Fri, Oct 23, 2009
AFP
HUA HIN, Thailand - Cambodian premier Hun Sen on Friday offered Thaksin Shinawatra a job as finance adviser if the ousted Thai leader seeks refuge with him, upping tensions with Thailand at an Asian summit.
Hun Sen reiterated an invitation to Thaksin to stay in Cambodia and rejected Thai claims that Phnom Penh would have to extradite the billionaire politician, who was toppled in a 2006 coup and fled Thailand last year.
"Thaksin can stay in Cambodia as a guest of Cambodia. He can also be my adviser on the economy," Hun Sen told reporters after arriving in the Thai beach resort of Hua Hin for the summit of Asian leaders.
"Our concern is for humanitarian reasons, it is friends helping friends.
The internal affairs of Thailand would be left for Thai people to resolve, I am not interfering."
Relations between Cambodia and Thailand have been difficult since June 2008 amid an ongoing border conflict, but have plunged further since Hun Sen made his first invitation to Thaksin earlier this week.
Thaksin is living in exile after fleeing Bangkok in August last year to avoid a two-year jail term for corruption. He is believed to be living mainly in Dubai.
He has angered the Thai government by staging a series of phone-ins from abroad to mass rallies in Bangkok by his supporters, known as the "Red Shirts".
But the Cambodian government said earlier Friday that under treaties between the two nations it could reject a request for Thaksin's extradition because it would be made on the grounds of "political offence".
Hun Sen said that he was not taking sides against the Thai government, which came to power in December last year after rival "Yellow Shirts" seized Bangkok's airports to help bring down the previous, pro-Thaksin administration.
"Don't accuse Hun Sen of supporting Thaksin in the politics of the Red Shirts," Hun Sen said.
Thai officials said there were no plans yet for any meeting between Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Hun Sen at the Hua Hin summit.
Hun Sen reiterated an invitation to Thaksin to stay in Cambodia and rejected Thai claims that Phnom Penh would have to extradite the billionaire politician, who was toppled in a 2006 coup and fled Thailand last year.
"Thaksin can stay in Cambodia as a guest of Cambodia. He can also be my adviser on the economy," Hun Sen told reporters after arriving in the Thai beach resort of Hua Hin for the summit of Asian leaders.
"Our concern is for humanitarian reasons, it is friends helping friends.
The internal affairs of Thailand would be left for Thai people to resolve, I am not interfering."
Relations between Cambodia and Thailand have been difficult since June 2008 amid an ongoing border conflict, but have plunged further since Hun Sen made his first invitation to Thaksin earlier this week.
Thaksin is living in exile after fleeing Bangkok in August last year to avoid a two-year jail term for corruption. He is believed to be living mainly in Dubai.
He has angered the Thai government by staging a series of phone-ins from abroad to mass rallies in Bangkok by his supporters, known as the "Red Shirts".
But the Cambodian government said earlier Friday that under treaties between the two nations it could reject a request for Thaksin's extradition because it would be made on the grounds of "political offence".
Hun Sen said that he was not taking sides against the Thai government, which came to power in December last year after rival "Yellow Shirts" seized Bangkok's airports to help bring down the previous, pro-Thaksin administration.
"Don't accuse Hun Sen of supporting Thaksin in the politics of the Red Shirts," Hun Sen said.
Thai officials said there were no plans yet for any meeting between Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Hun Sen at the Hua Hin summit.
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