Pubdate: Sun, 02 Mar 2003
Source: Observer, The (UK)
Copyright: 2003 The Observer
Contact:  http://www.observer.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/315
Author: Nick Cumming-Bruce

'HIT SQUAD KILLINGS' STAIN THAI DRUG WAR

1,140 Dead In A Month As Fear Stalks Nation

Six weeks shy of his ninth birthday Chakkapan Srisa-ard achieved a 
notoriety he could never have expected. He died, caught in gunfire during a 
police sting operation in Bangkok, a victim of a bloody government war on 
drugs that is coming under increasing scrutiny.

Chakkapan's death came after his father was arrested making a drug delivery 
to undercover agents. When his mother tried to escape in the family car, 
police opened fire. Chakkapan, hit in the back, died on the spot. Police 
have arrested three officers but they say they fired in the air and the 
fatal shots came from a gang member on a motorcycle.

Raeed Junuthai, a 53-year-old housewife murdered a week earlier in 
Suphanburi province, shows another facet of the deadly force unleashed by 
Thai leaders to smash the drug scourge in a country with one of the highest 
rates of amphetamine abuse.

Her husband Somkiat relates how a district councillor warned Raeed two 
weeks ago she was on a drugs blacklist and should report to local police. 
The next morning a gunman shot her dead a few hundred yards from her home.

Neighbours said a stranger in a white pick-up asked for her while she was 
out fishing in rice paddies. Soon after they saw him stop his car, walk up 
to her and heard gunfire. Somkiat found her face down beside the road, shot 
in the head, back and arms.

The dress, weapon and competence of the gunman leave Somkiat convinced she 
was shot by undercover police. 'It's horrible, I'm so scared, I can't work, 
I have nothing to give my children,' Somkiat said. 'If we were dealing 
drugs we wouldn't be poor like this,' he said gesturing around the empty 
brick and wood house.

Both deaths shed light on one of the world's bloodiestdrug war. By Friday, 
government figures showed more than 1,140 deaths and 8,500 arrests since 
February 1.

Police put the killings at 500, but acknowledge shooting only 22, claim 
self-defence, and say drug gangs are behind the rest. But like most Thais, 
lawyer Somchai Homlaor of the human rights group Asia Forum, believes 
police death squads are to blame.

Killings of dealers are not new here. At the Justice Ministry's Central 
Institute of Forensic Science, Porntip Rojanasunan is used to 
execution-style shootings and 'has no doubt' some are the work of police 
squads. Around Suphanburi, locals say such killings have been going on for 
years and are accepted to be the work of undercover government agents.

But the scale has caused alarm. Thailand is becoming 'a kingdom of fear,' 
said Judge Charan Pakdithanakul, of Thailand's National Human Rights 
Commission.

The government admits some 700 police and military officials are implicated 
in drug-dealing. 'We are afraid that dealers who are also government 
officials can use their power to kill people to prevent them giving 
information or becoming witnesses,' said Asia Forum's Somchai.

The driving force behind the crackdown is Prime Minister Thaksin 
Shinawatra, a billionaire business tycoon turned politician who prides 
himself on decisive action. Five years ago he pledged to solve Bangkok's 
traffic problems in 90 days, only to face media derision when little 
changed. He has set a three-month deadline to crush the drugs industry. 
Opinion polls have shown Thaksin has overwhelming public support. 
Amphetamines or ' yaa baa ' (crazy pills) have seeped into every corner and 
most classrooms, evidence of a level of drug abuse among the highest in the 
world.

The Interior Ministry ordered provincial governors to cut down a blacklist 
of over 46,000 names of drug dealers and consumers by 25 per cent in the 
first month. Interior minister Wan Muhammad Noor Matha warned failure to do 
this could cost governors their jobs.

In Suphanburi province, district administration chief Kriengkrai praises 
the campaign. 'If the problem isn't tackled in this way my district will 
have a problem with 6,000 people not 600 and all officials will be drug 
dealers with the wealth to buy an election,' he said. He added the killing 
of Mrs Raeed galvanised those on the blacklist to turn themselves in.

But police bosses question the reliability of the lists and criticism of 
the campaign escalated at home and abroad with the mounting evidence of its 
violent excess.

'Encouragement for extra-judicial killings has been given at the highest 
level with law enforcement officers under heavy pressure to produce results 
or lose their jobs,' Amnesty International warned.

The UN High Commission on Human Rights this week expressed 'deep concern', 
urging strict compliance with international standards of human rights and 
called for an investigation.

To make matters worse, the campaign has inflicted little damage on the 
drugs kingpins. 'If you scrutinise the names of those killed, there's not a 
single big-time dealer,' said Judge Charan.

'In this war drug dealers must die,' Thaksin said. 'But we don't kill them, 
it's a matter of the bad guy killing the bad guys.'

He has been puzzled at the protest. 'I don't understand why some people are 
so concerned about [pushers] while neglecting to care for the future of one 
million children who are becoming lured into becoming drug users.'

But it was difficult to sidestep the protest on Thursday when a television 
cameraman fell to his knees with a petition to investigate his parents' 
murder, shot after reporting to police.

Thaksin this week will call a review of the campaign's conduct, 
particularly on government blacklists. On Friday he announced the formation 
of committees to monitor police performance and protection of informants 
and witnesses.

Thaksin has now ordered a probe into Chakkapan's death. But attempts by 
Porntip to join the investigation and autopsy quickly ran into a police 
brick wall. A victim's next of kin can request a second, independent 
autopsy, but the child's father is in custody. Unsurprisingly he has made 
no such request.
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