U.S. Spars With Thailand Over Politician’s Alleged Drug Links

The Clinton Administration is engaging the new Thai government in some political brinkmanship in an effort to prevent a politician alleged to have links with the narcotics trade from becoming a Cabinet minister.

The disagreement between Washington and Bangkok is the first fallout from Sunday’s election victory by the conservative Chart Thai (Thai Nation) party. The party, headed by Banharn Silpaarcha, has announced that it will form a coalition government involving seven parties.

Nicholas Burns, a State Department spokesman, took the unusual step of warning the incoming government that relations could suffer if Chart Thai deputy leader Watana Asavahame is offered a Cabinet job.

Watana and two other Chart Thai politicians have been refused visas to visit the United States because of their alleged narcotics connections, which have never been spelled out.

“Inasmuch as they were refused visas because we had reason to believe that they were involved in drug trafficking, the appointment of these individuals obviously could complicate the bilateral relationship between Thailand and the U.S.,” Burns said.

But Chart Thai reacted strongly to the U.S. warning. “Thailand is not a colony of the United States,” a party spokesman told Reuters news agency. “Whatever political procedures we are following, we’ll do it our way, by our democratic rules.”

On Monday, soon after the new governing coalition was stitched together, Thaksin Shinawatra, the leader of the Palang Dharma, or Force of Justice party, told reporters that he had agreed to join the coalition on the condition that Watana would not be given a job of Cabinet rank.

But by Thursday, the Thai press was hinting that Banharn had decided to appoint Watana to a ministerial job, perhaps in part because he feared being accused of bowing to pressure from the United States.

Banharn, meanwhile, moved to increase the coalition’s majority in Parliament by including the tiny Nam Thai party. Nam Thai won 18 seats in Sunday’s election, bringing the coalition’s total to 233 out of the 391 seats in Parliament.