Spying charge against [Thai] yellows-shirts a farce

11/01/2011
Veera Prateepchaikul
Bangkok Post

The fact that only two of the seven Thais arrested by Cambodian forces for illegal entry were charged with spying clearly shows that they were selectively targeted.

Hard-core yellow-shirt activist Veera Somkwamkid and his secretary, Ratree Pipatanapaiboon, now face spying charges in addition to earlier charges of illegal entry and trespassing on a military area.

Clearly, the espionage charge brought by the Cambodian prosecution was selective because the other five Thais on the same trip to investigate alleged intrusions into Thailand by Cambodians, who were arrested at the same time, were spared the same charge. They include Democrat MP for Bangkok Panich Vikitsreth.

The charge itself, which under Cambodian criminal law carries a maximum imprisonment of 10 years, is at best a farce.

First of all, the area where they were arrested is, according to the Thai military, about 55 metres over the border into Cambodia, and has no military or economic significance whatsoever and nothing worth spying on.

Secondly, the mere fact that only Mr Veera and his secretary were charged indicates that the Cambodian government might have wanted to teach them, Mr Veera in particular, a lesson.

Mr Veera was arrested once before by Cambodian authorities for trespassing on Cambodian territory but was eventually released. He has been actively involved in a campaign by the self-styled Thai Patriots Network, a splinter faction of the People’s Alliance for Democracy, for the scrapping of a memorandum of understanding on border demarcation between Thailand and Cambodia.

The spying charge revives memories of an incident over a year ago when Sivarak Chutipong, a Thai engineer working at Cambodia Airport Traffic Services, a Thai firm based in Phnom Penh, was arrested on an espionage charge by Cambodian authorities for passing information about the flight schedule of a plane carrying former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to a Thai embassy official.

Sivarak was detained on Nov 12, 2009 and was sentenced to seven years imprisonment and fined 10 million riel (about 100,000 baht) for espionage on Dec 8 that year. The following day he was granted a royal pardon by King Sihanouk Sihamoni and flew back to Thailand.

Mr Sivarak was then seen as a scapegoat in the diplomatic spat between Thailand and Cambodia over Phom Penh's appointment of Thaksin as a special economic adviser.

But the two neighbouring countries are in the process of mending fences and relations were improving when the seven Thais were caught by Cambodian forces.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was right when he said no one - not even the United Nations or former prime minister Thaksin - could interfere in the Cambodian judicial process.

But the fact that the two yellow-shirts were selectively targeted for the spying charge gives rise to the suspicion that the Cambodian government might have played a role in the trumped up charge.

As such, the charge may have a negative impact on the relationship between the two countries.