Pubdate: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 Source: Associated Press (Wire) Copyright: 2003 Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Thailand (Thailand) THAI PM TRANSFERS POLICE ACCUSED OF BLOCKING DRUG PROBES BANGKOK (AP)--Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Tuesday he had transferred several police officials, including two senior officers, for obstructing investigations in the country's ongoing war on drugs. More than 300 suspects have been killed in the three-month crackdown launched on Feb. 1 aimed at wiping out Thailand's vast illicit drug trade. While police blame the deaths mostly on gang warfare, human rights advocates fear officers may be following a "shoot-to-kill" policy. Tuesday, seven more suspects were reported shot dead. Police said the victims were killed in gang-related attacks intended to silence potential informants. Thaksin told reporters that two police sub-colonels and several noncommissioned officers will be moved to "inactive posts." He said he would delay a move proposed by the Interior Ministry to punish hundreds of officials suspected of blocking investigators and 20 local governors for failing to take action in the campaign. "I will give them a chance for 10 more days because some of them seem to be able to correct" the problem, Thaksin said, as he departed Bangkok for an official visit to China. Tuesday, the Interior Ministry submitted to the Cabinet a list of 710 government officials suspected of being involved in the drug trade and requested permission to take action against them. Among those listed were 209 police officers, 42 military officers, 233 village leaders, 124 sub-district administrators, 58 Education Ministry officials and 14 Health Ministry officials. In Thaksin's absence, acting Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh is expected to decide at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday to postpone the decision by a week, according to a government spokesman. In the latest drug-related violence, three suspects were shot dead in Nakhon Sri Thammarat, 590 kilometers (365 miles) south of Bangkok, and another four were shot in northern Mae Sot, a town on the Myanmar border. Police made no arrests in either case, but said the seven victims were killed in gang-related attacks intended to silence potential informants. Including the killings Monday, the death toll has reached 326 since the campaign began more than two weeks ago, according to police figures. But Thaksin said last week that the toll had risen to 350. Police say 15 of the suspects were killed by police in self-defense while the rest were victims of gang warfare. The Public Health Ministry has estimated that more than 3 million people are addicted to drugs, mostly methamphetamines. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake