Yesterday, I briefly blogged about how the Thai crisis underlines the obstacles to international mediation in Asian conflicts. I noted a new paper from CIC that explores this problem, and the limitations on the UN in particular. So I was struck by this story from the BBC today:
A [Thai protest] leader, Nattawut Saikua, said protesters were willing to hold UN-moderated talks to end the stand-off, providing that the army withdrew from the area around the red-shirt camp.
But government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn insisted that no outside help was needed.
“We reject their demands for UN mediation… No Thai government has ever let anyone intervene with our internal affairs,” he said.
There’s a significant historical dimension here: Thailand was never colonized, and Thai politicians are scared of anything that might look like “letting the colonizers in at last”. But this case highlights the UN’s wider problems in Asia…
