Thailand protests Myanmar slur against monarchy
Thailand protests Myanmar slur against monarchy
BANGKOK (DPA): Thailand on Thursday issued a strongly worded protest against Myanmar's leading state-run newspaper for publishing an article that was deemed insulting to the much- revered Thai monarchy.
In what Thai Foreign Minister Surakiat Sathirathai described as "strong diplomatic action," the Thai embassy to Yangon was ordered to issue the protest against an article printed in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a government mouthpiece, to Myanmar's foreign ministry.
The article, published on Monday, reportedly attacked one of Thailand's most revered monarchs for signing a trade treaty in 1855 with Britain, claiming the treaty had subjugated Thailand to the former colonial power.
Thais are extremely proud of the fact that they were never colonized, unlike all their neighbors in Southeast Asia which fell to either the British, the French or the Dutch in the 19th century.
The New Light of Myanmar article, entitled Never been enslaved, but real slave, was part of series of opinion pieces published in the daily newspaper over the past week that have attacked Thailand as a "bad neighbor" and criticized Thailand's national character.
"Flawed by ingrained prejudice and total disregard for historical accuracy, the articles have gone beyond the accepted bounds and norms of behavior by thoughtlessly affronting the most revered institution of the Thai nation and people," said Thailand's "Aide Memoire" diplomatic note to Myanmar.
It added, "The Royal Thai Government, therefore, protests against the Government of the Union of Myanmar in the strongest terms for the publication of the profane articles in the state- run newspaper."
The Thai note urged Myanmar to "cease the on-going campaign by Myanmar state-run media organizations to publish hostile articles and reports designed to incite hatred between the two peoples."
The protest came three days after Myanmar troops reportedly fired five artillery shells into a royal agricultural project set up by Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej in northern Thailand.
The shells landed on Tuesday in a plum orchard that is part of the Royal Project at Doi Angkang in Chiang Mai, 650 kilometers north of Bangkok and just one kilometer from the Thai-Myanmar border.
The project was set up more than a decade ago by the king as part of a crop substitution project for hilltribe people formerly growing opium in the area.
Thai-Myanmar relations have reached a historic low this year as a result of several incursions and artillery clashes along their shared 2,400-kilometer-long common border.
Thailand has blamed the Myanmar junta for turning a blind eye to the illicit production of massive amounts of methamphetamines by its ally the United Wa State Army. Yangon has accused the Thais of supporting the Shan State Army in its five-decade-old insurgency against Myanmar troops.