Thailand needs to keep its messy domestic politics out of important extradition case
Bout's statement, read to a packed Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand by his wife Alla, denied her involvement in a meeting between him and prime ministerial aide Sirichoke Sopha on April 15. The statement also denied that she had in her possession a tape recording of that meeting, during which Sirichoke allegedly asked the world-renowned suspect to "frame" Thaksin.
The whole Sirichoke-Bout episode creates an unfortunate distraction from the real issue at hand. The Appeals Court's ruling that Bout should be extradited to the United States has placed Thailand in a most awkward situation diplomatically. The Kingdom is now torn between two superpowers. The United States, which considers Bout one of the world's biggest international arms dealers, wants to try him on its soil. Russia wants to protect its citizen, who has never been charged in his country, and has stepped up pressure on Bangkok in a bid to stop him being sent to the US.
Sirichoke's visit to Bout, whether it was appropriate or not, has been blown out of proportion. Red-shirt leader Jatuporn Promphan advocated claims that the meeting feature an attempt by the Democrat MP to persuade Bout to frame Thaksin, and that the conversation was recorded and could be replayed to the public by the suspect's wife.
The government has tried to contain possible damage by having Sirichoke admit early that he did not try to see any link between weapons used by the red shirts and a plane allegedly forced to land here after leaving North Korea last December with tonnes of illegal arms. Since the meeting took place just five days after the April
10 bloodbath near Rajdamnoen, there may be enough justification to protect Sirichoke, who has publicly stated that talks with Bout more or less cleared his suspicion.
Bout's wife was inadvertently dragged into the Thai political game by the "secret tape" claims. Bout's statement said she had nothing to do with the meeting and did not have any tape in her possession. Misinformation flying around over the past few days, the statement said, made him worry about her safety.
While it was Sirichoke who brought the Thaksin issue to his meeting with Bout, it was Jatuporn who tried to politicise the meeting. This is not to mention that Jatuporn was also responsible for rumours that the Thai government wanted to do a Thaksin-Bout swap deal with Russia, a country that the ousted Thai leader has popped up in at least a couple of times. The result is that the already super-sensitive case has been complicated by Thai domestic politics. If the Preah Vihear controversy has given us any lesson, it's about how a diplomatic problem can be worsened if domestic politics of any country involved comes into play.
This case is different from the bilateral nature of the temple
controversy, which has cooled down a little following weeks of high tension. Thailand needs to be very focused this time because what is at stake encompasses many layers of domestic and international affairs. The integrity of the country's judiciary is also a major thing to consider.
Extradition fights often cause international conflicts and animosity. And we hope the United States and Russia have the maturity to understand the difficult position Thailand is in. However, the Thai government must not be unnecessarily distracted. More importantly it must not play politics itself. The biggest reason why is the fact that the issue is becoming a major political showdown between Washington and Moscow and it would be unwise for domestic political rivals to make things more complicated for Thailand.