Kasit slams Hun Sen for 'interfering'

'Stay out of Thai politics', says shadow minister

20/09/2011
Bangkok Post

Shadow foreign minister Kasit Piromya has criticised Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen for interfering in Thai politics.

Mr Kasit said yesterday the Democrat Party was "very concerned" that Hun Sen was interfering in Thai politics.

Mr Kasit said the premier took sides with the Pheu Thai Party, its de facto leader Thaksin Shinawatra and the red shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) but he "was antagonistic towards the Democrat Party".

Mr Kasit was speaking when Thaksin was in Phnom Penh to give lectures on economics to Cambodian parliamentarians and businessmen.

Thaksin arrived in the Cambodian capital last Friday and is expected to stay there for the next several days to play football with Hun Sen on Saturday.

Pheu Thai MPs who will join the football team are expected to meet with Thaksin on Friday in Phnom Penh.

Thaksin is still on the run from a two-year prison sentence handed down by the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions in 2008 for abuse of authority in helping his former wife Khunying Potjaman na Pombejra buy a plot of land on Ratchadapisek Road when he was prime minister.

Mr Kasit, the former foreign minister in the previous government, challenged Hun Sen to arrest Thaksin and other convicted red shirt leaders such as Arisman Pongruangrong and send them back to Thailand to stand trial.

He said many red shirt leaders charged with staging riots in Bangkok last May were believed to have taken refuge in Cambodia with the help of Hun Sen.

"Hun Sen is giving refuge to these people. It means that Hun Sen does not respect Thai law," Mr Kasit said.

"We have never done what Hun Sen is doing. [When the Democrat Party became the government] we did not allow [Cambodia's opposition leader] Sam Rainsy to come to Thailand [to use it as a base to attack Hun Sen]."

Mr Kasit said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen should not think that Thailand only belonged to the Pheu Thai Party, Thaksin or Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

"In fact it belongs to all Thais," he said. "We are not interfering in Cambodia. But Hun Sen has interfered in Thai politics for a long time."

Mr Kasit said everything should be done in accordance with international law and the Constitution of both countries. So the two governments must serve their people. They must not serve a particular person. To help promote Thai-Cambodian relations and better understanding between the people of the two countries, Mr Kasit said the two governments should not be obsessed with the past.

He said what they should do is to help write a true chapter of the history under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

"We have to rewrite the Thai-Cambodian history [books]. We have to stop keeping on teaching our children to dislike one another just because of politics.

"Now we are going to have the Asean Community [in 2015]. So we must rewrite history textbooks, not teach children to hate one another but to understand one another."

Meanwhile Defence Minister GenYutthasak Sasiprapa denied some media reports that the 2nd Region Army had withdrawn its troops from the Thai-Cambodian border next to Preah Vihear temple.

"We only refreshed the troops so as to reduce depression and anxiety in our soldiers," Gen Yutthasak said.

He said troop withdrawal can only be approved by the government.

Gen Yutthasak said he would travel to meet with Hun Sen and his Cambodian counterpart Tea Banh on Thursday and would use the opportunity to discuss a plan to host the next General Border Committee. He said his visit to Cambodia would not involve maritime benefits between the two countries.