In an attempt to tackle the long-standing problem of drug dealings being run by convicted dealers, Ratchaburi's Khao Bin prison will be the first to get mobile phone jamming devices.

Costing Bt50 million, the devices will be installed at eight locations on the premises to block phone calls between convicts and drug dealers. Even though the devices also disrupt the signals for prison officials and residents living nearby, no formal complaints have been received yet.

Next year, the devices will be installed in Bangkok's Khlong Prem prison as well as the Central Correctional Institution for Drug Addicts in the same compound, Nonthaburi's Bang Khwang and Nakhon Ratchasima's Khlong Phai prisons, director-general of the Corrections Department, Chartchai Sutthiklom, said yesterday.

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Video Spurs Questions Over Why Man Was Shot Repeatedly

Human rights advocates called yesterday for a probe into the police's extrajudicial killing of the drug-dealer and highway-shooting suspect Charnchai "Joke Phaikhiew" Prasongsil on December 11.

The posting of a video of the shooting on YouTube has spurred questions about why police shot the suspect twice when the situation appeared already in control.

The Human Rights Lawyers Association, the Union of Civil Liberties (UCL), the Thai Coalition for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, the Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF) and the Human Rights and Development Foundation yesterday issued a statement about the incident.

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With an effort to amend the Constitution going on, we might as well propose the deletion of Article 39. This article states that a suspect or defendant in a criminal case is presumed innocent, and that before the court convicts a person, he cannot be treated as a convict.

This right has been repeatedly violated, and no one raises the issue. A case in point is the recent police news conference in which a drug suspect was thrown before a pack of reporters who had a field day abusing him verbally. The suspect dropped his head in disgrace, but a four-star police general gently pushed the man's chin up to face the snarling wolves. He even touched-up the suspect's tousled hair.

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RATCHABURI : Inmates at Khao Bin prison will find it harder to run the drugs trade from behind bars after authorities installed mobile phone signal jammers there, as part of Corrections Department efforts to keep jails clean.

Justice Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga said eight jammers have been installed at the maximum security jail, which authorities hope will help stamp out the drugs trade flourishing behind bars.

They were not powerful enough to disrupt phones in use outside the prison.

The 50 million baht cost of installing the jammers at Khao Bin prison, in Chom Bung district, was funded by the Office of the Narcotics Control Board.

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Few would argue that the country would be better off without the drug dealers, big-time and street corner variety alike. It is crucial, then, that the government proceed carefully on a promised new crackdown against the men and women corrupting the nation by selling illicit, harmful drugs.

Ridding the neighbourhoods of drug peddlers is a goal that unites everyone. But the 2003 travesty of a "war on drugs" still haunts. Authorities cannot afford another human rights disaster and effectively combat the odious and harmful drug trade.

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A government plan to launch a fresh crackdown on drugs is raising concerns among human rights advocates who fear a repeat of the mistakes which characterised the Thaksin Shinawatra administration's war on drugs.

It is believed up to 2,600 people were killed, many in suspicious circumstances, during the 2003 campaign launched by Thaksin.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban yesterday called a meeting of the National Narcotics Board to discuss the operational details of a new campaign aimed at curbing drug use and drug-related crime. Mr Suthep chairs the board.

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Faced with an increase in the amount of drugs being smuggled into the country, officials are seeking closer co-operation with foreign agencies

Thailand is in the middle of a growing drug war, and is not only confronting the problem on the home front but is also battling it as far away as the Middle East and West Africa.

But the man at the centre of the fight against the illicit drug trade, Police General Krisna Polananta, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), concedes that despite the best efforts of government agencies and their foreign counterparts, the lucrative business is increasing.

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Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will set up a committee to reinvestigate the extra-judicial killings of drug suspects during the Thaksin Shinawatra administration's war on drugs.

Mr Abhisit announced the formation of the panel yesterday after being questioned in parliament by Chalerm Yubamrung, chief of the Puea Thai Party MPs.

Mr Chalerm said that when Mr Abhisit was the leader of the opposition bloc, he accused Thaksin of committing crimes against humanity by ordering the extra-judicial killings of more than 2,500 people suspected of involvement in drug trafficking, during the war on drugs in 2003.

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PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop, some top officials and a lot of police officers crashed some of Phuket City's most popular parties on Friday night -- on the hunt for drugs and weapons.

But those who fret about the loose morals of Thailand's youth of today will be relieved to find out the police came out empty-handed.

Gov Wichai, Vice Governor Smith Palawatvichai, Phuket Public Health Office officials, customs officers and Phuket City Police took part in the raids at the Kortormor, Sofa and Blue Marina nightclubs.

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An Australian man charged with drug smuggling in Thailand says he has made a "big mistake" and is going to "pay for it".

Andrew Hoods, 36, was arrested at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi international airport's departure hall on Wednesday afternoon with 3kg of heroin strapped to his body, Thai officials said.

He was charged with drug smuggling after Thai Customs found the drugs concealed in 12 packages.

Thai police said another Australian, believed to be a friend of Hoods, is on the run after managing to escape from the airport.

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Concerns Raised Over Human Rights Violations

Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat yesterday revived the controversial war on drugs, kicking off a 90-day campaign and stirring concerns about a new wave of human rights violations.

He played down the deaths of thousands of people in the previous war on drugs by the Thaksin Shinawatra administration, which drew condemnation from around the world - deaths Thai authorities blamed on drug dealers.

Delivering an anti-drugs policy to a gathering of about 500 officials at the Army Club, Mr Somchai called on the authorities to exploit all the resources at their disposal to fight drugs.

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The government yesterday launched its drug suppression campaign at a ceremony presided over by Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.

The war on drugs is scheduled for November to January.

In his speech, Somchai encouraged authorities to devote their full attention to fighting drug trafficking although he cautioned them that his government will not condone silence killings, which had cast a shadow over the 2003 campaign against illicit drugs.

Thaksin launched his war on drugs in 2003. Human rights groups have said that at least 2,500 people were killed in extrajudicial killings during the campaign.

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Just Another Populist Push, Govt Critics Say

CHIANG MAI : Justice Minister Somsak Kiatsuranond yesterday kicked off a drugs suppression drive in the North amid concerns that the revived campaign was just another populist scheme to strengthen the People Power party's political grip on the region.

Concerns were rife at yesterday's meeting which was attended by 500 people to learn about the government's 90-day drugs suppression operation scheduled to run from this month through to January next year.

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In recent years, the number of governments aiding terrorists and subversives has dwindled, and support by the few recalcitrant regimes has become far more secretive. That has come largely because such governments are internationally reviled, subject to high-profile United Nations sanctions and shame. As the utter horror of terrorism has become better known, no government and few groups can be seen to lend their backing. Unfortunately, the terrorists and agents of repression have not followed the road to respectability. Because even terrorism and rebellion cost money, violent gangs have turned to another source of funding. Around the world, drug and terrorist gangs have formed links or joined up.

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On Dec 10 this year, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human rights.

On that day in 1948, all member countries convened in Paris to endorse the fundamental rights of all human beings regardless of gender, race, colour or religion.

Thailand ratified the declaration right from the start. We are now party to five major international human-rights instruments: the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

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Thai And Lao Officials Agree To Crack Down On Drug Trafficking

PATTAYA : Thai and Lao officials have agreed to step up border patrols and increase law enforcement to crack down on drug traffickers, who are now using new routes into Thailand from Burma and Laos. The agreement signed by Justice Minister Sompong Amornwiwat and Lao Minister to the President's Office Soubanh Srithirath was reached at the end of a four-day meeting on cross-border drug cooperation and control in Pattaya on Thursday.

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15 Tonnes Of Illegal Drugs Worth B10bn Destroyed

AYUTTHAYA : Armed police commandos were deployed to secure the destruction of 15 tonnes of drugs worth over 10 billion baht yesterday. The drugs were incinerated to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, in Bang Pa-in Industrial Estate.

They served as evidence in 2,915 cases which had been decided by the courts, and were kept at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warehouses in the province.

Among the illicit drugs were 32 million methamphetamine pills, weighing around three tonnes.

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Aids and human rights activists are planning to organise demonstrations in front of an international UNAids meeting in Chiang Mai and New York City on Wednesday to call on the government to reconsider its controversial war on drugs, saying it undermined the fight against Aids.

They said Thailand's last effort to eradicate drugs, implemented in 2003 under former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, included extrajudicial killings, 'blacklisting' of suspected drug users and dealers, and forced drug 'treatment' in militarystyle facilities.

The campaign ended in nearly 3,000 lives, about half of whom had no connection to drugs, the groups said in a press statement released Tuesday.

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Corrections Department Cutting Off Contact Between Drug Dealers On The Outside And Inside To Stem Flow Of Narcotics

Devices to block mobile phone signals have been installed at three maximum security prisons to cut off contact between prisoners and drug dealers on the outside, Corrections Department chief Wanchai Rujanawong said yesterday. Mr Wanchai said the devices were installed after a series of attempts to contact dealers and bring drugs into the prisons.

Last week some crystal metham-phetamine, or Ya Ice, was discovered hidden inside the cover of a pocket book sent to Lueng Pak Lun, a Korean convicted of drug offences, in zone 10 of the Khlong Prem Central Prison.

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BANGKOK -Thailand officially launched a controversial "war on drugs" yesterday, promising not to commit any extra-judicial killings, which rights groups say plagued an earlier anti-narcotics push.

Chalerm Yoobumrung, the country's Interior Minister who is heading the campaign, said the government would follow the rule of law, but issued a dark warning to those involved in the drugs trade. "If anyone does not want to die, don't walk this road," he said.

Human rights groups have said at least 2,500 people died in extrajudicial killings in 2003 and 2004 during a similar get-tough campaign. They accuse police and security officers of murdering suspected drug dealers, but a government investigation found security forces were acting in self-defence.

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