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Thai Cops to Deploy for Underwater Wedding

Posted on: Friday, 16 January 2004, 06:00 CST

Concerned about a spate of violence, possibly linked to Islamic militants, police will provide maximum security for 36 couples who plan to exchange vows in an annual mass underwater wedding in southern Thailand, an official said Friday.

The eighth annual event, scheduled for Feb. 13-15 in Trang province, is expected to draw more than 20,000 Thai and foreign tourists.

"Police will be on hand at the airports, hotels, the beaches, wherever the wedding couples and guests are," said police Maj. Gen. Surapol Thongprasert. He said some 1,500 policemen would be mobilized to insure security.

Trang province, located about 890 kilometers (550 kilometers) south of Bangkok, is a safe distance from the south's predominantly Muslim provinces where raiders brazenly attacked an army camp on Jan. 4 and torched 21 schools. The Thai government suspects that Islamic militants, with possible links to international terrorist networks, were involved.

"Trang is rather free of violence and is not a target for terrorists, but we are deploying the police to make the tourists confident and happy while staying with us," the police general said in a telephone interview.

He said plainclothes police will be among the marchers in a colorful procession of the wedding couples, dressed in traditional Thai costumes, through the provincial capital. Details about this year's participants were not immediately available.

In the past, hundreds of couples, both Thais and foreigners, have tied the knot on the seabed off Trang while equipped with scuba gear. The event was originally organized to publicize the tourist attractions of Trang, especially its beaches.

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