae temple in Tak Bai
district of Narathiwat province, 805km south of Bangkok,
were put out of action in advance of a "mobile cabinet meeting"
over the weekend by Thaksin and other government leaders, according
to The Nation newspaper.
"We are afraid that the dogs here will be frightened by the
crowd and attack the prime minister," the paper quoted an officer
of the Livestock Department as saying.
The unconscious dogs were laid out at the back of the temple
on Saturday while others were seen staggering around the vicinity of
the temple struggling to stay awake, oblivious to the visiting
dignitaries.
The weekend cabinet meeting in the south was the third such
get-together outside Bangkok in the past year, aimed at countering
accusations that the central government is out of touch with life
in the provinces.
Security in advance of the meeting was particularly tight in the
south because of a recent spate of killings of police officers.
Shrugging off a series of anonymous bomb threats phoned in to
government officials in the south in the past few days, Thaksin
said, "Dogs that bark don't bite." - Sapa-DPA
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