A rift between Cambodia and Thailand has worsened after Thai security officials accused Cambodia of allowing 11 anti-government Red Shirts to receive three weeks of training in Siem Reap to assassinate politicians.
The Thai Department of Special Investigation says the men confessed to the training after they were picked up in the northern province of Chiang Mai this month. The accusation has angered the Cambodian Government, which has accused its neighbour of playing dirty games and concocting evidence
Presenter: Linda LoPresti
Speakers: Phay Siphan (pictured), spokesman for Cambodia's Council of Ministers; David Chandler, Emeritus Professor of History at Monash University
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SIPHAN: This accusation is baseless and unprofessional. The two countries we do have an exchange of diplomats already, we have a diplomatic channel that is the proper channel that should, modern governments should use that. So to escalate publicly is an insult, it's a groundless accusation. The constitution doesn't allow anyone to use Cambodian territory as a springboard to get anyone, and Cambodia commit internationally not to prop up, I mean we are against terrorists. So the accusation very uncivilized it's sabotage I mean again that Cambodia try to build trust with Thailand, especially with the last two meetings between Samdech Hun Sen Cambodian Prime Minister and His excellency Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Thai Prime minister.
LOPRESTI: This latest spat threatens to reverse a recent thaw in relations, which have been strained since a long-running dispute over a border temple flared in 2008. So where to from here? To help answer that question, I'm joined by one of the world's foremost western scholars of Cambodia, David Chandler, who's currently Emeritus Professor of History at Monash University.
David Chandler Hun Sen denies that Cambodia would allow foreigners to setup training camps on its territory. Could it be occurring without his knowledge?
CHANDLER: Well it might be but I doubt it, I doubt if anything like this could happen without the knowledge of the government. And I don't think it did happen, I sort of tend to agree with the Cambodian spokesman that you quoted earlier. But it's a mysterious thing because obviously I think there were people who confessed to this happening, now under what circumstances they confessed is of course remains to be seen.
LOPRESTI: Well these accusations come from the Thai Department of Special Investigations. Is it kosher for this department to make this accusation without consulting the Prime Minister?
CHANDLER: I would say it's pretty loose canon, I mean they should have gone through their own channels in Thailand and then let the Thai inform the Cambodians about it. It looks like a fairly loose accusation being made by these people, but I'm not sure how that worked out. It seems irresponsible to me, yes.
LOPRESTI: Do you think it suggests a split between the government and the Thai security officials or Thai intelligence, given that the DSI chief says that he stands by its intelligence reports with facts supplied by its agents on-site activities?
CHANDLER: I'm not sure what it implies, you're right, that's one implication, and certainly it's an unprofessional way to just go to the press and make these accusations.
LOPRESTI: Well Cambodia has lodged an official complaint and it says Thailand is trying to deflect public opinion from its own internal and political social problems, and that's what this is all about. Do you think that's a possibility?
CHANDLER: I think it's a good possibility, but I mean I think we just have to be careful about who these 11 people have spoken to, if they have gone to Cambodia, they wouldn't be official, I don't think it would be Cambodian officials, but you never know, that border's pretty porous, I think a lot of those Red Shirts fled into Cambodia to avoid arrest after those demonstrations last year. Some of the Red Shirts, people are pretty dedicated to overthrow the Thai government, so you just can't tell what happened. But I don't think they got official Cambodian backing, and I think again the whole thing does seem from a Cambodian point of view, just from the point of view down here, it's very unprofessional on the part of the Thais.
LOPRESTI: And it does put the Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in a very awkward position. He's now urging the department to exercise caution when making public statements about Cambodia. He's clearly in damage control. Is this going to affect his relationship with Hun Sen do you think?
CHANDLER: That relationship's not very good but I think he's done the professional thing is to step back and say let's get those people professional about this, let's verify these charges. I think he's done quite a credible response to it all. But his relationship with Hun Sen is not going to improve for quite a while, I don't think there's any basis for it improve, especially since Hun Sen and Thaksin are so close or have been so close. So it's an ongoing game between these countries. Cambodia of course is much smaller, playing a riskier game than the Thais, with the Thais in this case making quite an unprofessional lunge into make the relationship even worse it seems to me.
LOPRESTI: As you mentioned I mean Thailand was outraged when Cambodia hired former Thai Premier Thaksin Shinawatra as its economic advisor in November 2009, and that led to both countries withdrawing their ambassadors. Will this latest row further hurt bilateral ties?
CHANDLER: It might, I don't see it'll hurt them as much as that last one, I've a feeling it's going to fizzle out, I don't have any special evidence for that. I think this is not so much as a slap for the Thais as the appointment of Thaksin was, which was more or a less direct snub of the existing Thai government. But Thaksin was facing trial for various charges at the time and so on, I think this is a smaller crisis. It depends how it's handled by both governments.
LOPRESTI: This latest spat threatens to reverse a recent thaw in relations, which have been strained since a long-running dispute over a border temple flared in 2008. So where to from here? To help answer that question, I'm joined by one of the world's foremost western scholars of Cambodia, David Chandler, who's currently Emeritus Professor of History at Monash University.
David Chandler Hun Sen denies that Cambodia would allow foreigners to setup training camps on its territory. Could it be occurring without his knowledge?
CHANDLER: Well it might be but I doubt it, I doubt if anything like this could happen without the knowledge of the government. And I don't think it did happen, I sort of tend to agree with the Cambodian spokesman that you quoted earlier. But it's a mysterious thing because obviously I think there were people who confessed to this happening, now under what circumstances they confessed is of course remains to be seen.
LOPRESTI: Well these accusations come from the Thai Department of Special Investigations. Is it kosher for this department to make this accusation without consulting the Prime Minister?
CHANDLER: I would say it's pretty loose canon, I mean they should have gone through their own channels in Thailand and then let the Thai inform the Cambodians about it. It looks like a fairly loose accusation being made by these people, but I'm not sure how that worked out. It seems irresponsible to me, yes.
LOPRESTI: Do you think it suggests a split between the government and the Thai security officials or Thai intelligence, given that the DSI chief says that he stands by its intelligence reports with facts supplied by its agents on-site activities?
CHANDLER: I'm not sure what it implies, you're right, that's one implication, and certainly it's an unprofessional way to just go to the press and make these accusations.
LOPRESTI: Well Cambodia has lodged an official complaint and it says Thailand is trying to deflect public opinion from its own internal and political social problems, and that's what this is all about. Do you think that's a possibility?
CHANDLER: I think it's a good possibility, but I mean I think we just have to be careful about who these 11 people have spoken to, if they have gone to Cambodia, they wouldn't be official, I don't think it would be Cambodian officials, but you never know, that border's pretty porous, I think a lot of those Red Shirts fled into Cambodia to avoid arrest after those demonstrations last year. Some of the Red Shirts, people are pretty dedicated to overthrow the Thai government, so you just can't tell what happened. But I don't think they got official Cambodian backing, and I think again the whole thing does seem from a Cambodian point of view, just from the point of view down here, it's very unprofessional on the part of the Thais.
LOPRESTI: And it does put the Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in a very awkward position. He's now urging the department to exercise caution when making public statements about Cambodia. He's clearly in damage control. Is this going to affect his relationship with Hun Sen do you think?
CHANDLER: That relationship's not very good but I think he's done the professional thing is to step back and say let's get those people professional about this, let's verify these charges. I think he's done quite a credible response to it all. But his relationship with Hun Sen is not going to improve for quite a while, I don't think there's any basis for it improve, especially since Hun Sen and Thaksin are so close or have been so close. So it's an ongoing game between these countries. Cambodia of course is much smaller, playing a riskier game than the Thais, with the Thais in this case making quite an unprofessional lunge into make the relationship even worse it seems to me.
LOPRESTI: As you mentioned I mean Thailand was outraged when Cambodia hired former Thai Premier Thaksin Shinawatra as its economic advisor in November 2009, and that led to both countries withdrawing their ambassadors. Will this latest row further hurt bilateral ties?
CHANDLER: It might, I don't see it'll hurt them as much as that last one, I've a feeling it's going to fizzle out, I don't have any special evidence for that. I think this is not so much as a slap for the Thais as the appointment of Thaksin was, which was more or a less direct snub of the existing Thai government. But Thaksin was facing trial for various charges at the time and so on, I think this is a smaller crisis. It depends how it's handled by both governments.
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