Wednesday, 13 October 2010

Cambodia denies Thai assassination plot charges

via CAAI

Tue Oct 12, 2010
By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia denied on Tuesday accusations from neighbouring Thailand that a Cambodian military base was used to train Thais linked to a plot to assassinate Thailand's leaders.

Thailand's Department of Special Investigation (DSI) said on Monday 11 Thai men arrested in northern Thailand last week were among 39 "red-shirt" protesters who trained in Cambodia after fleeing Thailand following military clamp-down on anti-government protests in May.

"The Thais always put the blame on Cambodia when they cannot solve their internal problems," said Koy Kuong, a spokesman at Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The accusations threaten to rekindle tensions between the Southeast Asian neighbours whose relations have deteriorated over border disputes and Cambodia's ties to former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, whose 2006 ouster triggered Thailand's four-year-old political crisis.

This comes as Thailand stepped up security following a series of mysterious bomb blasts in the capital last week. A blast that killed four people on October 6 in a suburban Bangkok flat had raised fears of a possible radicalisation of some anti-government protesters in Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy.

"These 11 red fighters were fed misinformation and brainwashed through videos and CDs which were anti-monarchy," Lieutenant Colonel Payao Thongsen, a DSI senior investigator, told a news conference in Bangkok. Thailand's strict les majeste laws prohibit discussion of the Thai monarchy.

He said the men were trained to use weapons and explosives at a military base in Cambodia's Siem Reap province, near the Thai border. Thongsen based his accusations on the detainees' confessions and confiscated maps of the homes of Thai leaders.

Diplomatic ties between the two countries were severed last November after Cambodia appointed Thaksin as economic advisor. He is believed to be a source of funds for the "red shirt" anti-government protesters who clashed with Thai troops in April and May.

Relations were normalised when Thaksin resigned from the position in August, although Thai officials continued to express concerns about links between the Cambodian government and the "red shirts."

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has not commented on the accusations by the DSI, who has been criticised frequently by the opposition as a political tool for the government.

(Additional reporting by Pracha Hariraksapitak; Writing by Ambika Ahuja; Editing by Jason Szep and Tomasz Janowski)

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