Pubdate: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 Source: Straits Times (Singapore) Copyright: 2003 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Contact: http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/429 Singapore: Police death squads 'executing traffickers' Author: Arnaud Dubus POLICE DEATH SQUADS 'EXECUTING TRAFFICKERS' Thai police are suspected of being responsible for most of the 352 deaths in the country's war against drugs during the past two weeks BANGKOK - Police death squads are believed to be executing drug traffickers in Thailand's aggressive war against drugs. The Thai police have been known to take matters into their own hands in the past and mete out their brand of justice when they deem it necessary, and there is a fear that this practice is being revived, a police source told The Straits Times.Advertisement A staggering 352 suspected drug traffickers have been killed in the past two weeks. Gruesome clips and pictures of bullet-ridden bodies are carried almost daily by the local media. Most of the dead are drug dealers murdered by their accomplices who want to stop them squealing to the authorities, said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. 'It is bandits killing bandits,' he said. The Thai police have acknowledged killing only 13 of them, 'all in self-defence'. But doubts about how these traffickers were killed are increasing by the day. Many Thais still remember a notorious case in the 90s in which six handcuffed drug traffickers were shot in the head, allegedly on the orders of a Thai police general. The men were killed in the midst of a group of Thai journalists in Suphanburi province. There are fears that the police are taking this route again, but on a larger and more systematic scale, said the police source. Refering to the latest death figures, he said: 'I would say a maximum of 30 per cent of the killings in the last two weeks would have been traffickers killing each other. 'The rest of the dead were either killed in shootouts or extrajudicial executions by special teams of the police.' Indeed, many murders do not fit the pattern of an internal gang war. Officially, there has been no mention of death squads. In fact, Mr Thaksin has even warned police against taking the law into their own hands and has threatened to act against them. 'If someone thinks their relative was killed in suspicious circumstances, they can complain to me. 'I will have officials investigate. 'But I am confident the police would not do that because all the people who were killed in self defence had a dark background,' said Mr Thaksin, a former police officer. But Thai and international human rights organisations are doubtful. 'Who would dare to complain?' asks Miss Somsri Hananuntasuk of Forum Asia, a Thai non-governmental organisation. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens