Connecting the Dots

It is a bit like tracking mud around the house with dirty shoes. Countries that host convicted fugitive Thaksin are suddenly finding that relationships with Thailand quickly head south.

Even before Thaksin was convicted, countries got a taste of what it was like to host Thaksin. Shortly after the 2006 coup that ousted Thaksin, Singapore was the first country to get a taste as Thaksin launched an attack on Thailand from there and that resulted in Thai / Singapore relationships going sour very fast.

As time went on more and more countries started to carefully weigh having Thaksin around. The first country to revoke Thaksin’s visa was Great Britain while he was out of the country planning yet another attack on Thailand. From that point on Thaksin started to see his world shrink just like the polar bears.

This does bring up the question if the Thai government is going over board on Thaksin. If it were anyone else other than Thaksin, the answer would be yes. But because Thaksin is actively attacking Thailand and has harmed so many people already, the answer is absolutely no.

Considering the level of reaction in Germany (story below), having Thaksin around is not just a subtle annoyance anymore. Apparently Mr. Werner Mauss is finding out now what it was like to dance with the devil. After reading the story, it appears some deception may have been used. If deception is being used, that should be a clear indicator on how hard it is getting for Thaksin to move around. The alleged six passports he holds is also another indicator on how shaky things are for Thaksin as most people only need one.

Quoting The Nation:

Berlin – A previously unnoticed sojourn by former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra in Germany at the start of this year upset Bangkok and triggered fury in Berlin, a German newspaper reported Friday.
The Munich newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung said Thaksin had last summer obtained a 90 day visa to visit Germany. Then, on December 29, 2008 in Bonn, he obtained a oneyear residency permit, picking it up in person without federal officials noticing.

The newspaper said the permit was cancelled at Berlin’s demand on May 28. It was not clear from the report where Thaksin was living now. The paper said he was using a Nicaraguan diplomatic passport. His Thai passport has been revoked.

The Sueddeutsche said the discovery that a Bonn immigration office had issued Thaksin a permit triggered interagency suspicions in the German federal government. But neither the Foreign Ministry nor the BND foreign intelligence service had known about the permit.

It said the billionaire, who stated he was living in Bonn’s elegant suburb of Bad Godesberg, had been accompanied to the immigration office by a respected lawyer, a retired German police commander and a freelance troubleshooter, Werner Mauss.

It said the clerk was given to understand that Mauss, 69, represented the BND. German diplomats, furious that German relations with Thailand had been endangered, initially accused the BND of engineering the visa. But Mauss had apparently acted independently.