PLANTER BOXES and potted bushes put out as welcoming decoration for Asean delegates at Phuket airport have been stolen . . . and the Governor is fuming.

''Please don't steal the flowers! Don't destroy the country!'' Governor Wichai Praisa-nob said today, feeling a little frustrated.

Ironically, most of the stolen shrubs and flowers were put out at the Phuket International Airport a couple of nights ago by prisoners from the local jail.

The landscaping by inmates was intended to add color for the arrival of delegates from 27 nations on Phuket for the Asean Regional Forum from July 17-23.

Today, on a tour of key sites with Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan and Army Chief General Anupong Paochinda, the governor discovered that a large number of flowers and shrubs had been stolen.

The visitors from Bangkok were at ease, though, about the state of preparations on Phuket for the series of important meetings, which has seen the island come under military control with imposition of the Internal Security Act.

Red shirt protesters have said they want to come to Phuket to present a petition to the Foreign Minister, said Khun Prawit, a retired army general.

But he said they should make their presentation in Bangkok and give up any thought of doing it on the island.

''Please help the country,'' he said. ''Don't make trouble for Thailand, whether you are red or yellow.''

Asked by Phuketwan whether he had been accurately reported as saying that 10,000 troops would be used to make sure that Phuket was protected for Asean, the general laughed.

But he neglected to give any other figure.

After his morning tour of the key zones relating to the regional forum, Khun Prawit gave Phuket the all-clear. He said the island was ''100 percent'' ready and secure.

PHUKET residents who need to enter the five-kilometre security cordon around the Asean Regional Forum are advised to go to the Cherng Talay Wittayacom School, behind the temple on the road from the heroines' Monument to Laguna Phuket, with passport, car or motorcycle documents and house papers.


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