Thailand's Thaksin speaks to Cambodian law-makers

Tuesday, December 15, 2009
AFP

PHNOM PENH — Fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra addressed Cambodian ministers in his new advisory role Tuesday on how to develop their economy during the global recession, reporters said.

The visit to Cambodia by Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup, has further raised diplomatic tensions with Thailand, which flared last month when Phnom Penh refused to extradite him during his first visit as economic adviser.

Foreign language media were locked out of Thaksin's meeting Tuesday at the Council for the Development of Cambodia, but local reporters said he spoke to between 20 and 30 senior Cambodian ministers and their deputies.

The Thai billionaire telecoms mogul talked about how to develop the impoverished nation's economy during the worldwide financial crisis and discussed agricultural reform, the reporters added.

Thaksin arrived in Phnom Penh on Sunday, and the Cambodian government credited him for the release on Monday of Siwarak Chothipong, a Thai employee of the Cambodia Air Traffic Service jailed for spying on his previous visit.

Siwarak, 31, was handed a seven-year prison sentence last week for supplying Thaksin's flight schedule to the Thai embassy, but he left Prey Sar jail early Monday after receiving a pardon from King Norodom Sihamoni.

Siwarak's arrest last month was followed by a brief tit-for-tat of diplomatic expulsions.

The two countries had earlier withdrawn their ambassadors in the dispute over Thaksin's appointment as government economic adviser.

Angered by Thaksin's presence in Cambodia, Thailand also put all talks and cooperation with the neighbouring country on hold and has torn up an oil and gas exploration deal signed during Thaksin's tenure as prime minister.

Thaksin is living abroad, mostly in Dubai, to avoid a two-year jail term for corruption handed down by a Thai court in September 2008.

He won two elections in Thailand and remains an influential political figure at home, stirring up mass protests by his "Red Shirt" supporters against the current government.