Pubdate: Tue, 08 Apr 2003
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2003 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Jonathan Manthorpe

THAILAND ENFORCES A POLICY OF TAKE-NO-PRISONERS IN ITS WAR ON DRUGS

Away from the scrutiny of the "embeds" and their videophones, another war 
is under way in which more than 2,000 people have died in the last two 
months and more than 42,000 prisoners have been taken.

The war is in Thailand. It was declared on Feb. 1 by Prime Minister Thaksin 
Shinawatra against the country's epidemic of drug taking and trafficking, 
mostly of amphetamine pills known as yaa baa -- crazy pills -- manufactured 
by warlords in neighbouring Burma.

What is not clear, though, is who is killing whom.

According to the police and government, the vast majority of the killings 
have been kingpins in the drug trade murdering lesser dealers who might 
inform on them.

Opposition politicians and human rights organizations don't believe it.

They think Thaksin has given the police a licence to shoot-to-kill the 
pedlars as the most direct way of dealing with Thailand's massive drug 
problem. At least three million Thais, five per cent of the country's 63 
million population, are thought to be addicted to the yaa baa pills.

But Thai people do not appear to be impressed by warnings from the United 
Nations, Amnesty International and their own Human Rights Commission that 
the war might undermine their hard-won democracy and rule of law.

A recent poll showed that up to 90 per cent of Thais support their prime 
minister's war. That sampling of opinion was taken before some highly 
publicized "civilian" deaths, including several children, bystanders and a 
75-year-old grandmother.

In response Thaksin ordered the justice ministry to investigate the police 
actions.

This has only led to suspicions that different branches of government have 
their own song sheets. Police failed to respond to the justice ministry 
requests for reports on the deaths of more than 1,000 people killed in the 
first month of the campaign.

Attorney General Wichian Wiriyaprasit said last week he was confused by the 
lack of response from the police because the order for the probe came from 
the prime minister.

"I suspect the silencings were carried out to prevent the dead from 
implicating the police," he said.

Certainly, several hundred police officers are on a list compiled in recent 
months of 55,000 people suspected of being involved in the drug trade.

Thaksin, himself a former police officer who began his climb to being 
Thailand's richest man by selling computers to his employers, has made no 
bones about what he expects of his former colleagues.

"In this war, drug dealers must die," Thaksin said at the start of the 
campaign. "But we don't kill them. It's a matter of the bad guys killing 
the bad guys."

Thaksin has set quotas and deadlines for police chiefs and regional 
governors to clear names from the list of 55,000 suspects. Those officials 
who don't meet their quotas will be fired or re-assigned, he warned.

"The government's strategy is to smoke out pushers, who will be eliminated 
by their own kind," Thaksin said. "I don't understand why some people are 
so concerned about them while neglecting to care for the future of one 
million children who are lured into becoming drug users."

Interior Minister Wan Mohammed Noor Matha, who appears to be more in the 
loop than the justice minister, was equally blunt. Drug dealers, he warned, 
will "be put behind bars or even vanish without a trace. Who cares? They 
are destroying our country."

Police acknowledge killing 42 suspects in shoot-outs in the first seven 
weeks of the campaign. They say six police officers have been killed and 
another 15 wounded.

Critics don't believe that account. "According to our research, most of 
them are killed by police because they want to meet their [quota] target," 
said Somchai Homlaor, secretary general of the Thai human rights group 
Forum Asia. "In many provinces there are death squads roaming around 
killing drug dealers. The rule of law and democracy could disappear overnight."

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions and 
Amnesty International have expressed concern about the conduct of the war. 
After Thailand's national human rights commissioner, Dr. Pradit 
Chareonthaitawee, made similar comments, he started getting death threats 
from anonymous telephone callers.

Some people in the government are sensitive to the harm this campaign might 
be doing to Thailand's international reputation.

Last month, the foreign ministry held a briefing on the war for more than 
50 Bangkok-based diplomats. "We are not insensitive to the concerns of the 
international community, but we want the international community to see our 
side of the story," a ministry spokesman told reporters after the meeting.

"It's necessary for the government to take decisive action to deal with the 
drug problem."

Any embarrassment the Thai government might feel about the conduct of its 
war -- and there's precious little evidence it feels any -- might end when 
the war itself ends at the end of this month.

With the drug problem dead and buried, at least until the Burmese druglords 
can arrange a new network, the hyperactive Thaksin has another war plan on 
his map table.

This one, starting in May, is going to be against the national blight of 
corruption. It is unlikely the death toll will be as high in the next war.

But anyone on the take must be wondering under what rules of engagement the 
police will be operating.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom