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ANALYSIS
Anti-Thai riots: Cambodia
counts the costs
By Robert Carmichael
PHNOM PENH - The damage wrought by one night of violence in the Cambodian
capital has gone well beyond a smoldering Thai Embassy and smashed Thai
businesses. The Cambodian government has apologized profusely for its abysmal
reaction to the protests, which resulted in the Thai Embassy being looted and
burned on Wednesday night, and about a dozen Thai businesses plundered.
The violence was triggered by reports in the Cambodian media that Suwanna
Konying, a Thai actress, had said that if Cambodian officials wanted her to
come back to their country, they would have to return the historic Angkor Wat
temple to her. She denied making the statement. About 150 other people were
arrested for their part in the riots.
Thailand estimates the damage at about US$23 million and has demanded that
Phnom Penh reimburse both the Thai government and the businesses affected.
Bangkok has cut all economic and technical assistance pending a full
explanation and compensation by Cambodia. It also demanded that those
responsible be jailed.
A speech by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, calling for calm while blaming
unnamed "extremists" for the violence, was played repeatedly on local
television and radio throughout Thursday. But his pitch to the domestic
audience is as nothing to the explaining he will have to do to his larger
neighbor.
It was only three months ago that Hun Sen hosted the annual summit of
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders, which for the first
time took place in Cambodia. The talk was of unity and common purpose, closer
ties and better cooperation, and the success of the summit certainly boosted
Hun Sen's standing in the region. Then, just last week the city hosted the
ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF), with tourism ministers from the 10 nations present
in Phnom Penh. They recognized that safety and security are vital to attract
tourists. The talk from Cambodia's tourism minister was that "Visit Cambodia
Year 2003" was set to be a great success.
It is worth pointing out that tourism is a vital industry here, and one the
government is counting on to tackle widespread poverty. The drawcard of Angkor
Wat, which is what the spat was about, has the potential to generate billions
of dollars of revenue annually.
But just one day after the ATF closed, the city exploded in race-based rioting.
Tourists from France and the United States ended up picking through the shells
of their rooms at the Royal Phnom Penh Hotel, which was burned to the ground.
Hoteliers and tour operators are now rightly worried that the year will be a
disaster.
The extent of the damage to Hun Sen's personal standing in the region is not
clear. There will be a cost, though, not least because early in the week he had
joined in with his own verbal attack on the comments the Thai actress was
reported to have made. The government now accepts that those comments had no
basis in fact, and Hun Sen is trying to distance himself from what he said by
blaming others for what happened.
But the arena of domestic public opinion is very different from that of
international diplomacy, and it is here that he has much explaining to do. Thai
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was livid, describing the rioting as "the
worst incident ever" between the two nations. He expelled the Cambodian
ambassador to Thailand "for his own personal safety", and downgraded the
Cambodian mission to a charge d'affaires.
A blunt aide memoire from the Thai Foreign Ministry lambasted "the highest
levels" of the Cambodian government for a thoroughly inadequate response to
repeated pleas for protection from the ambassador, Chatchawed Chartsuwan. In a
remarkable turn of events he finally had to scale the back fence of his embassy
compound to escape dozens of protesters as they broke in over the front fence
and started looting and burning.
The Cambodian authorities said their thoroughly inadequate reaction to the
threat to the embassy was simply a naive underestimate of the potential for
trouble. Not many observers believe that. Certainly the Thais have made no
secret of their opinion that the protests were orchestrated, and have strongly
implied that Phnom Penh's slow reaction was a deliberate policy decision. The
Thai ambassador certainly felt the protest was a set up. If so, that raises the
questions of just who was behind the violence and why. Answers to both may
become clearer in the weeks ahead.
And there are fears here that, with just six months to go before a general
election, Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party could use Wednesday's
events of as an excuse to crack down on the opposition.
But whatever happens domestically, the international damage has been done.
Although the tourism minister tried on Thursday to play down the destruction,
tourists have left in droves and cancellations of future bookings are already
coming in.
And images of looted and burning Thai businesses will doubtless lead some
international investors, who crave stability and security, to conclude that the
country is still a basket case and not worth the risk. The fact that much of
the blame for the rioting falls squarely on the shoulders of the government is
a sad indictment for a country whose international image seldom manages to
escape its violent, Khmer Rouge past.
As one despairing Commerce Ministry official told the Phnom Penh Post: "It will
affect investors, because they will look at our history. We have just started
to rebuild our reputation. After each event, we try to rebuild our image, then
something else happens. It is difficult for investors to believe it."
Robert Carmichael is the managing editor of the fortnightly Phnom Penh
Post newspaper.
(©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contactcontent@atimes.com
for information on our sales and syndication policies.)
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