Tuesday, 27 January 2009

Thai FM: Hun Sen has no 'hard feelings' over past remarks


PHNOM PENH, Jan 26 (TNA) - Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya on Monday quoted Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen as saying Hun Sen did not have any ‘hard feelings’ over his past comments on the Cambodian leader regarding the disputed Preah Vihear border area.

Mr. Kasit, who had close ties to the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), occasionally joined the group and criticised Hun Sen during the six-month long protests in 2008.

The Thai foreign minister said it was a thing of the past, quoting Hun Sen as saying they had worked together and were on good terms when working in Paris twenty years ago.

Mr. Kasit also urged Thai media and the Thai people to focus on a positive approach, to push for peace between the two countries.

On Monday the second day of Mr. Kasit’s official visit to Cambodia, he tried to seek a royal pardon through Cambodia's Foreign Ministry for two Thai prisoners serving the life imprisonment on grounds of involvement in a 2003 terrorism act.

Mr. Kasit, along with relatives of the prisoners were visiting the Thai inmates at Phnom Penh prison. Both men were religious teachers from the southern province of Yala. (TNA)