SOPHENG CHEANG
Published: Yesterday

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) – Thailand’s fugitive ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra arrived Tuesday in Cambodia following his appointment as economic adviser to the government, fueling tensions between the neighboring countries.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said he would seek Thaksin’s extradition and announced that his Cabinet had approved ending talks with Phnom Penh on disputed maritime borders.

The toppled leader was to deliver a lecture Thursday to more than 300 economists while in Phnom Penh.

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Thaksin flew into the Cambodian capital’s military airport aboard a private plane. State televison showed that Thaksin arrived with a party of less than 10 people and was driven into Phnom Penh under very tight security provided by bodyguards of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Read more »

BANGKOK (AP) – Thailand recalled its ambassador from neighboring Cambodia on Thursday after former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a fugitive from justice, was named an adviser to the government in Phnom Penh.

The move was the most severe diplomatic action thus far in ongoing tensions between the two countries, which have had a series of small, but sometimes deadly, skirmishes over the demarcation of their border.

Thailand also said it would review all of its agreements with Cambodia. Read more »

www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-31 14:40:02

BANGKOK, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — Ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra refused to permanently reside in Cambodia as hedid not want to create problem to Thailand, opposition Puea Thai Party Chairman Chavalit Yongchaiyuth said Saturday.

“I asked him through people close him why he did not stay in Cambodia as it is near home and family, Thaksin said that he did not want to create problem,” the INN news agency quoted Chavalit, deputy prime minister in Thaksin’s administration as saying.

It was a test of Thaksin’s thought, he said.

Thaksin was ousted by a military coup in September 2006 and has been in exile since then. In February 2008, Thaksin returned to Thailand to face corruption charges but later went to exile again and was convicted in absentia.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen told reporters during the recent 15th ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Summit at Thailand’s central beach resort of Hua Hin that Cambodia would not hand over Thaksin to Thailand if Thailand sought his extradition.

Hun Sen also said that he could appoint Thaksin as his economic advisor. Read more »

By Tim Johnston

Published: October 22 2009 03:00 | Last updated: October 22 2009 03:00

Friday, 30 October 2009 15:02 Vong Sokheng

A CAMBODIAN official responded Thursday to Thai media reports of a planned protest by People’s Alliance for Democracy members outside the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok on Monday.

The English-language daily newspaper The Nation reported earlier this week that PAD members planned to protest outside the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok in response to comments made by Prime Minister Hun Sen during the weekend’s ASEAN summit in Hua Hin, Thailand, during which he said that Thai ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006 coup, had been treated unfairly by Thai authorities.

Hun Sen’s comments were seen as undermining Thailand’s judiciary credibility, The Nation reported.

Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said Thursday that the government was not surprised by the announced protest.

Read more »