Thailand former minister Thaksin Shinawatra has left the United States
without fanfare, having spent much of his time in America playing cat and mouse
with the yellow shirts and putting his host in a somewhat awkward situation.
A phone-in was made to his
supporters from South Korea, signalling an end to the US visit, which was
marred by questions over whether US authorities ignored their own law, and by
the return of the WikiLeaks ghost to haunt Washington.
The United States' permission for
Thaksin to enter the country, now that his party's in power, has put the
superpower's diplomacy under scrutiny. Critics pointed to the WikiLeaks-exposed
documents that purportedly showed the US Embassy in Thailand once considered
him a man unsuited for a US visa. The alleged embassy cable statement claimed
Thaksin "may or may not have committed crime of moral turpitude"
following the street turmoil in 2009 when the Democrats were in power.
The US Embassy here has never
commented on anything emanating from WikiLeaks.
Anti-Thaksin Thais have staged
protests both in Thailand and the United States. Complaint letters were written
to American authorities including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Criticism
of the US visa decision was also fierce online. The campaign prompted the
embassy to take the unusual step of giving a public statement on how decisions
to give approximately 50,000 Thais visas annually never have anything to do
with politics.
Thaksin himself has admitted that
US authorities did not want him to visit their country when the Democrats were
in power. In an interview with a Siamtown US news group in Los Angeles, he
charged that foreign governments "who did not want to quarrel with"
the then Thai administration acquiesced when asked to ban his entry.
Those agreeing with the US visa
about-face insisted that Thaksin's conviction on criminal charges in Thailand,
which should have triggered US immigration action against him, was politically
motivated. This argument, however, did not quite address the question why the
US government only changed its stand on Thaksin after his political party rose
to power in Thailand.
Asked by Siamtown US to comment
on allegations that his US visa was part of a "trade-off", Thaksin
said: "People who don't know the truth talk a lot. Worse still, those who
know are not quite smart. The first thing they should know is, the extradition
treaty does not cover political cases. Mine is a political case."
Asked what was the "symbolic
impact" of his US visit, Thaksin said: "I just want to show that I
can go anywhere but Thailand."
He also taunted his political
rivals for "becoming afraid of the ghost that they turned me into".
ASTV reports that the US
authorities also became concerned about possible repercussions of his visit, so
much so he was advised to keep a low profile and quietly leave the country. The
reports could not be verified.
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