For those of you who are struggling to piece together the background on the current tensions between Thailand and Saudi Arabia, Reuters’ Andrew Marshall has provided an excellent accout. Here are the openning paragraphs:
The curse of the blue diamond has struck Thailand once again.
The tortuous two-decade saga of theft, deception, incompetence, corruption and murder burst back into the spotlight this month, doing renewed damage to Thailand’s economy, its relations with Middle Eastern countries, and prospects for reconciliation in its troubled mainly-Muslim southern provinces.
It is a story that reveals a great deal about the unbridled corruption of the Royal Thai Police, the weakness of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in the face of powerful entrenched vested interests, and the ham-fisted approach of many Thai officials when trying to defuse a crisis.
The tale begins in 1989 when Kriangkrai Techamong, a Thai janitor working in one of the palaces of Saudi Prince Faisal bin Fahd, snuck into the princess’s bedroom, grabbed a stash of jewellery and gems including a famous blue diamond, hid them in a vacuum cleaner bag, shipped them back to Thailand with DHL and then fled Saudi Arabia. Once back home in Lampang province in northern Thailand he found it difficult to dispose of the haul, and started selling individual items for just a handful of dollars. A jeweller, Santhi Sithanakan, got wind of what was happening and managed to buy most of the gems from Kriangkrai at a fraction of their value.
By this time the Saudi royals had realised they’d been robbed and alerted the Thai authorities. A team of police led by Lieutenant-General Chalor Kerdthes quickly collared Kriangkrai, tracked down Santhi, and announced they had recovered the stolen loot. Kriangkrai was sentenced to seven years in jail; he served three before being released early because he had confessed to the crime. Chalor headed a delegation that flew to Saudi to return the haul to Prince Faisal.
This was when things started to go badly wrong for the reputation of the Royal Thai Police and for Thai-Saudi relations.
14 responses so far ↓
1 Leah Hoyt // Sep 26, 2010 at 7:24 pm
This is good and useful article. However, would make two points, or perhaps critiques:
1) I find it odd that Andrew chooses to excoriate the police in isolation. It seems pretty clear to be that stumbling block is outside of the police department and that the patronage structure that makes this all work is a uniform and organized system that exists across the Thai bureaucracy.
2) He also neglected what I found to be the most interesting part of Mr. Ashri’s linked statement.
“I maintained our courteous approach to the sensitive situation which is why I have resolved to work at bilateral diplomatic levels with the Thai government instead of publicly addressing every single comment made by officials regarding the issue”.
What is so sensitive about this case? And isn’t that usually a code word for something else?
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2 Wern // Sep 26, 2010 at 8:11 pm
Leah,
I believe its sensitive because any information regarding the case might be deem as breaking the LM law
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3 Mr Damage // Sep 26, 2010 at 10:12 pm
It would indeed seem to be far beyond the usual corruption, thieving and lies. To endure such widespread international humiliation for so long it would appear that someone very powerful indeed is being protected. And of course their aggrandizement with a trinket that can never even be worn in public takes precedence over the country’s interests.
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4 Leah Hoyt // Sep 26, 2010 at 11:46 pm
Indeed.
It also may be interesting, although less so, to observe that Chalor is not wearing leg irons in the photo. I had thought that those brought to court for serious crimes, which certainly must apply to him, had to wear them and was not aware that this was discretionary.
A few of these links appear to confirm this, but I may be out on a limb on this one.
http://www.bing-vs-google.com/?q=thailand+leg+irons
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5 David Brown // Sep 26, 2010 at 11:54 pm
thanks to the Andres, Leah and Wern….
it seems the most effective way to cover up all sorts of crimes in Thailand is to involve people that are protected by the LM laws
sometimes even insinuating involvement can be sufficient, for example military, PAD and government claims to be “protecting” the monarchy has been a very effective cover story for repression, murder and a myriad of wealth creation schemes
extreme wealth and power without accountability is fertile soil for arrogance and ruthless use of “ordinary” people for personal gratification
sad really
absolute monarchs have become constitutional monarchs answerable to governments elected by the people because the “ordinary” people have recognised that unfettered power becomes evil
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6 john francis lee // Sep 27, 2010 at 2:14 am
The only difference between Thaksin’s Regime and this one is that Thaksin was elected and this one was installed by the coupsters. All that eyewash about “corruption” was and is just that. Corruption is alive, well, and in fact vibrant and thriving.
The only thing The Regime have unequivocally managed to do is to totally gut and destroy democracy, such as it was, in Thailand; purposefully and determinedly rolling the Sisyphean rock up the hill, purposefully and determinedly leaving the Thai people out in the tropical sun, their livers the food of vultures.
Adding insult to injury they speak incessantly of morality, these thugs, these scum, these assassins, these thieves.
See Cause and Defect:
No one believes in the integrity of the Thai government much less in its infallible divinity on which the acceptability of its “explanations” is apparently predicated.
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7 chris beale // Sep 27, 2010 at 3:23 am
Congratulations to Andrew Marshall, and New Mandala – both for their courage and honesty on this matter.
You are great inspiration that the corrupt and evil will not remain unexposed.
Ditto to the three posters above.
I suggest anyone interested in this ticking time-bomb beneath the Thai throne, read what Paul Handley says re. the stolen Blue Diamond.
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8 Anonymous Thai // Sep 27, 2010 at 4:33 am
Any idea why Suthep and Abhisit need to suck up to Somkid so much? Just money, or did Somkid do a particularly good job in squashing the Red Shirts up in Chiang Mai, or does he have “high connections?”
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9 Tarrin // Sep 27, 2010 at 11:32 am
Anonymous Thai – 8
It was because Somkid was the one who responsible for forging fake evidence for the PPP dissolution case, so the Dem owe him quite a lot.
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10 WLH // Sep 27, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Leah Hoyt: perhaps Mr Ashri simply knows a kindred spirit when he sees one.
The underlying, wryly hilarious twist to all this is that Saudi is itself famous for corruption, cronyism, non-transparency, and the tyranny of one massive “sensitive” subject.
In Saudi, it’s a plethora of greedy, unprincipled royals who have to strike a Faustian bargain with a powerful Wahhabi sect and its unquestionable Islamism in order to hold on to non-democratic power.
In Thailand it’s a plethora of greedy, unprincipled politicians who have to strike a Faustian bargain with a powerful military and its unquestionable monarchism in order to hold on to non-democratic power.
Missing diamond or not, the two governments ought to be good friends on principle alone.
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11 john francis lee // Sep 27, 2010 at 11:01 pm
The structural similarities between the Saudi and Thai Regimes might make it seem that they ought to be “good friends”… but the terminal greed exhibited on the Thai end points up the bankruptcy of the concept of friends based upon the “principle” of hurray for me and a knife in the back for you… and for everyone else if it means a single satang more in my pocket… on which Thailand is “governed”.
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12 Independent // Sep 28, 2010 at 5:51 am
A T #8
Widely reported in the Nation and the Bankok Post so read more and Google first.
The Nation 13 Jan. 2010:
“After the military coup on September 19, 2005, Somkid had a stable career reportedly due to the influence of his brother, Army General Somjate Boonthanom, one of the many coup plotters.”
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2010/01/13/national/national_30120205.php
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13 chris beale // Sep 29, 2010 at 2:38 am
WLH #10 :
“Missing diamond or not, the two governments ought to be good friends on principle alone.”
But the fact is they are NOT – in fact look like (bitter?) enemies.
Such divisions are the way ruling classes fall.
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14 Tarrin // Sep 29, 2010 at 11:10 am
Added on christ beale
Seeing how better off the citizen of Middle East compare to Thailand we can see so much different between their respective governing philosophy as well.
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