Little will change : Suthep

By The Nation
Published on December 18, 2009

Govt will stick to its stance if Hun Sen ignores the conditions

Relations with Cambodia will not improve soon because Thailand is not yet ready to change its stance, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said yesterday.

"If the conditions are not changed, relations would remain the same for a period of time," he said.

Thailand has set as a prerequisite Cambodia removing fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra from his position of adviser to the Cambodian government and extraditing him to Bangkok if the country wants ties to be normalised. Thaksin's appointment is seen as interference in domestic affairs and an insult to the Thai justice system.

However, Cambodia has refused to follow any of the conditions, with Prime Minister Hun Sen saying that he will wait until Thailand has a new administration before normal relations can be resumed.

Suthep refrained from issuing a direct response to Hun Sen's statement, just saying that such an attack would only backfire and hurt the Cambodian leader.

Meanwhile, the diplomatic row flared into a conflict between the government and the opposition, with the latter claiming the Foreign Ministry manipulated Thai diplomat Kamrob Palawatwichai into getting Thaksin's flight schedule from Thai engineer Sivarak Chutipong.

The House of Representatives' Committee on Foreign Affairs summoned Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya and Kamrob to testify, but they refused and told the ambassador attached to the ministry, Isorn Pokmontri, to do the job on their behalf.

Kasit said the committee chairman Torpong Chaiyasarn, who belongs to the opposition Pheu Thai Party, was biased against him. "I'm ready to provide information, but the chairman should create a good atmosphere, rather than trying to insult me," he said.

The committee's spokesperson Ratchada Thanadirak, who comes from the ruling Democrat Party, said the panel did not need to know who was behind Kamrob's action.

Instead, she said, the Foreign Ministry should pin down Cambodian authorities for intercepting telephone conversations between Kamrob and Sivarak because this action violated the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Rela-tions, which protects free communication.

The committee should also summon Pheu Thai Party's chairman Chavalit Yongchaiyudh as well as Sivarak to testify.

Torpong said the committee wanted information from all concerned parties and urged the ruling Democrats to encourage Kasit to testify.