by Suy Se, November 13, 2009
SIEM REAP, Cambodia (AFP) - Cambodian police said Friday they had charged a Thai man with spying on fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, further inflaming a diplomatic crisis between the neighbouring countries.
The spy row blew up as Thaksin played a round of golf with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, in a fresh sign of Bangkok's werlessness to make Phnom Penh extradite the billionaire and get him to serve a jail term for graft.
Siwarak Chothipong, 31, who works for the Cambodia Air Traffic Service, was arrested and charged Thursday with supplying
Thailand with details of Thaksin's flight schedule, said Cambodian national police spokesman Kirt Chantharith.
"We sent him to the court yesterday and he was charged with releasing information related to the national security of Cambodia,"
Kirt Chantharith told AFP.
"He tried to search for information related to the special flight of Thaksin in order to send it out of the country," Kirt Chantharith added, later specifying that the information was sent to Thailand.
Police were investigating whether more people were involved, he added.
Cambodia expelled a top Thai diplomat and Thailand reciprocated on Thursday in a sign of the growing tensions caused by the
Cambodian government's appointment of Thaksin earlier this month as an economic adviser.
Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup, arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday to take up the role and Hun Sen on Wednesday rejected Bangkok's formal extradition request for Thaksin.
Thaksin on Friday met a group of his supporters before playing golf with Hun Sen in the tourist hub of Siem Reap. He was later
due to meet senior members of the pro-Thaksin movement, said government spokesman Khieu Kanharith.
Hun Sen and Cambodian officials laughed and applauded Thaksin's shot as he teed off first Friday morning at the luxurious
Angkor Golf Resort.
Telecommunications mogul Thaksin hit out at the government of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva during a lecture in the capital Phnom Penh on Thursday, accusing Thai rulers of "false patriotism".
Cambodian foreign ministry spokesman Koy Kuong told AFP that the Thai embassy's first secretary was expelled later that day because he "has executed work in contradiction to his position", without elaborating.
The Thai foreign ministry said it was then "necessary to take similar action". The countries had already recalled their ambassadors in the mounting quarrel over Thaksin's appointment, announced by Phnom Penh last week.
Thaksin has pledged to help impoverished Cambodia understand finance, reduce poverty and lure more foreign investment.
Cambodian officials have indicated he would leave the country Friday or Saturday and was not intending to live there.
Abhisit on Thursday ordered a review of two road construction projects with Cambodia that involved loans of more than 1.4 billion baht (42 million dollars) to Phnom Penh, the finance ministry said.
Thailand has already put all talks and cooperation programmes with Cambodia on hold and also tore up an oil and gas exploration
deal signed during Thaksin's time in power.
Tensions were already high between the two countries following a series of clashes over disputed territory near an ancient temple and the row threatens to mar a weekend summit of regional leaders with US President Barack Obama.
Twice-elected Thaksin fled Thailand in August 2008, a month before a court sentenced him to two years in jail in a conflict of interest case. He had returned to Thailand just months earlier for the first time since the coup.
But he has retained enormous influence in Thai politics by stirring up protests against the current government, and analysts said
that in Hun Sen he had found a new way to push for a return to power.
