Singapore warns foreigners against disrupting Apec summit

Singapore has warned foreign demonstrators that they will not be allowed to disrupt an Asia-Pacific summit in November due to be attended by US President Barack Obama and other world leaders.

"They may try to instigate our citizens to break the law through acts of civil disobedience, like staging street protests and demonstrations," Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng told internal-security officials yesterday.

Apec's members are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the US and Vietnam.

Mr Wong, also a deputy Prime Minister, said the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit "may attract terrorist interest" because of the presence of heads of state and government.

"This is why we have to be very firm during that period with protestors and anarchists who may engage in acts of violence, or deliberately cause law and order problems," he said in remarks carried yesterday on his ministry's website.