Thaksin is not bad exes : Noppadon

By The Nation
11 Oct, 2010

Fugitive Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will not sue writer of a US magazine who listed him among "Bad Exes," but instead will write to explain facts, Thaksin's personal spokesman Noppadon Pattama said Monday.

Noppadon also dismissed on behalf of Thaksin the information in the article written by Joshua Keating, entitled Bad Exes, in Foreign Policy magazine, that Thaksin used false name and passport to enable him to live in Germany for a year.

"Thaksin reportedly lived under a false name in Germany for more than a year and has used illegally received passports from a number of other countries as well," Keating said in the article.

Noppadon said maybe Keating, whom he knows very well, has lived in Washington which is very far from Thailand, so he did not know the truth about the matter.

Noppadon said in a press conference, "I dare to challenge anyone to come out to show evidence that Thaksin used the false name and passport. If anyone could, he or she will be rewarded Bt1 million per each evidence."

Defending allegations that Thaksin used false name and passport Noppadon said that Thaksin has a unique face, wherever he goes, people will regconise him.

Noppadon said Thaksin had lived in Germany for less than one year. "At present, Thaksin is holding passports of Montenegro and Nicaragua," Noppadon said.

Other ex-leaders listed as bad exes are former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, Nigeria's ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo and former Philippine leader Joseph Estrada.

Keating said in his article "since being deposed in a 2006 coup amid allegations of graft and human rights abuses, Thaksin has lived a peripatetic existence. The former billionaire businessman has served as a "special ambassador" for Nicaragua and an economic advisor in Cambodia, and was briefly owner of the Manchester City soccer club.