Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Wed, 2 Sep 1992 14:07:55 -0400
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      CAM: Thais on defensive over Cambodia policy
X-To:         FISHLM%SNYBUFVA@pucc.princeton.edu, seasia-l@msu.BITNET

08/21

THAIS ON DEFENSIVE OVER CAMBODIA POLICY

    By Angus MacSwan
    POIPET, Cambodia, Aug 21, Reuter - The Thai government is feeling the heat
from accusations that it is putting profits before peace in Cambodia.
    Alarmed by the growing reputation of Thai businessmen as plunderers of their
war-weary eastern neighbour, government leaders have appealed to them to act
more responsibly.
    The Bangkok government itself is under pressure from the United Nations
peace mission to push its erstwhile allies, the Khmer Rouge guerrillas, into
honouring a peace accord they seem bent on scuppering.
    "Some have come to suspect the actual motives behind Thailand's policies,"
Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun admitted in a speech in Bangkok this week.
    "There will always be unscrupulous businessmen but they represent the
minority and one should not draw the generalisation that such is the policy of
the Thai government."
    The issue has arisen at a time when Anand's caretaker government is
struggling to repair damage done to Thailand's image by domestic turmoil in May.
    During the Cambodian war Thailand was a key backer of the Khmer Rouge-led
alliance, offering the guerrillas sanctuary and shipment routes for arms and
supplies in the fight against the Vietnamese-backed government.
    Now Thailand's avowed policy is to become the gateway to trade with
Indochina and its businessmen are flocking to Cambodia.
    Diplomats and U.N. officials describe many as rapacious carpetbaggers,
seeking quick profits, fuelling corruption and stripping the country of natural
resources.
    In Phnom Penh their ventures range from land speculation to go-go bars. But
it is in the west where most concern is focused.
    Thailand ruled this area in league with the Japanese during World War Two
and many Cambodia-watchers say Thai soldiers and civilians there act as though
they intend to do so again.
    Most controversial are the dealings with the Khmer Rouge, who have sold
lucrative logging and mining rights to Thai concerns in their feifdom in
Cambodia's southwest corner.
    In defiance of the peace agreement, the Khmer Rouge refuse to enter special
camps and hand over their weapons to U.N. peace-keepers. They are also limiting
the access of foreign military and relief personnel to their zones.
    Officials of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC)
have appealed to the Thais to use their influence with the Khmer Rouge to get
them back into the peace process.
    Thai military intelligence is intimate with the Khmer Rouge and the army has
long protected its guiding light, Pol Pot.
    The Thais say they no longer have the means to pressure the Khmer Rouge -- a
claim diplomats say is somewhat disingenuous.
    "Just because one party is unwilling you are blaming Thailand. This is most
unfair," Foreign Minister Arsa Sarasin said in this town on the Cambodian side
of the border on Wednesday.
    He was visiting a Thai engineer battalion which has repaired the main road
eastwards from the frontier, and to lay the foundation stone of a school to be
built with Thai money.
    The trip was an attempt to offset negative perceptions. Arsa made an
unashamed appeal to foreign reporters to write nice things about Thai policy
towards Cambodia.
    Asked about the Thai business dealings with the Khmer Rouge, he said the one
million or more dollars a month that went into guerrilla coffers made little
difference to their policy.
    If the U.N. carried out its threat to impose sanctions on the Khmer Rouge,
who would compensate the Thai businessmen, he asked.
    Thailand was doing all it could to coax the Khmer Rouge back to the peace
accord, he said.
    "We are not the only ones in contact with the Khmer Rouge," Arsa said. "Do
not blame Thailand alone."
    U.N. sources say the problem is compounded by the fact that Thai military
officers are used to operating almost autonomously along the frontier.
    They may have no intention of modifying their relations with the Khmer Rouge
whatever the government says.
    The government's ambition to be the dominant economic power in the region
could eventually put it on a collision course with Vietnam again, some U.N.
officials say.
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