The smokescreen diplomacy of Thailand uncovered

3 May, 2011

The government of Thailand is taking the task of lay out the smokescreen diplomacy, while the Statesman and Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda is calling on all Thais to show their full support for the Thai soldiers in the ongoing war of aggression against Cambodia.

The Bangkok Post, on Wednesday 27 April 2011 reported under the title China, Vietnam urged to pressure Cambodia that “The Foreign Ministry has also asked China and Vietnam to help convince Cambodia to turn to the negotiating table. The request was made through Chinese ambassador to Bangkok Guan Mu and Vietnamese ambassador to Thailand Ngo Duc Thang during a meeting with Permanent Secretary Theerakun Niyom yesterday. Defence Minister Gen Prawit will visit China today. His official schedule is to discuss the submarine project development but observers believed he would raise the Thai-Cambodia dispute issue with his Chinese counterparts.”

This was smokescreen diplomacy, because on the same day The Bangkok Post reported under the title Prem: Support our soldiers at border that “Statesman and Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda on Wednesday called on all Thais to show their full support for the soldiers performing their duty on the volatile border with Cambodia.” Certainly this is the blessings and the encouragement to Thai military armed forces to wage the war of aggression against Cambodia, reconfirming “Bangkok’s threat to use military action to force Cambodian troops from areas that Thailand considers in dispute,” as reported by The Nation on the same day by quoting DPA.

It is urgent that the international community intervenes forcefully to avoid further bloodshed and the destabilization of ASEAN and the region. The Thai government, the Thai military and also many Thai newsmen should stop speculating that Cambodia causes the war on the border because Cambodia was trying to take the issue back to the UN. On that point, His Excellency Marty Natalegawa, who serves as ASEAN chair, told The Nation Editor-in-Chief Suthichai Yoon “It's already in the UN. It's not a question of bringing it back to the UN. The genie is out of the bottle."

Prof. Pen Ngoeun

Member of the Advisory Team of Press and Quick Reaction Unit of the

Office of the Council of Ministers;

Senior advisor and member of the Academic Committee

Puthisastra University, Phnom Penh, Cambodia;

Former Dean and Professor of the Faculty of Business and Economics

Pannasastra University of Cambodia;

Former Assistant Controller at Phibro Inc.; and

A subsidiary of Citigroup Inc., New York City, USA, until 2000