Pubdate: Sun, 30 Nov 2003 Source: Nation, The (Thailand) Copyright: 2003 Nation Multimedia Group Contact: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1963 Author: Nantiya Tangwisutijit DRUG WAR - Victory at what price? Chula Professor Says Body Count Is No Yardstick Of Final Success Is Thailand ready to declare victory in its war on drugs the day after tomorrow? "Perhaps, yes, if we don't think human rights is a problem," said Nualnoi Treerat, professor of political economy at Chulalongkorn University, referring to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's plan to declare the government's victory in its war on drugs on Tuesday. Police say that about 2,500 people were gunned down by drug mafia figures themselves during the first phase of the government war on drugs between February and April. They say these were "silent killings" carried out to keep people from naming their criminal bosses. Only one-fifth of the murderers were arrested while the rest of the death cases have not been resolved by police. Nevertheless, several public-opinion polls conducted this year suggest that the majority of people surveyed supported the government's harsh measures in its war on drugs, Nualnoi said. "We may have to call this 'populist justice'," she said. Nualnoi, who spent years studying the drugs problem and the underground economy, said methamphetamine pills seemed to have mostly disappeared from the country after the government started suppressing the trade with its harsh measures in February. "Now it is very difficult to find speed tablets where they used to be on sale," she said. "Those who have some may have already buried or destroyed them out of fear [of violent measures by the state]. If any are still available, the prices have risen from Bt50-Bt60 to Bt400-Bt500 apiece now." Inflows of methamphetamine pills over the Burmese border have also fallen because of the serious suppression measures, she said. There has been an increase in fighting between the Thai authorities and the drug-smugglers on the border. Further, the traders know they will be killed even if they give themselves up, she added. More important questions to be asked if this war can be called a victory are: "Will the problem return or will other kinds of drugs emerge? And what will the government do after Tuesday?" said Nualnoi. "If this [war] was easy, the problem would already have vanished in the United States, as it started drug suppression in the 1980s," she said. Studies from the United States and elsewhere suggest that drug problems rapidly return, especially when the state uses violent means to suppress them, she said. Nualnoi spoke yesterday at the opening of a two-day year-end conference on "Human Security" organised by the Thailand Development Research Institute. The economist was on the panel on "External Threats to Human Security" along with other experts, who talked about terrorism, trade in women and children and immigrant labour. "To tackle the drugs problem is supposedly to increase human security. But if the means are not just, they could create an atmosphere of fear, and such fear of violence could in return become a threat to human security," she said. National Human Rights Commissioner Jaran Ditthapichai added that investigations by the commission found that many of those killed during the government war on drugs were innocent people who had nothing to do with either the drugs trade or consumption. "On the other hand I am against such killings anyway, even if the people may be guilty", Jaran said. "This country has the rule of law to deal with criminals." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek