US-Thai Relations: FTA With Thailand Opposed

Leading Congressman's Letter Slams Thaksin's 'Repression' of Freedom

A growing campaign in the US Congress to encourage the Bush Administration
to re-evaluate its policy with Thailand has reached a new height, with a
leading member of the House of Representatives making moves to derail
upcoming talks on free trade with Thailand.

In a letter circulated to other US lawmakers and obtained by The Nation
yesterday US Congressman Dennis J Kucinich, who is also a US presidential
candidate for the Democrat Party, urged his colleagues not to support a
free-trade agreement with Thailand "until we address Prime Minister
Thaksin's repressive policies and his cosying up to Burma's brutal military
junta".

The US Congress will be considering a new free-trade agreement with
Thailand, and a veto by the American lawmakers could prove an embarrassment
for both sides. US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick formally notified
the US Congress in February of the intention to begin free-trade-agreement
negotiations with Thailand.

Kucinich said: "Thailand is no longer the most democratic, open and free
partner of the United States in Southeast Asia that it once was.

"Prime Minister Thaksin Shina-watra has orchestrated a sweeping crackdown
and takeover of the news media," he said, pointing to apparent interference
with the Thai media that had resulted in the removal of editors and
journalists for criticism of the government.

Kucinich also criticised Thaksin's war on drugs, adding: "That too is
marred by contempt for rule of law." He quoted Amnesty International
reports, saying: "Thai authorities have been complicit in 2,600
extrajudicial murders of suspected, but never convicted, drug traffickers."

He blasted the Thaksin government for "increasingly cosying up to Burma's
military junta", the State Peace and Democratic Council (SPDC), and added
that the government's endorsement of Rangoon's so-called road map to
democracy was "clearly undermining US policy in the region".

"Let us not forget that last year Congress passed HR 2330, the Burmese
Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003, by a vote of [418-2] to halt all imports
from Burma so as to rebuke the SPDC for its atrocious human-rights record,"
he said.

"While it warms to the Burmese junta, Thaksin's Thailand is turning a cold
shoulder to Burmese refugees," he said, pointing to a recent report by
Human Rights Watch saying the government's repatriation "is placing
[Burmese] refugees and undocumented asylum-seekers in danger of
persecution, arrest, economic sanctions or other reprisals from government
authorities upon return to Burma".

"Finally it must be noted that the majority of workers on the
Thailand-Burma border working in Thai factories are Burmese refugees who
are working in sweatshop-like conditions with absolutely no labour-rights
standards," he said.

"Burmese trade-union organisers that have attempted to encourage workers to
demand better labour protection are now facing persecution and are on the
run from Thai police," he said.

"A free-trade agreement with Thailand will reward these anti-democracy,
anti-human-rights practices by the Thaksin government. It will also bolster
the military junta in Burma," he said.

US Senator Mitch McConnell made similar criticism in March of Thailand's
Burma policy and alleged that it might have been shaped by the Shinawatra
family's investment in that country.

"What investments, including projects and activities related to iPSTAR, do
Shin Satellite and Shin Corporation have in Burma, and/or have planned for
Burma?" McConnell asked the US Senate in early March.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell is scheduled to appear in front of the
Senate's Foreign Appropriation Subcommittee later this month, and the
Senator has said he will put the same questions to him. The subcommittee is
chaired by McConnell.