BANGKOK, 18 May 2012 – Bangkok police have been stepping up security measures to make sure that this weekend’s gathering of the UDD supporters in the center of the city go smoothly.
Metropolitan Police Bureau spokesperson Police Colonel Preeda Sataworn said that the city police have been instructed to prepare for the rally by the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) group at Ratchaprasong intersection on May 19th. According to Police Colonel Preeda, special attention will be given to the safety of members of the public and the demonstrators as well as buildings in adjacent areas.
In doing so, five companies of crowd-control police along with traffic police, SWAT and bomb squads, all of which will make up 1,200 officers, will be on stand-by in the area. The Metropolitan Police Bureau has also collaborated with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to keep hawkers with flammable substances out of the rally ground and also to ban alcohol sales there. Police Colonel Preeda estimated that traffic on Rama 3 Road, Vibhavadi Road, Ratchadapisek Road and Henri Dunant Road will likely be congested on Saturday, when the demonstrators are expected to be gathering from noon until 2 a.m. of Sunday.
