泰柬兩國糾紛升級 相互召回大使
泰國駐柬埔寨大使潑萊士星期四離開金邊
柬埔寨任命泰國前總理他信出任政府經濟顧問的決定導致兩國關係進一步惡化。
他信目前流亡國外，泰國法庭要求他就所犯的貪污罪服刑。
泰國不僅召回了駐金邊的大使，而且還計劃重新考慮對柬埔寨的援助項目和一些雙邊協議。泰國政府表示，他們的行動是為了回應柬埔寨對泰國事務的干涉。
柬埔寨隨後又採取報復行動，召回了駐曼谷的大使。但是柬埔寨官員說，這是在泰國大使返回金邊之前採取的臨時行動。
柬埔寨政府表示，任命他信出任柬埔寨政府顧問是一個經濟決定，而不是政治決定。
但是柬埔寨政府同時聲稱，他信是泰國政治鬥爭的受害者。這顯然意味著，柬埔寨不會答應曼谷提出的任何引渡他信的要求。
此外，泰柬兩國還在柏威夏古寺附近的邊界地區存在著嚴重的領土爭端。
泰國和柬埔寨總理星期五將有機會商談兩國間的糾紛，因為到時候他們都會出席在東京召開的一次地區峰會。
節譯／葉興台
美國10年來的最高層代表3日抵達緬甸，提醒世人歐巴馬政府外交新政策必須解決的緬甸諸多問題。美國最近對緬甸的政策轉變，主要環繞在民權鬥士翁山 蘇姬和2 千1百名政治犯身上，事實上，聯合國秘書長潘基文7月就點名這是緬甸民主化的最大障礙，翁山蘇姬和這些政治犯的遭囚禁成為全球媒體的焦點，但只是緬甸的諸 多問題之一。
很多人質疑歐巴馬政府增加與緬甸軍政府對話這種外交政策轉變，究竟會有多大的效果，這能否處理緬甸社會根深蒂固的貪污問題，或讓緬甸軍政府減少軍事支出，重視可憐的民眾健康和教育？這能否解決緬甸軍政府對宗教自由的打壓？
歐巴馬政府已很少提到仰光到內比都（緬甸新首都）這條外狹長通道上緬甸偏遠少數族群地區的持續危機，數十年來這些地區不斷發生零星衝突，各少數族群 為了爭取自治而與緬甸軍政府起爭執。美國約翰霍普金斯大學流行病學家克里斯‧貝爾勒（Chris Beyrer）最近在美國聯邦眾議外交事務委員會院作證時，將此視為緬甸今日的第二大隱憂。
過去數十年來，由於緬甸軍政府的政治決定，緬甸各少數族裔有數百萬人遭遷移到別處。克里斯‧貝爾勒引述研究指出，鄰近中國的撣邦（Shan state），過去一年有超過4分之1的家庭被緬甸軍政府遷移到別處，24％的家庭有一名成員被軍方強迫徵召勞動。
從1948年獨立以來，由緬甸多數種族主導的軍政府就制訂種族隔離法令，將其他少數族裔貼上暴力標籤。代表6百萬撣族利益的撣邦眾民族民主聯盟 （Shan Nationalities League for Democracy），在1990年的國會大選中力挺翁山蘇姬領導的政黨，該聯盟領袖昆吞烏（Hkun Htun Oo）在2005年因叛國罪遭求刑93年，昆吞烏是否被釋放，顯然沒有被美國列為與緬甸軍政府的談判目標。
緬甸極不穩定的邊界地區是另一個令人擔憂的原因，最近幾個這些地區月持續發生騷動。今年6月，緬甸政府軍和克倫族聯盟（Karen National Union）交戰，5千名難民從克倫邦邊界湧入泰國。今年8和9月，緬甸軍政府對果敢族（Kokang）軍隊發動攻擊，約3萬7千名撣族人逃入中國。東緬 甸信奉伊斯蘭教的洛興雅人（Rohingya）持續被緬甸和孟加拉政府像皮球一樣推來推去，兩國政府都不願接納這個貧窮和遭受迫害的少數族群。
如果歐巴馬政府希望尋求緬甸鄰近國家的協助，最好再想一下。作為東南亞國協老大的泰國，最近幾個月雖然不斷對緬甸軍政府施壓，但只是口頭上施壓，效果如何令人存疑。上週泰國監督東南亞第一個人權機構的成立，但這個機構沒有懲處權，似乎又是一個只會進行口頭譴責的無力平台。
儘管緬甸政府軍和克倫族聯盟6月的交戰，泰國政府曾重砲抨擊，但泰國對緬甸族群衝突危機的冷漠實在令人費解。
克里斯‧貝爾勒表示，位於泰國境內西北邊境的美索鎮（Mae Sot）的一家診所，過去一年醫治了2萬名緬甸人，很多人是因為族群衝突而逃難至此，這些人無法在緬甸得到適當的醫治，緬甸軍政府每年花在每名國民身上的 醫療經費不到一美元。這個統計數字提供歐巴馬政府明確證據，它所面對和交涉的緬甸軍政府，不僅將40％的預算用於軍事支出，最近還被指控把90億美元政府 基金存入新加坡銀行的私人帳戶。
歐巴馬政府已對緬甸軍政府發出強硬措辭，但現在還不清楚這些措辭能否轉換成更圓滑、務實的外交政策。緬甸的族群衝突雖然未成為全球媒體的重要議題， 但歐巴馬政府仍須將之與翁山蘇姬的釋放，納入與緬甸軍政府協商的議題之一，若將蘇山蘇姬的釋放視為最高優先，忽視緬甸的族群衝突等其他迫切的危機，可能是 歐巴馬政府的最大缺點。
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More to Burma than Aung San Suu Kyi
Obama's delegation must recognise that Rangoon's most famous dissident can distract from the country's wider crises
As the most senior level US delegation to visit Burma in decades is soon to touch down, it is worth reminding ourselves of the many problems in Burma that Washington's new policy needs to address.
Much of the rhetoric surrounding the recent US policy shift has focused on Aung San Suu Kyi and the 2,100 political prisoners in Burma; indeed, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon flagged this up in July as the most important obstacle to democracy in the country. Their plight, illuminated by the captivating Suu Kyi, is what grabs headlines across the world, but they are merely a taster of Burma's wider ruin.
Many are sceptical about the effect a shift towards greater dialogue between the generals and Washington will have. Will it be able to tackle entrenched corruption in Burmese society, or draw the junta away from a myopic focus on its military to the pitifully undernourished health and education sectors? Will it address what the US said this week were ongoing restrictions against religious freedom in the country?
The Obama administration has made comparatively little mention of ongoing crises in Burma's remote ethnic regions that lie well beyond the Rangoon-to-Naypyidaw diplomatic corridor, and which underlie the country's fragile state. Low-intensity conflict has steadily eaten away at these regions for decades, with groups sparring with the government for autonomy. A US health academic, Chris Beyrer, testifying recently to the US House foreign affairs committee, relegated this issue to "the second major cause for concern in Burma today".
The comment would have come as a blow to the millions of ethnic Burmese that for decades have been ousted, just like Suu Kyi, from any part of Burma's political decision-making process. Beyrer cited research that found that more than a quarter of families in Shan state, which borders China, had been forcibly relocated by government troops in the past year, while 24% had had one family member taken by the army for forced labour.
Since independence in 1948, successive military governments dominated by the majority Burman ethnicity have enacted a kind of racial supremacy, meting out a particularly violent brand of the minority treatment to all other ethnic groups. The Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), which represents the interests of the estimated 6 million Burmese Shan, came one place behind Suu Kyi's party in the 1990 elections. Its leader, Khun Htun Oo, was sentenced in 2005 to 93 years imprisonment on defamation charges, but the subject of his release remains conspicuously absent from any of the stated US goals for the country.
Burma's fragile border regions are another cause for concern, nearly all of which have at one point or another in recent months been sites of major flare-ups. In June, 5,000 refugees poured across the border from Karen state into Thailand following fighting between government troops and the ethnic Karen National Union (KNU). In August and September, an exodus of some 37,000 ethnic Shan fled into China after troops launched an offensive against an ethnic Kokang army. The Muslim Rohingya community in eastern Burma continues to be pushed back and forth across the border with Bangladesh, with neither country wanting the impoverished and persecuted minority.
If the US had hoped to look for assistance from Burma's regional neighbours, it had better think again. While Thailand, as head of the regional bloc, has perhaps made the most noticeable strides in recent months towards pressuring the regime, its lip-service is less than convincing. Last week it oversaw the launch of the region's first human rights body, which with no punitive powers, appears to be little more than a flimsy platform for further soft condemnation.
Thailand's indifference to the crisis is all the more perplexing given that it criticised the fighting near the border in June for its regional ramifications. Beyrer last week pointed out that one medical clinic in the Thai border town of Mae Sot had treated some 20,000 Burmese nationals in the past year, many of whom had suffered as a result of the fighting. These were people unable to find adequate treatment their own country, which spends around 40p per person each year on healthcare. It's a statistic that alone provides ample evidence of the mountain the US has to climb when faced with a government that channels some 40% of its budget into the military, and was accused recently of siphoning $9bn out of state funds into private Singaporean banks.
Powerful symbolic rhetoric is what won Barack Obama office, but it is yet to be seen whether that can translate into rounded, pragmatic diplomacy. The mass of issues that don't make headlines need to be factored into the engagement process on a par with negotiations over Suu Kyi's release. But her place at the top of the priority list, elevated way beyond the multitude of Burma's other pressing crises, may well be a sign of the new US administration's shortcomings.
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