Thailand, Cambodia resume diplomatic ties

By PRACHA HARIRAKSAPITAK REUTERS


BANGKOK: Thailand said it would resume diplomatic ties with Cambodia from Tuesday, after the Cambodian government announced fugitive former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had resigned as Cambodia’s economic adviser.

Thailand and Cambodia recalled their ambassadors from each other’s countries on Nov. 5 after Thaksin, a billionaire on the run from a two-year prison sentence for abuse of power, was appointed economic adviser to Cambodianm Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The appointment riled Thailand’s leaders who accuse Thaksin of organizing and funding a red-shirted, anti-government protest movement whose street demonstrations in central Bangkok turned deadly over April and May.

“They have announced they do not have any more ties with Thaksin so our condition to hold back a diplomat has ended,” Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya told Reuters on Monday.

“Thailand will send our diplomat back tomorrow. Similarly, Cambodia will also send its diplomat back to Thailand.” Thaksin lives mainly in self-imposed exile in Dubai but is still immensely popular among Thailand’s rural poor. His supporters held nine weeks of street protests in Bangkok that turned violent over April and May, sparking clashes with troops in which 91 people were killed and nearly 2,000 wounded.

The diplomatic row started on Oct. 23 when Hun Sen shocked a summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Thailand’s resort city of Hua Hin by announcing the Cambodian leader had offered Thaksin a job as an adviser, a slap in the face to the summit’s Thai hosts.

The row deepened two weeks later, when Cambodia confirmed Thaksin had been made a personal adviser to Hun Sen and an economic adviser to the government, and said it would reject any request to extradite him on the grounds his removal in a 2006 coup and subsequent graft conviction were politically motivated. That brought a rebuke from Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who recalled Thailand’s ambassador and said the Cambodian government had “intervened in Thai justice” and hurt the feelings of the Thai people.

On Monday, Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Thaksin had asked to resign from the role. “We agreed to that,” he said.

A Cambodian government statement said Thaksin had “provided important contributions such as ideas, vision and experience to promote Cambodia’s competitiveness in commerce, agriculture and tourism.” Thaksin had attracted investors to Cambodia, it added.

“Whenever Thailand sends back its ambassador, Cambodia will follow,” Cambodia Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said. But he added that Thaksin was “still a good friend” of Hun Sen’s.