Download for Cambodia's Family Trees (aka Elitus Kleptocraticus)
Dec 12, 2009
The 'modus vivendi'
The "family"
The "Dons"
The "Cosa Nostra"
The "operation"
The above are excerpts from Global Witness publication: "Cambodia's Family Trees". A copy of the report in PDF format can be obtained by right-clicking (and save it to your computer) at the links below:
Khmer Version
A pawn in the vicious political ball game
Saturday December 12, 2009
THAI TAKES WITH PHILIP GOLINGAI
The Star Online (Malaysia)
IF you are a pawn caught in the middle of a political dogfight between the Abhisit Vejjajiva-led government and the double team of Thaksin Shinawatra-Hun Sen, what will happen if you are caught in Cambodia passing Thaksin’s flight schedule to a Phnom Penh-based Thai diplomat?
Answer: The Phnom Penh Municipal Court will sentence you to seven years in jail and a fine of 10 million riels (about RM8,200).
Siwarak Chotipong, a 31-year-old Thai engineer working for the Thai-owned Cambodia Air Traffic Services (Cats), was found guilty on Tuesday by a Cambodian court for espionage (stealing information relevant to Thaksin’s flight plan to Cambodia).
“Obtaining the flight schedule was very important for the Thai government, but it severely endangered Thaksin,” Judge Ke Sakhan said, reading the verdict against Siwarak. “It also affected the national security of Cambodia.”
Thaksin’s flight schedule was “sensitive information” as Thaksin is now a high-ranking Cambodian government adviser, said Phnom Penh court deputy prosecutor Sok Roeun.
“His flight schedule is not a simple document like a wedding invitation,” he said.
The court hearing was held as relations between the two neigbouring countries hit an all-time low.
Thailand withdrew its ambassador in Phnom Penh after Cambodia appointed Thaksin as economic adviser. And in retaliation, Cambodia recalled its ambassador in Bangkok.
The “sad truth” of the court verdict, according to the Bangkok Post in an editorial on Thursday, is Siwarak is “a mere pawn caught in the middle of a vicious political ball game between the Democrat-led government and Thaksin, with Hun Sen openly taking the latter’s side”.
“Therefore, it should not be surprising if the victim’s mother, Simarak na Nakhon Phanom, has opted to seek help from (Thaksin) and (the pro-Thaksin political party) Pheu Thai chairman General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, instead of the Thai Foreign Ministry in seeking a royal pardon from Cambodia for her convicted son,” editorialised the English-language Thai newspaper.
According to The Phnom Penh Post, a royal pardon was a likely scenario in the intensely politicised case.
It quoted Cambodian Centre for Human Rights president Ou Virak as saying that there were likely “politics being played behind the scenes” for Siwarak’s release.
Ou Virak said the case was a “major embarrassment” for Thai Prime Minister Vejjajiva and “it presented the opportunity for Hun Sen to either seek rapprochement with Abhisit or lend further support to Thaksin and Pheu Thai”.
“The question is: what message does the Cambodian side want to send, and which side are they going to pick?” Ou Virak said.
However, the Bangkok Post editorialised: “For now, it does not really matter which side will eventually get the credit for resolving this unfortunate human drama so long as the victim is brought home. What really matters and is indeed very disturbing, is that the ongoing political feud has become regionalised and gone many steps too far.”
But tell that to the Democrat, the backbone of Abhisit’s coalition government.
Democrat Party spokesman Thepthai Senpong was surprised that Simarak was seeking a royal pardon for her son through the opposition party Pheu Thai.
“I’m surprised by Simarak’s decision to help her son without asking for the Foreign Ministry’s assistance, because this is not in line with international practice,” he told the media. “I wonder if Thaksin, Chavalit and Hun Sen have more prominent roles than the Cambodian king.”
In politically-divided Thailand, Sirivak’s role in the diplomatic row, unsurprisingly, has taken a political dimension.
In a column called “Ask The Editors” in The Nation, an English-language Thai newspaper, Tulsathit Taptim wrote about the far-fetched theory that Siwarak was “in fact a (pro-Thaksin) red-shirted agent who was ‘planted’ as a Thai government spy so that he could be arrested on charges of espionage in order to embarrass Bangkok and allow Thaksin play a heroic saviour”.
“Those believing this theory have forgotten one key factor: Siwarak was allegedly acting in liaison with the Thai Embassy, which, appropriate or not, wanted him to find out what Thaksin was up to on his controversial arrival in Phnom Penh.
Without this embassy connection, it might have been plausible that Siwarak was a double-agent on a mission to humiliate the Thai government,” Tulsathit wrote.
Spy or not, Siwarak is clearly a pawn.
■ Siwarak has been pardoned by Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and will be sent home on Monday.
read more “A pawn in the vicious political ball game”
THAI TAKES WITH PHILIP GOLINGAI
The Star Online (Malaysia)
IF you are a pawn caught in the middle of a political dogfight between the Abhisit Vejjajiva-led government and the double team of Thaksin Shinawatra-Hun Sen, what will happen if you are caught in Cambodia passing Thaksin’s flight schedule to a Phnom Penh-based Thai diplomat?
Answer: The Phnom Penh Municipal Court will sentence you to seven years in jail and a fine of 10 million riels (about RM8,200).
Siwarak Chotipong, a 31-year-old Thai engineer working for the Thai-owned Cambodia Air Traffic Services (Cats), was found guilty on Tuesday by a Cambodian court for espionage (stealing information relevant to Thaksin’s flight plan to Cambodia).
“Obtaining the flight schedule was very important for the Thai government, but it severely endangered Thaksin,” Judge Ke Sakhan said, reading the verdict against Siwarak. “It also affected the national security of Cambodia.”
Thaksin’s flight schedule was “sensitive information” as Thaksin is now a high-ranking Cambodian government adviser, said Phnom Penh court deputy prosecutor Sok Roeun.
“His flight schedule is not a simple document like a wedding invitation,” he said.
The court hearing was held as relations between the two neigbouring countries hit an all-time low.
Thailand withdrew its ambassador in Phnom Penh after Cambodia appointed Thaksin as economic adviser. And in retaliation, Cambodia recalled its ambassador in Bangkok.
The “sad truth” of the court verdict, according to the Bangkok Post in an editorial on Thursday, is Siwarak is “a mere pawn caught in the middle of a vicious political ball game between the Democrat-led government and Thaksin, with Hun Sen openly taking the latter’s side”.
“Therefore, it should not be surprising if the victim’s mother, Simarak na Nakhon Phanom, has opted to seek help from (Thaksin) and (the pro-Thaksin political party) Pheu Thai chairman General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, instead of the Thai Foreign Ministry in seeking a royal pardon from Cambodia for her convicted son,” editorialised the English-language Thai newspaper.
According to The Phnom Penh Post, a royal pardon was a likely scenario in the intensely politicised case.
It quoted Cambodian Centre for Human Rights president Ou Virak as saying that there were likely “politics being played behind the scenes” for Siwarak’s release.
Ou Virak said the case was a “major embarrassment” for Thai Prime Minister Vejjajiva and “it presented the opportunity for Hun Sen to either seek rapprochement with Abhisit or lend further support to Thaksin and Pheu Thai”.
“The question is: what message does the Cambodian side want to send, and which side are they going to pick?” Ou Virak said.
However, the Bangkok Post editorialised: “For now, it does not really matter which side will eventually get the credit for resolving this unfortunate human drama so long as the victim is brought home. What really matters and is indeed very disturbing, is that the ongoing political feud has become regionalised and gone many steps too far.”
But tell that to the Democrat, the backbone of Abhisit’s coalition government.
Democrat Party spokesman Thepthai Senpong was surprised that Simarak was seeking a royal pardon for her son through the opposition party Pheu Thai.
“I’m surprised by Simarak’s decision to help her son without asking for the Foreign Ministry’s assistance, because this is not in line with international practice,” he told the media. “I wonder if Thaksin, Chavalit and Hun Sen have more prominent roles than the Cambodian king.”
In politically-divided Thailand, Sirivak’s role in the diplomatic row, unsurprisingly, has taken a political dimension.
In a column called “Ask The Editors” in The Nation, an English-language Thai newspaper, Tulsathit Taptim wrote about the far-fetched theory that Siwarak was “in fact a (pro-Thaksin) red-shirted agent who was ‘planted’ as a Thai government spy so that he could be arrested on charges of espionage in order to embarrass Bangkok and allow Thaksin play a heroic saviour”.
“Those believing this theory have forgotten one key factor: Siwarak was allegedly acting in liaison with the Thai Embassy, which, appropriate or not, wanted him to find out what Thaksin was up to on his controversial arrival in Phnom Penh.
Without this embassy connection, it might have been plausible that Siwarak was a double-agent on a mission to humiliate the Thai government,” Tulsathit wrote.
Spy or not, Siwarak is clearly a pawn.
■ Siwarak has been pardoned by Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and will be sent home on Monday.
[Thai] PM, Kasit should thank Hun Sen
12/12/2009
Bangkok Post
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Foreign Affairs Minister Kasit Piromya should send a letter to thank the Cambodian government for seeking a royal pardon to Sivarak Chutiphong, the Thai engineer who was sentenced to seven years in prison for spying, Puea Thai spokesman Jirayu Huangsap said on Saturday.
“Mr Abhisit and Mr Kasit should phone to Hun Sen to thank him on helping the Thai engineer be released”, Mr Jirayu said, adding that the government should not consider the release as an achievement of the opposition party.
Meanwhile, Puea Thai MP for Bangkok Karun Hosakul called on the army to refrain from using double standards against an army specialist Maj Gen Kattiya Sawasdipol.
The MP was responding to the move by the army to suspend Maj Gen Kattiya, widely known as Seh Daeng, for traveling to see deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in Cambodia on Nov 13 without seeking permission to take leave from the army.
She Daeng also allegedly made defamatory remarks about army chief Anupong Paojinda in an interview with the media.
“If the double standards were used against Maj Gen Kattiya, it would clearly show that the army has taken side”, Mr Karun said.
read more “[Thai] PM, Kasit should thank Hun Sen”
Bangkok Post
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Foreign Affairs Minister Kasit Piromya should send a letter to thank the Cambodian government for seeking a royal pardon to Sivarak Chutiphong, the Thai engineer who was sentenced to seven years in prison for spying, Puea Thai spokesman Jirayu Huangsap said on Saturday.
“Mr Abhisit and Mr Kasit should phone to Hun Sen to thank him on helping the Thai engineer be released”, Mr Jirayu said, adding that the government should not consider the release as an achievement of the opposition party.
Meanwhile, Puea Thai MP for Bangkok Karun Hosakul called on the army to refrain from using double standards against an army specialist Maj Gen Kattiya Sawasdipol.
The MP was responding to the move by the army to suspend Maj Gen Kattiya, widely known as Seh Daeng, for traveling to see deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in Cambodia on Nov 13 without seeking permission to take leave from the army.
She Daeng also allegedly made defamatory remarks about army chief Anupong Paojinda in an interview with the media.
“If the double standards were used against Maj Gen Kattiya, it would clearly show that the army has taken side”, Mr Karun said.
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