Thursday 25 December 2008

News with hope from Irrawaddy


Today, Christmas Day 2008, the Irrawady website (http://www.irrawaddy.org/) posted this news that the new Government in Thailand will be more supportive of the Burmese people. We wait with hope to see what this means for our friends in Mae Sot.

Speaking at an academic conference on December 19, Thailand's new Foreign Minister, Kasit Piromya, said that Thailand would now run “an ethical foreign policy,” in contrast to that of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his hand-picked successors.

“From now on, there will be no personal business dealings on the side. This government will not mix business and politics,” he said. “We shall have no [personal] business deals with the [Burmese] junta; we shall observe human rights and environmental concerns; we shall treat Burmese as we do Thais.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I only wish this were true. Kasit was a supporter of the PAD who were the ones who closed down Thailand's airports. His view of democracy is that many Thais are "not ready" and so Parliament should have a large appointed contingent of "educated people". The treatment by the Thai navy of the Rohingya boat people from Burma when they towed them out to sea and set them adrift was a disgrace.