Thailand’s Burma Loan to Come under Scrutiny

By WILLIAM BOOT / BANGKOK

Thailand’s bureaucracy was thrown into confusion on Monday by a decision by the state Assets Scrutiny Committee (ASC) to re-examine the US $125 million loan to Burma approved by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The loan was suspended after Thaksin was ousted in a military coup in September 2006.

But less than two weeks ago, the new Thai Foreign Minister, Noppadon Pattama, insisted that Thailand’s Export-Import Bank was at liberty to hand over to the Burmese junta any of the remaining loan still outstanding.

The loan was suspended on the grounds that its main purpose was to enable Burma’s military junta to buy communications equipment directly linked with Shin Satellite, which was owned by Thaksin’s family at the time.

An ASC investigation sub-committee, announcing on Monday it was still examining the case, said it was considering whether to forward to the attorney-general a recommendation of prosecution against Thaksin for alleged misuse of state funds.

It is also unclear just how much of the US $125 million was advanced to Burma before Thaksin’s dismissal and the suspension of the loan.

Noppadon said only 25 percent, or about $31 million, had been handed to Burma. But Bangkok media reports last year quoted ASC officials as saying only about $10 million was outstanding.

Reports are also hazy, say observers, on the exact size of the final loan agreement. Most reports have said it was between 1 billion and 4 billion baht ($30.3 million and $132 million).

In mid March, Noppadon, formerly Thaksin’s lawyer, said “political wrangles” in Thailand should not get in the way of improving relations with Burma. “Thailand’s internal problems have no effect on the right of Burma to get the money,” he said.
However, news that the ASC is after all re-examining the loan case coincides with Thaksin’s surprise return to Thailand.

He arrived in Bangkok unexpectedly on Sunday from Britain where he had returned to oversee his English Premiership football club Manchester City, after earlier voluntarily returning from self- imposed exile.

The former PM’s return to Thailand earlier than scheduled was not related to his defense in court to fight land deal charges, Thaksin’s spokesman Phongthep Thepkanchana was quoted by the official Thai News Agency as saying.

Thaksin is scheduled to appear at a court hearing on April 29 in the land deal case, in which his wife Pojaman is also a defendant.

The ASC was also due to consider a request to end a freeze on assets in the name of Pinthongta Shinawatra, one of Thaksin's daughters, to the value of about $60 million.