Sunday, 15 November 2009

Row will not affect Asean



Nov 15, 2009

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

The ongoing diplomatic spat between Thailand and its neighbour Cambodia will not affect cooperation among members of Asean, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva reiterated on Saturday.

The row must be solved by the two countries, he emphasised, Thai News Agency reported.

Mr Abhisit, who is attending the Apec meetings in Singapore, told journalists yesterday that Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan advised Thailand and Cambodia to resolve their tensions before the Asean leaders meet United States President Barack Obama today at the inaugural Asean-US summit.

He affirmed that Thailand, currently chairman and a member of Asean, will not raise the issue at the meeting.

Diplomatic ties between Cambodia and Thailand have worsened after the two neighbours recalled their ambassadors and expelled top diplomats over Phnom Penh's naming of ousted former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as economic adviser.

Last week, Cambodia arrested a Thai man for allegedly spying on Thaksin, who was on a visit to the country, but Thailand has said that the accusation was groundless. -- BERNAMA

Thai military denies report about arrest of its spy

ttp://news.asiaone.com


Sun, Nov 15, 2009

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

The Thai military yesterday refuted a report that an official from the Armed Forces' Security Centre was caught spying at the City Angkor Hotel in Siem Reap where ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra stayed during his visit to Cambodia last week.

Armed Forces spokesman Colonel Sithichai Markkunchorn said no one by the name of Manit, as claimed by Cambodia, worked under the centre.

He said the accusation had slandered the Thai Armed Forces and called on Cambodia to identify the last name of the person arrested.

He urged the public to use discretion and not believe any information without checking, as the country may fall victim to ill-intentioned groups.

Ties between the Thai and Cambodian militaries remained normal while people on both sides of the border continued their ways and earned a living from border trade as usual, he said.

Thepthai Senpong, the Democrat Party leader's personal spokesman, lashed out at Pheu Thai Party MP Jatuporn Promphan for protecting Cambodia and insulting the Thai government by accusing it of stealing information from Cambodia.

He blamed Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen for releasing such news to the media with the intent of cornering the Thai government.

"Hun Sen has done that because he wants to justify his action against the Thai government. It's a shame that Thais have helped Cambodia to defame their own country," he said.

Acting government spokesman Panitan Watanayagorn could not confirm that a second Thai citizen was detained in Cambodia, as reported by a Phnom Penh newspaper.

Panitan, during a telephone interview from Singapore, said he had received no reports that a security official attached to the Thai Armed Forces' Security Centre was arrested by Cambodian authorities.

The Khmer newspaper said an officer known only as "Manit" was apprehended at the City Angkor hotel in Siem Reap.

No fuss about ex-PM's move



Published: 15/11/2009

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

PHNOM PENH : The appointment of Thaksin Shinawatra as Cambodia's economic adviser and his four-day visit may have enraged the Thai government, but Cambodian media think differently.

"It [Thaksin's appointment] is normal for this country, which has had many foreign economic advisers, including South Korean President Lee Myung-bak," said Ky Soklim, a freelance reporter.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen named Mr Lee, who is a former chief executive officer of manufacturing giant Hyundai Engineering, as his special economic adviser in 2000.

By the time Mr Lee was elected president last year, which saw him end his role as Hun Sen's adviser, South Korea had become the second-largest investor in Cambodia.

Ky Soklim said he fully threw his support behind the appointment of Thaksin because he believed he would help pull a lot of people in his country out of poverty.

"We want someone to help draw more investment into Cambodia and we believe he is able to do that," he said.

When asked why the Phnom Penh administration did not appoint a Cambodian to the position, he said the government needed some experienced foreigners to help develop the economy.

Eng Vutha, a reporter from Rasami Angkor newspaper, said "appointing a foreigner to be my country's economic adviser is not a new thing here. Why does Thailand blow up this issue?"

He urged the Thai government to review its diplomatic relations with Cambodia as quickly as possible for the benefit of the two countries.

Chao Bun Hao, a reporter from Sin Chew daily newspaper, said Thailand should treat the matter as a minor issue.

"In Cambodia, people see there is nothing behind this appointment," said Hao.

Hao said to solve diplomatic problems, the Thai and Cambodian governments must meet mid-way. More importantly, the two countries must try to avoid doing anything that might affect their relations even further.

He said Cambodia is a poor country, so it needed to learn from other people with good experience and apply it to economic development.

Yudhoyono meets Abisit, Hun Sen to help reduce tension


The Jakarta Post , Jakarta
Sun, 11/15/2009

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono met with Thailand Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva Sunday morning and will later in the day meet with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to help tensions between the two countries that share land borders.

No official statement was given about the bilateral meeting between Yudhoyono and Abhisit, but presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said earlier that Indonesia wanted to ease tensions at the border.

Dino said that Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa had communicated with his Thai counterpart Kasit Piromya to discuss about the border tension.

"We hope this tension can be resolved peacefully," Dino was quoted by Antara as saying.

Conflicts between Cambodia and Thailand have originated border from disputes around the famous old temple, Preah Vihear.

The World Court awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962, but sovereignty over the surrounding land has never been clearly resolved.

Tensions flared in July when UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency, approved Cambodia's bid to have Preah Vihear named a World Heritage Site, leading some Thais to believe their claims to the surrounding land would be undermined.

Both sides have stepped up deployment of soldiers at the border since then, and deadly border classes have occasionally flared up.

Abhisit rejects mediation call



Asean members concerned by spread of diplomatic dispute

Published: 15/11/2009

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

SINGAPORE : Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has brushed aside a proposal by Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan to allow other bloc members to mediate the Thailand-Cambodia dispute.

Mr Abhisit said yesterday the ongoing diplomatic spat between Thailand and Cambodia will not affect cooperation among Asean members so the problem must be solved by the two countries.

However, Mr Abhisit said he is ready to clarify the situation with Indonesian President Susilo Yudhoyono, whom he is meeting this morning on the final day of the three-day 17th Apec summit in Singapore.

He said Thailand did not have to have bilateral talks with Cambodia.

"The schedule is tight," said Mr Abhisit, adding that Cambodia is not an Apec member, but that Prime Minister Hun Sen has taken part in the Singapore summit at the invitation of Thailand, the current Asean chair.

Asean members will hold talks with the United States after the end of the Apec summit.

Mr Surin yesterday expressed concern over the diplomatic dispute between Thailand and Cambodia and called on a resolution before the talks between Asean and the US.

He said the other eight Asean countries, excluding Thailand and Cambodia, wanted to hear clarification of the situation between Thailand and Cambodia.

"It is possible that some Asean members will discuss this issue when they meet each other before holding talks with the US this evening," Mr Surin said.

"Conflict between Thailand and Cambodia is now beyond the internal affairs of both countries."

It has now gone beyond a technical issue such as border demarcation or the Preah Vihear temple issue.

Democrat Party spokesman Buranat Samutarak yesterday said Asean members should know well the dispute between Thailand and Cambodia was started by Cambodia, not Thailand.

Recalling the ambassadors from the two countries back to their homelands last week was the changing point and many countries now believed the problem might affect them, said Mr Surin.

He accepted that other Asean members voiced concerns that the spat might expand beyond this point, which would jeopardise the effectiveness and credibility of Asean. Phnom Penh refused to extradite Thaksin Shinawatra to Thailand after he landed in Cambodia on Tuesday.

After Thailand and Cambodia recalled their ambassadors, Bangkok said it would terminate a memorandum of understanding with Cambodia on maritime disputes.

Cambodia expelled the Thai embassy's first secretary. On Thursday, the Phnom Penh government arrested a Thai engineer working with Cambodia Air Traffic Services on spy charges.

Thaksin bids adieu to Cambodian hospitality


Web posted at: 11/15/2009
Source ::: AFP

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

Phnom Penh: Fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra left Cambodia yesterday, ending a contentious four-day visit that deepened a diplomatic crisis between the neighbours.

Thaksin, who was toppled by a military coup in 2006 and is living abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption in Thailand, departed the tourist hub Siem Reap by private jet, Cambodia’s deputy cabinet minister Prak Sokhon confirmed.

Officials would not disclose his destination. Thaksin has based himself in Dubai and travelled widely since leaving Thailand in August last year.

He was warmly greeted during his Cambodia visit, billed as the beginning of his new role as economic adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s administration. “During his trip, Thaksin helped us on economic concepts,” said Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith, who would not speculate when the fugitive former prime minister

would return.

But Thaksin’s visit created a diplomatic storm between already bickering Cambodia and Thailand. Bangkok was outraged by the appointment, and ties plummeted further when Cambodia refused to extradite him to Thailand on the grounds that his graft conviction was politically motivated.

The neighbours recalled their respective ambassadors and Thaksin accused Thai rulers of “false patriotism” during an economic lecture Thursday in the capital Phnom Penh.

Before his departure yesterday morning, Thaksin chatted at a hotel with Hun Sen and political supporters who had travelled from Thailand to meet him.

Hun Sen called Thaksin an “eternal friend” when he arrived Tuesday, and the pair played a round of golf on Friday.

Some 50 members of parliament from Thailand’s main pro-Thaksin party, Puea Thai, waved him off as his plane left the airport.

The row was further inflamed on Thursday when Cambodian police arrested a Thai man on charges of spying on Thaksin and expelled the first secretary to Thailand’s embassy.

Thailand reciprocated, expelling Cambodia’s first secretary from Bangkok. Siwarak Chothipong, 31, who works at Cambodia Air Traffic Service, is accused of supplying the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh with details of Thaksin’s flight schedule, according to Cambodian police.

Thailand has submitted a request to visit the detained suspect, which is being considered by Cambodia’s Interior Ministry, said officials from both countries.

“We have to see him, whatever happens,” said Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, secretary to Thailand’s foreign minister. “Thailand categorically denies all of the spy allegations.”

Thailand has put all talks and cooperation programmes with Cambodia on hold, torn up an oil and gas exploration deal signed during Thaksin’s time in power and placed under review two road-building projects worth $42m. 

Military denies report about arrest of its spy


By THE NATION ON SUNDAY
Published on November 15, 2009

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

Slams slanderous accusation and demands more information

The Thai military yesterday refuted a report that an official from the Armed Forces' Security Centre was caught spying at the City Angkor Hotel in Siem Reap where ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra stayed during his visit to Cambodia last week.

Armed Forces spokesman Colonel Sithichai Markkunchorn said no one by the name of Manit, as claimed by Cambodia, worked under the centre.

He said the accusation had slandered the Thai Armed Forces and called on Cambodia to identify the last name of the person arrested.

He urged the public to use discretion and not believe any information without checking, as the country may fall victim to ill-intentioned groups.

Ties between the Thai and Cambodian militaries remained normal while people on both sides of the border continued their ways and earned a living from border trade as usual, he said.

Thepthai Senpong, the Democrat Party leader's personal spokesman, lashed out at Pheu Thai Party MP Jatuporn Promphan for protecting Cambodia and insulting the Thai government by accusing it of stealing information from Cambodia.

He blamed Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen for releasing such news to the media with the intent of cornering the Thai government.

"Hun Sen has done that because he wants to justify his action against the Thai government. It's a shame that Thais have helped Cambodia to defame their own country," he said.

Acting government spokesman Panitan Watanayagorn could not confirm that a second Thai citizen was detained in Cambodia, as reported by a Phnom Penh newspaper.

Panitan, during a telephone interview from Singapore, said he had received no reports that a security official attached to the Thai Armed Forces' Security Centre was arrested by Cambodian authorities.

The Khmer newspaper said an officer known only as "Manit" was apprehended at the City Angkor hotel in Siem Reap.

Govt ready to fly Thais out of Cambodia

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/

By THE NATION ON SUNDAY,
THAI NEWS AGENCY
Published on November 15, 2009

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

Thailand is preparing to evacuate its citizens from Cambodia if the diplomatic row between the countries worsens, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said yesterday.

"The arrest of a Thai national will not lead to closure of the embassy [in Phnom Penh]. The Thai government will ensure security for the Cambodian Embassy in Thailand and we believe Cambodia will also take care of our embassy in that country," Suthep said.

"If bilateral relations become more violent, the government is ready to evacuate Thai citizens from Cambodia immediately," he added.

In early 2003, the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh was burnt by rioters and several Thai-owned businesses in Cambodia were attacked following a rumour that a Thai actress had claimed the Angkor Wat temple - Cambodia's prized cultural icon - belonged to Thailand. An evacuation of Thai citizens followed the riots.

Suthep said the government had provided legal assistance for a Thai engineer arrested in Cambodia last week on charges of spying.

Siwarak Chothipong, 31, who works at Cambodia Air Traffic Service, is accused of supplying the Thai Embassy with details of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra's flight schedule, according to Cambodian police.

Thailand submitted a request to visit the detained suspect, which was being considered by Cambodia's Interior Ministry, said officials from both countries.

"We have to see him, whatever happens," said Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, secretary to Thailand's foreign minister. "Thailand categorically denies all of the spy allegations."

There was no reply from the Cambodian authorities yesterday, he said, adding that it was probably because it was a holiday.

Suthep told journalists that flight information on Thaksin's journey to Cambodia was not a secret, as the Aviation Department and Aeronautical Radio of Thailand had been asked to allow his chartered jet to fly over Thai airspace.

After learning that the plane had Thaksin on board, the government refused to allow it permission to pass through Thai airspace as he has been convicted and was also facing charges of threatening national security, Suthep said.

The deputy prime minister said Thailand would use this evidence to defend Siwarak, but the government would not intervene in Cambodia's judicial system. Initially, Samart Corp - Siwarak's employer - sent a lawyer to assist him.

In Singapore, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday that the ongoing diplomatic spat between Thailand and Cambodia would not affect cooperation among Asean members, emphasising that the problem must be solved by the two countries.

Abhisit, who is attending the 17th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meeting, told journalists that Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan had advised that Thailand and Cambodia should resolve the tension before the Asean leaders meet US President Barack Obama today.

He affirmed that Thailand, currently the Asean chair, would not raise the issue at the meeting.

Cambodia Raises Stakes, as Ties with Thailand Plummet



By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER
Saturday, November 14, 2009

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

BANGKOK — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is known for his brash and earthy vocabulary even when, as he did in early April, he talks about himself. “I am neither a gangster nor a gentleman, but a real man,” the politician who has led his country for 25 years said in a fit of rage.

The target of his ire at the time was Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, following comments the latter had made during a parliamentary debate in the Thai capital.

Hun Sen criticized Kasit for calling him a “gangster” during that debate, but Kasit shot back, saying his description of Hun Sen in Thai had got lost in translation. The actual words were “Nak Leng,” Kasit had explained, which in Thai means “a person who is lion-hearted, a courageous and magnanimous gentleman.”

It was Kasit’s second run-in with the Cambodian leader in under a year. In late 2008, when the former veteran Thai diplomat was in the political wilderness as a speaker for a conservative, right-wing protest movement, he had called Hun Sen a “thug” during a speech at a public rally.

If the new Thai government, formed under a cloud of controversy last December, was hoping that Hun Sen would move on from such moments, then the current war of words between the two countries suggests otherwise.

“The Thais seem to have forgotten that Hun Sen has a very good memory. He does not forget easily,” a Southeast Asian diplomat from a regional capital told IPS on the condition of anonymity. “He unearths details and history he knows well to go after those who criticize him.”

But the current war of words between Cambodia and Thailand has degenerated into personal insults and a trading of charges about interfering into each country’s judicial and domestic affairs.

Hun Sen raised the stakes this week in an increasingly volatile relationship between the two Southeast Asian kingdoms by targeting his Thai counterpart, Abhisit Vejjajiva, in a verbal barrage.

“I would not be surprised if there was a link here with comments made by political allies of Abhisit,” the diplomat added. “It is Hun Sen getting back.”

Besides words, Phnom Penh also rejected a request by Bangkok on Wednesday for the extradition of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday to begin his new role as Hun Sen’s economic advisor.

Thaksin, whose popular elected government was turfed out of power in a 2006 military coup, has been living in exile to avoid a two-year jail term after a Thai court found him guilty in a conflict-of-interest case.

To goad the Abhisit administration, Hun Sen welcomed Thaksin with open arms and handshakes, and offered his own villa in Phnom Penh for the fugitive former Thai premier to stay in.

Bangkok has not fallen for Phnom Penh’s bait, for now. Even though it bristles at such hospitality and the verbal salvos, the Thai government is trying to stay above the fray, offering statements that appear calm and diplomatic.

“The government is stressing that the problem between both countries is still a bilateral issue,” Thani Thongphakdi, the Thai Foreign Ministry’s deputy spokesman, told IPS. “We want to see a positive sign from Cambodia that gives precedence to bilateral ties over personal relationships.”

Yet at the same time, the Thai government is taking a tougher line towards the range of ties it maintains with its eastern neighbor. “We are reviewing existing agreements, existing cooperation and future cooperation between the two countries,” Thani revealed. “Everything is on the table.”

Bangkok’s unilateral actions against Cambodia has already seen the Thai ambassador in Phnom Penh withdrawn and Thailand revoking a memorandum of understanding between the two countries to explore oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Thailand.

It followed Hun Sen’s tongue-lashing that targeted Abhisit. “People should know that when I was starting my political career, [Abhisit] was still a child running around, playing,” Hun Sen told Cambodian journalists on Sunday.

“If Abhisit is so sure of himself, then he should call an election. What are you afraid of? Is it that you are afraid you will not be the prime minister?” Hun Sen continued, driving home his status as Southeast Asia’s longest-standing premier, as opposed to Abhisit, who has been in office for less than a year.

“I am prime minister of Cambodia who has received two-thirds of the vote in the Cambodian parliament. How many votes does Abhisit have? You have chosen somebody else’s chair to seat yourself in,” goaded Hun Sen, referring to the question of legitimacy that has dogged the Abhisit government. “You claim other people’s property as your own.

How can we respect that?”

The 57-year-old Hun Sen has been Cambodia’s premier for 25 years, a period during which he has not shied from revealing his authoritarian streak, using a mix of violence, intrigue and verbal attacks to cling to power. His journey to power began on the economic and social fringes of the poorer Cambodia, including a short stint when still a teenager as a soldier for the genocidal Khmer Rouge in the later 1970s.

The 45-year-old Abhisit hails from the opposite end of the socioeconomic spectrum, being born into wealth, enjoying a British education and feeling at home among Thailand’s patricians. He formed a coalition government after a controversial court ruling last December saw the collapse of the elected government. Through a combination of military influence and cash enticements to broker a deal, his Democrat-led government came to power by parliamentary vote rather than by going to the polls in a general election.

Hun Sen’s penchant for dipping into his country’s history to take on the Abhisit administration is also threatening to expose a darker side of Thailand’s relationship with its poorer and weaker eastern neighbor.

To counter Bangkok’s current charges that Phnom Penh is interfering in Thailand’s internal politics and judicial system by rolling out the welcome mat for Thaksin, Hun Sen retorts by reminding the Thais about the hospitality they offered to Khmer Rouge leaders like Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, now about to face justice in a United Nations war crimes tribunal.

“The Thai judiciary has not much value to be respected,” Hun Sen said during his weekend encounter with Cambodian journalists. “Khmer Rouge leaders Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea were living in Thailand for years. This was a violation of international law that Thailand had signed.”

“Hun Sen is absolutely correct,” said Tom Fawthrop, co-author of “Getting away with Genocide? Elusive Justice and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.” “In fact, after 1979, when the Khmer Rouge were driven out of Cambodia by Vietnam, [Khmer Rouge leader] Pol Pot and other leaders all fled to Thailand.”

“The Khmer Rouge’s fight to regain power was aided by logistics and weapons that flowed through Thailand, even tanks,” Fawthrop, a regional expert who spends time in Phnom Penh, told IPS. “The Thais violated the international law after the 1991 Paris peace accord by letting the Khmer Rouge operate along its border, which was not the case along the Vietnamese and Laotian borders.”

Hun Sen’s current anti-Abhisit rhetoric may not be the isolated views of Cambodia’s leader but may find resonance among its people, added Fawthrop. “The Thai-Cambodian relationship has to be looked at in a historical context. The Cambodians feel a huge sense of grievance.”

Thailand to help detained engineer in Cambodia; ready to evacuate Thais




(Posted by CAAI News Media)

BANGKOK, Nov 14 (TNA) -- The Thai government is preparing evidence to help facilitate the release of a Thai engineer held in Cambodia on charges of spying on fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra and is prepared to evacuate Thai citizens from that country if the diplomatic row worsens, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said Saturday.

Meanwhile, international new agencies reported that Mr Thaksin left Cambodia early Saturday for an undisclosed destination.

Reiterating that detained 31-year-old Siwarak Chothipong is not a spy as charged by the Cambodian government, Mr Suthep told journalists that flight information on Mr Thaksin’s journey to Cambodia on Tuesday was not secret as his chartered flight had asked the Aviation Department and the Aeronautical Radio of Thailand for advance permission to fly over Thai airspace.

After learning that the plane had Mr Thaksin aboard, the Thailand refused to allow it permission to pass through Thai airspace because he was convicted and also facing charges of threatening national security, said Mr Suthep.

The deputy prime minister said that Thailand would use the evidence to defend Mr Siwarak but the government wouldn’t intervene in Cambodia’s judicial system. Initially, Samart Corp, Mr Siwarak’s employer, sent a lawyer to assist him.

If the diplomatic spat between the two neighbouring countries worsens, the Thai government is prepared to evacuate its citizens from that country, he added.

According to Cambodian police, Mr Siwarak is accused of supplying the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh with details of Mr Thaksin’s flight schedule. Cambodia expelled the first secretary of Thailand’s embassy in Phnom Penh on Thursday, the same day the engineer was apprehended.

The Bangkok government also reciprocated, expelling Cambodia’s first secretary from Bangkok.

Mr Thaksin arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday and, according to reports by international news agencies, departed the tourist hub of Siem Reap by hia private jet early Saturday. His destination was not known. (TNA)

No Thai confirmation of 2nd arrest in Cambodia




(Posted by CAAI News Media)

SINGAPORE, Nov 14 (TNA) -- Thailand on Saturday could not confirm that a second Thai citizen was detained in Cambodia as reported by a Phnom Penh newspaper, according to Panithan Watanayakorn, deputy secretary-general to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

In a telephone interview from Singapore, Mr. Panithan, acting government spokesman, said he had received no report that a security official attached to the Thai Armed Forces Security Centre in Bangkok was arrested by Cambodian authorit ies.

The Khmer newspaper said an officer known only as “Manit” was arrested at City Angkor, a hotel inSiem Reap where Thailand’s former premier Thaksin Shinawatra was staying.

Mr Thaksin arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday and, according to news reports, left early Saturday by private jet to an unknown destination.

The Armed Forces Security Centre, meanwhile, denied that anyone from its staff had been arrested in Cambodia and that no one was sent to that country to spy on Mr Thaksin.

Armed Forces spokesman Col Sitthichai Makkunchorn said there was no Security Centre staff named Manit but that the Cambodian newspaper should give his surname.

He affirmed that no Thai military personnel had gone to Cambodia and none had been arrested,

The information from the Cambodian side may inaccurate but the report had tarnished the Armed Forces Security Centre.

On Thursday, Cambodia arrested a Thai engineer in Phnom Penh on charges of spying on Mr Thaksin. The Thai government has denied the charges.

Thani Thongphakdi, Deputy Director-General of the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department of Information said the ministry had forwarded the letter to ask for the permission from Cambodian authorities to visit detained 31-year-old Siwarak Chothipong, an engineer at Cambodia Air Traffic Services (CATS).

He was accused of giving Mr Thaksin’s flight schedule to the first secretary at the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh.

Mr Thani said until now there was no reply from Cambodia giving such permission, but it is the weekend and no official is working. The ministry would closely follow up the request.

He added that there were four or five people working at the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh and that Chalothorn Phaowibul, charge d'affaires, is the highest ranking Thai diplomatic staff there. The military attaches are currently stationed in Phnom Penh. (TNA)

Cambodian gov't guarantees safety for all Thais, no sign against Thais: official


2009-11-14

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia will guarantee safety and security for Thais including diplomats, business people and travelers in the country, government official said on Saturday.

"The Cambodian government will ensure the safety and security for all Thais like diplomats, business people, travelers and other foreigners staying in Cambodia," Koy Kuong, spokesman and undersecretary of state of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation told Xinhua.

"Thais should not be afraid of staying in Cambodia, the Royal Government will ensure security for them," he said.

"We do not see any sign to protest against Thais or to run riot at Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh," Koy Kuong said, adding that no sign of riots against Thais at all. Cambodian government has responsibility for all Thais as Thai government does for our people and diplomats in their country, he stressed.

It is a response to some Thais here who expressed their concern over the tit-for-tat moves taken by Cambodian and Thailand governments in recent days.

Relations between the two neighboring countries were further strained recently after Cambodia named ousted former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra its economic adviser on Nov. 4. Thailand recalled its ambassador on Nov. 5, and Cambodia followed suit.

Those Thais worried that the rows between the two countries will result into any riots against Thais in Cambodia as it was in 2003, in which a part of Thai embassy and some property of Thai companies were under fire.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Thaksin left, ending a contentious four-day visit that deepened a diplomatic crisis between the neighbours


Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (C) is greeted by Thai parliamentarians while seeing off Thai fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra before he left Cambodia, at a hotel in Siem Reap, 320 km (199 miles) south-west of Phnom Penh, November 14, 2009. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAAI News Media)


Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra is greeted by Thai parliamentarians before leaving Cambodia, at a hotel in Siem Reap, 320 km (199 miles) south-west of Phnom Penh, November 14, 2009. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAAI News Media)


Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (R) sees off Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra before he leaves Cambodia, at a hotel in Siem Reap, 320 km (199 miles) south-west of Phnom Penh, November 14, 2009. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAAI News Media)


Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (R) holds hands with Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, before Thaksin leaves Cambodia, at a hotel in Siem Reap, 320 km (199 miles) south-west of Phnom Penh, November 14, 2009. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAAI News Media)


Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra (left) shakes hands with Cambodia's secretary of state council minister Prak Sokhon as he prepares to board a plane to leave Cambodia from Siem Reap International airport. Thaksin, who was toppled in a military coup in 2006 and is living abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption in Thailand, departed Cambodia by private jet.(AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy) (CAAI News Media)


Thai members of parliament from the pro-Thaksin party, Puea Thai, who travelled to Cambodia to meet the billionaire tycoon, wave off former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as he leaves Cambodia from Siem Reap International airport. Thaksin left, ending a contentious four-day visit that deepened a diplomatic crisis between the neighbours. (AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy) (CAAI News Media)
_____________________





In this photo taken on Friday Nov. 13, 2009, Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, left, talks with Hun Sen, Cambodian prime minister as they play golf at a golf course in Siem Reap, north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Thaksin on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009, has left Cambodia after a few day of his private tour to Cambodia, government official said. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (CAAI News Media)

ANALYSIS: 'No winners' as Thaksin heads out from Cambodia


Posted : Sat, 14 Nov 2009
By : dpa

(Posted by CAAI News Media)


Phnom Penh - Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra left Cambodia on Saturday, four days after his arrival brewed up a diplomatic storm between Phnom Penh and Bangkok, plunging relations to a new low. During his stay, Thaksin took a public swipe at his foes in Thailand's current government, saying that Bangkok's anger with Cambodia was based on "false patriotism."

Thaksin's comments followed an increasingly bitter war of words between the neighbouring countries. Cambodia regards its appointment of Thaksin as economic adviser to the government, and as a personal adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen, to be an internal matter

Bangkok holds that the appointments - and Cambodia's rejection of a Thai request to extradite Thaksin, who is fleeing a two-year jail sentence - are a slap in the face.

Matters were not helped late this week when Cambodia arrested and charged a Thai national with violating national security, ostensibly for passing on Thaksin's flight schedule to Thailand.

Both countries expelled the first secretaries from each others' embassy over that incident. The previous week, each had recalled their respective ambassadors.

Thaksin's exit leaves relations between the two Southeast Asian neighbours at their worst since 2003, when the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh was sacked and burned by rioters in a night of violence against Thai interests.

Cheang Vannarith, executive director of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said neither side has gained from the latest deterioration in diplomatic relations.

"It's a lose-lose. No one won in this political game," he said.

But he sid he was hopeful that the worst had passed, and cited as evidence Cambodia's drawdown of troop numbers at a disputed border area during Thaksin's visit.

Another encouragement was that Thailand's threatened economic sanctions and border closure failed to materialize, likely because Thailand had much more to lose in trade dollars.

"Thailand reconsidered," the analyst said. "Cambodia had responded quite aggressively and said if Thailand sealed the border then Cambodia would ban all Thai products in Cambodia."

The row also drew in the 10-nation Association of South-East Asian Nations. ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said the bloc "cannot afford to be seen as being so seriously divided" ahead of its summit with the US in Singapore on Sunday.

Cheang Vannarith said ASEAN's standing has been damaged by the row, and it clearly wants the issue resolved. The US-ASEAN summit could see pressure exerted on both sides, despite Cambodian statements Friday that the summit is not the proper venue to air the bilateral dispute.

He said Cambodia's reluctance to broach the subject stems from a desire to avoid having ASEAN wash its dirty linen in public. But regional powers such as China and Japan - along with the US - want a solution and a united ASEAN.

"ASEAN is learning from the model of the European Union. You can see problems in the EU but you don't have such serious tensions as you do between Cambodia and Thailand," he says.

He suggested that under ASEAN's influence, relations between Cambodia and Thailand could one day resemble those between Germany and France. The two European powers were enemies for centuries, but are now at the centre of the EU.

If the past fortnight has been bad for bilateral relations, it remains unclear quite how it will play out for Thaksin. Cheang Vannarith said a recent survey in Thailand suggested the former premier has lost some popularity back home, which could be consequential for his supporters with an election expected next year.

That echoes comments in the Wall Street Journal by Thai political science professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak. He said Thaksin's closeness to Cambodia could backfire with his political base in Thailand.

"If Thaksin persists with this alliance with Cambodia, the nationalist backlash in Thailand will pick up, even among his own supporters," the Chulalongkorn University professor told the newspaper.

Both nations will need to make an effort to get relations back to normal. Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Koung says Phnom Penh wants a solution.

"Cambodia welcomes all means of solution: bilateral, multilateral, regional or international. We are prepared for all means of settlement," Koy Koung told the German Press Agency dpa.

Cheang Vannarith said all parties to the row need to reconsider their approach in order resume normal relations.

"I think Thaksin understands this, which is why he didn't stay too long," he said.

"Now that Thaksin has left, the situation will calm down a little bit, but he is still an adviser to the Cambodian government so he could come (to Cambodia) at any time," he said.

Lawyer: Stop accusing Thaksin



Published: 14/11/2009

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

Wichit Plangsrisakul, a lawyer of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, warned groups, individuals and the media to stop defaming Thaksin or face defamation charges.

Mr Wichit said there were groups that wanted to destroy the ex-country leader by exposing groundless information to general public.

He said Thaksin’s opponent tried to accuse Thaksin of having no loyalty to the high institution despite it is not true.

“If they don’t stop accusing the ex-premier, they will certainly face legal action”, the lawyer said.

At 39, Loung Ung enters a new phase of writing and storytelling


By Karen R. Long, The Plain Dealer

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

Loung Ung has broken bread with Queen Noor of Jordan, lunched with Paul McCartney and opened her own restaurant, Bar Cento, in Ohio City.


Chris Stephens/The Plain DealerShaker Heights author Loung Ung: "Now I write because I really enjoy it."

At 39, she is a world away from the childhood starvation that distended belly and drove her to swallow rotten leaves. Born into an upper-middle-class family, Ung was 10 when she fled Cambodia with an older brother. Eventually, they learned that more than 20 relatives, including both their parents, had been murdered by the Khmer Rouge.

Those privations are contained in her 2000 memoir, "First They Killed My Father," a story that Ung tells in a child's voice. It is now widely taught and has been translated into 10 languages.

Critics have praised her as the Anne Frank of Pol Pot's killing fields.

Nevertheless, Ung said she was surprised to be asked to speak Sunday at the Cleveland Public Library. The memoirist and activist described the invitation as an unanticipated honor.

For local authors, it signals an arrival of sorts. Ung, who lives in Shaker Heights, will deliver her speech in English, her fourth language, after Khmer, Chinese and French. In advance of the Writers & Readers talk, she agreed to answer a few questions.

In your peripatetic anti-land mine work, you've become a professional lecturer. How do you find the proper distance for telling your own story?

My work has evolved from personal writing, writing that was therapeutic, a way to take away the power of those soldiers, who were monsters and gods of mythical proportion.

It changed next to activist writing, interviews with those at the rehabilitation centers [in Cambodia], writing that can actually do something. Now I write because I really enjoy it. I'm in a third phase that combines the internal and external. Honestly, I love it.

Memoir as a genre has taken a beating since the James Frey fiasco. Where do you see it now?

I think it is swinging back. I'm one who believes there are always going to be a few bad apples. And I've read many novels that are inauthentic.

Memoir is a collection of memories -- different from biography or autobiography. For me, it started as a beautiful form. People tell me all the time that my books read like novels.

One hundred and 20 million people have survived some kind of war. And the stories of all the Cambodians who survived seem like fiction to Americans. I get mail every day from readers, and they often say it took them years to open my book.

You know with something called "First They Killed my Father" that you're not in for a funny, rock 'n' roll ride.

Your second book, "Lucky Child," focuses on the parallel life of your older sister, Chou, who stayed in Cambodia. How is she now?

She's fabulous. She's 41 and a grandmother for the second time. She's really happy.

When I last saw her, I was watching her brush her hair. Most Cambodian girls do have long hair, and the bonding thing between sisters and cousins is you brush each other's hair.

She asks me, "Who brushes your hair?" and I have to say, "I do." It is so good for me to spend time around her. I've been back to Cambodia many, many times.

You've suggested, intriguingly, that your family may have picked you, the sixth of seven children, to escape with your brother because you were combative, and therefore more likely to survive but harder to marry off in Cambodia.

In every culture, being a tomboy is not highly prized. But my father praised me; he saw it as a sort of cleverness. My mother didn't like it. She'd always been two-dimensional to me -- my mother, my father's wife. [Ung last saw her mother alive when she was 8.]

But I'm writing a book now about my mother, and I'm newly in love with her. I've interviewed her best friend, my uncle and my aunt. She was really funny and spunky and a woman before her time

In a Malaria Hot Spot, Resistance Grows to a Key Drug


People sleep under a mosquito net on the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Karen Robinson / Panos


By Christopher Shay / Hong Kong
Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

Every year, thousands of workers arrive at the sapphire and ruby mines of Pailin, Cambodia, risking their lives to unearth gems in the landmine-ridden territory. Soon, however, they could be the ones to put millions of others at risk. On the Thai-Cambodian border, a rogue strain of malaria has started to resist artemisinin, the only remaining effective drug in the world's arsenal against malaria's most deadly strain, Plasmodium falciparum. For six decades, malaria drugs like chloroquine and mefloquine have fallen impotent in this Southeast Asian border area, allowing stronger strains to spread to Burma, India and Africa. But this time there's no new wonder drug waiting in the wings. "It would be unspeakably dire if resistance formed to artemisinin," says Amir Attaran, a professor of law and medicine at the University of Ottawa who has written extensively on malaria issues.

Malaria strikes about 250 million people around the world every year and kills nearly a million. The mosquito-borne parasite is the third deadliest infectious disease in the world, after HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and most of its victims are children. With the help of tens of millions of dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and various governments, the global health community — from biochemical engineers in Berkeley, Calif., to village volunteers in Battambang, Cambodia — is racing to eliminate the increasingly resistant parasite before it's too late. This week, the Global Fund signed off on a $220 million–plus project called the Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria (AMFm), a controversial two-year program that will drop the price of the recommended malaria treatment in nine malarial countries. In Cambodia, the only country in Asia participating in the program, the price of malaria medication will fall to only $0.05 per dose for distributors. Even with markups down the supply chain, the best malaria medicine will, for the first time in Cambodia, also be the cheapest.

Diseases have been stamped out before. The last case of naturally occurring smallpox was in 1977, after the disease killed about 300 million people earlier in the century. But finding a cure for malaria has proven more elusive. Artemisinin, which is still considered the most effective malaria treatment today, is derived from sweet wormwood, an herb native to Asia. It's been used to fight the disease in China for more than 2,000 years, but it wasn't until 1965 that the cure was isolated and purified by the Chinese military after its soldiers started falling ill during the Vietnam War. The treatment caught on in Vietnam as a crushed powder, and after the drug reduced the malaria death toll in Vietnam 97% from 1992 to 1997, it was touted as the miracle drug that could save people everywhere from the disease. A nonprofit drugmaker in San Francisco hopes that by 2012, it will help put a synthetic artemisinin on the market at a fraction of the cost of harvesting the wormwood herb.

But artemisinin has been taken in Southeast Asia for more than 30 years — more than two decades longer than in most of the world — which has given the parasite more time to adapt. Getting people to take the right treatment has also proven to be a public-health challenge. As a fast-acting drug that typically clears out the parasite in less than 72 hours but doesn't remain in the body, artemisinin is prescribed with a slower partner drug to clean out any straggler parasites that might have developed resistance. Taking a partner drug with artemisinin, called combination therapy, is required by law in Cambodia and Thailand, but it's difficult to enforce. Since the partner drug — typically mefloquine in Southeast Asia — has more side effects, some people take only the artemisinin pills. This may work to clear out the parasite for one person, but it leads to rapid drug resistance when the practice is widespread. Globally, only 3% of malaria patients receive the proper artemisinin combination therapy.

It's not random that dangerous new strains of malaria continue to crop up on the Thai-Cambodian border. In addition to having longer years of exposure to the miracle drug, residents like the gem-mine workers rely on an unregulated, informal health sector, rife with cheap counterfeits and improper treatments. Last month, a Gates-funded study found that 60% of malaria drugs in the area were substandard or counterfeit. Many of the counterfeits contain a small amount of artemisinin so they can pass authenticity tests, and some fake drug containers have holograms logos more sophisticated than the ones on the genuine boxes. Even for experts, it can be impossible to tell the difference between the fakes and the real article just by looking at them. What's so important about this is that when you have thousands of people taking improper or low dosages, the malaria parasite develops resistance more quickly.

The Global Fund's new plan proposes to solve this public-health crisis with a market-based solution. To undercut sales of counterfeits and alternative treatments, the Global Fund initiative will spend more than $220 million to subsidize genuine, effective combination-therapy drugs, and in Cambodia, it will spend an additional $10 million to ensure good distribution around the country. The idea was first proposed in 2004 by a committee of the Institute of Medicine headed by Kenneth Arrow, a winner of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Economics. The idea is that if the market is relied on to root out fake pills and bad treatments, the real drugs will come to dominate the supply. Supporters say competition between private pharmacies would keep prices low and prevent middlemen from simply pocketing the subsidies and continuing to sell fakes. "No one will want to sell counterfeits when the real doses are 5 cents," says Duong Socheat, director of Cambodia's National Malaria Center.

Not everybody, however, is convinced. Bernard Nahlen, the deputy coordinator of the U.S. Malaria Initiative, says spending hundreds of millions before there's any proof that the plan will work is an ill-advised investment of finite malaria funds. "In the absence of evidence, it's a little difficult to make that leap," he says. Last year Congress specifically forbid any of the $48 billion the U.S. government slated for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria from going to the AMFm program until it proved successful. "The biggest bang for the buck is prevention," says Nahlen.

So far, the fund's market-based strategy has been tested only in two districts in Tanzania and in a small pilot in Uganda, but the results were encouraging. In Tanzania, the number of families who bought genuine artemisinin combination-therapy drugs jumped from 1% to 44% after one year, and in Uganda, the proportion of people buying the recommended drugs went from 0 to 55%. Nahlen, however, points out that local health infrastructure varies greatly, and success in one place does not necessarily mean success in another.

Arrow, 88, a professor emeritus at Stanford, says he is "baffled" by the U.S.'s refusal to support the plan. The cost of global artemisinin combination-therapy subsidies, he says, would run only about $300 million a year, a relatively small amount compared to campaigns to fight HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. Drug subsidies alone won't eliminate malaria, he admits, but combined with indoor mosquito spraying, bed nets and proper monitoring of what different areas need, Arrow says, "the world can eliminate malaria."

Whatever the tactics, everybody can agree on one thing: time is running out. Modeling by the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit published in the Malaria Journal in February predicts that if nothing is done in the next two decades, "resistance to artemisinins will be approaching 100%." And if that happens, it won't be long until the resistant strain spreads from Cambodia's precious gem mines to Africa, putting half the world's population at risk of catching what would be an untreatable, deadly disease.

Suthep:Govt sends no spy to Cambodia



Published: 14/11/2009

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

The Thai government had never sent a spy to seek information on flight schedule of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as accused of by Cambodia, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said on Saturday.

Mr Suthep was responding to an accusation by Jatuporn Promphan, a core leader of the pro-Thaksin United front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), that the government was behind the information spying.

“The flight schedule of Thaksin was not a secret as the government knew that he was flying by his personal jet from India to Cambodia on Tuesday morninhg ”, Mr Suthep said.

Cambodian police on Thursday arrested Siwarak Chotepong, an engineer at Samart Coorporation’s sudsiodiary in Cambodia on charge of spying.

Mr Suthep insisted that Mr Siwartak’s arrest will not escalate the diplomatic dispute and lead to a border closure as some fear.