Pubdate: Sun, 09 Feb 2003 Source: Agence France-Presses (France Wire) Copyright: 2003 Agence France-Presse AT LEAST 87 KILLED IN FIRST WEEK OF THAI DRUGS WAR At least 87 suspected drug traffickers have been killed, either by police or by other dealers, in the first seven days of Thailand's war on drugs, the national police chief said. "Police killed eight of them in self-defence," Major General Pongsapat Pongcharoen told Thai television in an interview. "The rest were killed by drug gang members." On February 1 Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra launched a highly publicised three-month war on drugs aimed at eliminating the scourge from the kingdom. In the first week of the campaign police have arrested some 9,232 people and seized 4.25 million methamphetamine pills and 150 million baht (3.5 million dollars) in assets. The death toll revealed by Pongsapat illuminates a disturbing trend within the ranks of suspected drug gangs: that they are willing to kill each other to avoid the risk of betrayal should their accomplices turn themselves in. "Police want to arrest them alive, but drug dealers are concerned that more information will be leaked to police (by their fellow dealers), so they decide to kill them," Pongsapat said. Few additional details about the victims were revealed. The revelations have led to worries over the possibility that authorities could be conducting extra-judicial killings. The shooting of drugs suspects, while not unusual in Thailand, has caused concern among domestic and international human rights groups, particularly as the blitz has swung into action. Thaksin's campaign is focused on the mushrooming methamphetamine trade. Some four percent of the Thai population is estimated to be addicted to "yaa baa" or "crazy pills," as they are commonly known. The vast majority of the pills flow from drugs factories in Myanmar operating along the Thai border and police are bracing for up to one billion pills to be trafficked into Thailand this year. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth