Thai Foreign Minister summons UAE envoy over Thaksin movements

BANGKOK, March 24 (TNA) – Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya on Wednesday summoned the United Arab Emirates (UAE) envoy to emphasise Thailand’s stance over the moves of ousted ex-Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra following news reports that the fugitive ex-leader has returned to Dubai.

Mr Kasit invited UAE ambassador to Bangkok Mohammed Ali Omran Al Shamsi to meet at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and reiterated the importance of the bilateral relations between the two countries.

The Thai foreign minister also expressed hope that the UAE will not let a particular person use its soil as a political base in launching attacks against Thailand.

The UAE diplomat said that his country considered the importance of bilateral relations as above all else and would not allow anyone to use the Middle East state as a political base which could negatively impact its warm ties between the two friendly nations.

The ambassador said that he will convey the Thai government’s concern to the UAE government and that he will look into news reports that Mr Thaksin had return to Dubai.

Deposed by the 2006 bloodless coup, Mr Thaksin was convicted in absentia to two years jail for violating the country’s conflict of interest law regarding his role in helping his wife secured a plot of Bangkok land at a below market price.

Now living in exile, mosty in Dubai, Mr Thaksin was also denied entry to several countries, including the United Kingdom and Germany.

Mr Thaksin addressed his Red Shirt supporters via video link several times from Dubai, calling on them to join the mass protest of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) in Bangkok to pressure the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration to dissolve Parliament.

The Thai government early this month sought the UAE government’s cooperation in not habouring the fugititve Thai ex-prime minister on grounds that he has been using its soil as his political base to attack the Thai government.

Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Panich Vikitsreth said that the UAE had agreed to Thailand’s request to ban Mr Thaksin’s use of the country as a springboard for his political movement against the Thai government.

Before the March 14 by anti-government UDD mass rally, Mr Thaksin tweeted to his supporters in his Twitter social network website, denying rumours that he has been evicted by the UAE government, saying he would visit his two daughters who were attending an exhibition on hotel in Germany.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency however quoted a Montenegrin television report saying that Mr Thaksin was in Montenegro’s coastal medieval port of Budva, enjoying coffee and cakes in one of the area’s posh hotels with his entourage, while his loyal supporters came out on streets in the Thai capital demanding the House dissolution.

He also tweeted in his homepage last week that he had returned to Dubai, while his legal adviser Noppadon Pattama said the ex-premier was neither banned nor arrested on arrival to the UAE. (TNA).