Thailand seeks Thaksin extradition as row deepens

By Martin Petty PHNOM PENH, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Thailand formally asked Cambodia on Wednesday to extradite fugitive former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a widening diplomatic row that threatens to worsen Thailand's political crisis. Thailand's embassy in Phnom Penh submitted the request for the former telecommunications tycoon a day after he arrived in Cambodia to take up a job as economic adviser to the Cambodian government, a move that has infuriated the Thai authorities. "Thaksin is a criminal fugitive and we asked the Cambodian government to send him back," Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban told reporters in Bangkok. "Now what we have to do is wait for their official response." The diplomatic spat looks set to undermine any attempt by Southeast Asian leaders to project a united front in talks with U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday in Singapore, the first-ever meeting between a U.S. leader and all 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) . Thaksin, twice elected but deposed in a 2006 military coup and sentenced last year to two years in jail for graft, has been living in self-imposed exile, largely in Dubai. He arrived in Phnom Penh as a guest of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. His presence in the neighbouring country, where he intends to give a speech on Thursday, has fired up passions on both sides of Thailand's political divide while drawing attention to a border where Thai and Cambodian troops have clashed in the past year. The row will embarrass the Thais in front of Obama. Thailand is this year's chair of ASEAN, and the regional grouping's meeting with Obama will be led by Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whose coalition government is on shaky ground. RESISTING EXTRADITION Thaksin plans to meet on Wednesday with Hun Sen, who has said he would never agree to extradition because he believes Thaksin's conviction was politically motivated, a comment Thai leaders say is tantamount to meddling in their domestic affairs. "Thaksin wants to cause chaos at home and remind his supporters he's still alive," said Puangthong Pawakapan, a specialist on Thai-Cambodian relations at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Thaksin is still immensely popular among Thailand's rural poor and his red-shirted supporters have staged frequent street rallies in Bangkok, calling for his pardon and return. Abhisit's allies, the urban elite centred in Bangkok who wear the king's traditional colour of yellow at protests, plan a demonstration of their own on Sunday in Bangkok to denounce Thaksin and the Cambodian government. "Abhisit is under heavy pressure by groups in Thailand to act," added Puangthong. Extremists within the yellow-shirt movement want him to take bolder retaliation against Cambodia -- from closing all border trade to stepping up Thailand's military presence on the border. Suthep said on Wednesday the government had no plans to close the border.

Analysts say closing it could hurt Thailand as much as Cambodia, especially if Cambodia turned to Vietnam for more of its imports. (Writing by Jason Szep; Additional reporting by Pracha Hariraksapitak; Editing by Alan Raybould and Jerry Norton) Keywords: THAILAND CAMBODIA/ ([e-mail]; [phone]. Reuters messaging [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

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