By Thai Newsroom Reporters
A HOUSE COMMITTEE TODAY (May 8) expressed doubt over clandestine moves reportedly made by de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole Thaksin Shinawatra toward chronic, armed conflict inside Myanmar.
House Committee on State Security, Border Affairs, National Strategies & Reforms Chair Rangsiman Rome questioned as to in what position Thaksin had earlier meddled with anyone about the sustained strife between Tatmadaw government troops and armed ethnic rebel groups inside Myanmar.
Last March and last month, Thaksin, who was deposed as prime minister in the 2006 coup, had reportedly held hush-hush talks somewhere in Chiang Mai with unnamed representatives of varied ethnic groups fighting Myanmar government forces including the Shan State Army, Kachin National Organisation, Karen National Union and the self-exiled National Unity Government as well as those of the junta-ruled government in Naypyidaw in a purported effort to bring peace to the war-torn country.
The House committee chair said Thaksin has not had any position in government. Neither had the Pheu Thai-led government reportedly assigned him to do what he had done about the Myanmar issue in the northern Thai province, Rangsiman said.
Though Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin had simply responded by saying he had not been informed of Thaksin’s contentious moves whilst newly-named Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampong had remained largely non-committal, the Thai government’s clarity-based policy toward the Myanmar issue is yet to be officially adopted and publicly unveiled, according to the House committee chair.
Rangsiman said his House committee would undoubtedly endorse efforts on the part of the Thai government to perform as a “mediator” between all warring factions inside Myanmar though, he said, Thailand had apparently failed so far to adopt a clear-cut policy toward the Myanmar issue.
The Rangsiman panel is scheduled to visit Mae Sot district of Tak which shares a border with Myanmar’s Myawaddy township across Moei River upcoming Sunday to follow on humanitarian aid efforts and security-related matters on the part of the Thai authorities.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: House Committee on State Security, Border Affairs, National Strategies & Reforms Chair Rangsiman Rome. Top photo: Thai Rath, Front Page photo: Naewna
Insert: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra. Photo: Thai Rath
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