Cambodian Monarch Pardons Thai Held as Spy

By SETH MYDANS

Published: December 11, 2009

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

BANGKOK — Defusing the latest minicrisis in an increasingly tense and unfriendly relationship between neighboring countries, the king of Cambodia pardoned a Thai man Friday who had been sentenced to seven years in prison for spying.

The spying sentence grew out of a spat touched off by Thailand’s fugitive former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, when he appeared in Cambodia last month as a guest of the government. That visit appeared to serve dual purposes for Mr. Thaksin, whose supporters continue to hold rallies calling for his return, and for Mr. Thaksin’s host, Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia, who has been feuding with Thailand’s current government.

Mr. Thaksin, who was ousted in a coup in 2006, has been traveling the world since early last year to avoid arrest on a conviction for corruption. By inviting him to visit as an “economic adviser,” and by refusing a request to extradite him, Mr. Hun Sen seemed to be taunting his counterparts in Thailand.

Mr. Hun Sen’s spokesman, Khieu Kanharith, said the Thai man, Siwarak Chutipongse, 31, would be handed over Monday in Phnom Penh by Mr. Hun Sen to his mother and to representatives of Thailand’s pro-Thaksin opposition party, Puea Thai.

King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia is largely a figurehead as monarch, and his pardon was clearly part of Mr. Hun Sen’s policy.

Mr. Sirawak is an employee of a Thai flight services company in Phnom Penh and was convicted of spying on Tuesday after passing on flight details of Mr. Thaksin’s arrival on Nov. 10 to Thai diplomats. Mr. Thaksin remained in Cambodia for five days before leaving again for the undisclosed location where he has spent the past month.

“Thaksin is an adviser to Cambodia’s government, and Cambodia has the obligation to provide him security,” said Judge Ke Sakhan of Municipal Court in sentencing Mr. Siwarak. Mr. Siwarak said in court that he had seen the flight schedule and passed on the information to a Thai diplomat, First Secretary Kamrob Palawatwichai, who was later expelled from the country. But Mr. Siwarak denied stealing the document.

In the tense diplomatic atmosphere between the nations, his arrest and conviction have been treated as major news on both sides of the border. After Mr. Thaksin’s visit, both nations recalled their ambassadors and threatened economic sanctions on each other.

The friction appears in part to be personal, with the tough former Khmer Rouge soldier, Mr. Hun Sen, clearly at odds with Thailand’s Eton-and-Oxford educated prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva.

“I’m not the enemy of the Thai people,” Mr. Hun Sen said after Mr. Siwarak was arrested. “But the prime minister and the foreign minister, these two people look down on Cambodia. Cambodia will have no happiness as long as this group is in power in Thailand.” He called on Cambodian government institutions to review bilateral agreements “so that we will not owe any favors to Abhisit and their government.”

Apparently addressing Mr. Abhisit, he added, “We may be poor, but we would rather shed our blood than let you look down on us.”

Although the situation has eased in recent months, blood has in fact been shed in brief skirmishes along the border where the two nations have posted troops near a disputed 11th-century temple, Preah Vihear.

Mr. Abhisit made a characteristically low-key response to Mr. Hun Sen’s remarks, saying Thailand did not plan to cancel any of its contracts with Cambodia and that “if Mr. Hun Sen refuses to receive any aid or cooperation from Thailand, the decision is his own.”

For his part, Mr. Thaksin addressed about 17,000 supporters Thursday evening in his latest video speech from an undisclosed location, continuing his campaign to undermine the government and maintain his domestic power base. “Return democracy to the people, return wealth to the people and dignity to the country,” he said in a familiar rallying cry.