Pubdate: Sun,  2 Mar 2003
Source: Straits Times (Singapore)
Copyright: 2003 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.
Contact:  http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/429
Author: Nirmal Ghosh
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Thailand
Note: On Feb. 1, 2003, Thailand instituted a 3-month campaign to eradicate
all drugs.

BLOODY CRACKDOWN LEAVES MANY CAUGHT IN LINE OF FIRE 

Victims Include Nine-Year-Old Boy And Six Village Leaders 

BANGKOK - The battle begins in the mountainous tropical jungles on the
border with Myanmar, and ends in blood-spattered sidewalks and back alleys
in Bangkok.

On Friday on one such muddy jungle track in northern Thailand's Muang
district, a pickup truck laboured uphill in low gear, carrying six local
leaders returning to their village fresh from an anti-drug meeting organised
by government officials.

Out of the silent jungle unseen gunmen opened fire with AK47s and 9mm
pistols, spraying the pickup with bullets. All six leaders were killed in
seconds, their bodies torn apart by more than 30 bullets. The back of the
truck was awash with blood from the broken bodies.

Local police said one of the victims was suspected of being a major drug
dealer with links across the Myanmar border.

It was possible other drug ring members were behind the attack, they said,
in an attempt to silence him - with the others in the line of fire.

Many more have been caught in the line of fire since the government's war on
drugs began on Feb 1.

Among them was nine-year old Chakkapan Srisa-ard. He was hit by two police
bullets when his mother tried to flee in her car after his father was
arrested in a sting operation. The father had'sold' several thousand
methamphetamine pills to an undercover team. 

Chakkapan was in the back seat of his parents' car when his mother drove
off. Police said they fired at the rear tyres to stop the car, and later
found the nine-year-old dead in the back seat. The police unit in question
is under investigation.

The death toll, which exceeds 1,000, has spawned a mounting chorus of
criticism at home and abroad.

According to anecdotal evidence, usually from eyewitnesses, many of the
killings have been carried out by men who behaved like police, arriving in
pickups, gunning the target down and departing in an almost casual,
unhurried manner after the hit.

Even close friends and neighbours who happened to be on the spot, or who may
or may not have been connected to the victims' alleged drug deals, were
gunned down.

On the streets of Thailand's major cities the word is out that police death
squads are eliminating drug peddlers.

In one case last Wednesday, a couple were unaccountably shot dead while
returning home after paying a nominal 5,000 baht (S$200) fine at a local
police station for possession of marijuana.

Incidents like these have had a chilling effect even on those who want to
turn themselves in to avoid being shot.

There is no guarantee, they say, that the police will not take their
confessions, even perhaps take a bribe, and then have them followed and
shot.

In a dramatic moment on Thursday, the couple's son, 23-year-old Suwit
Baison, went down on his knees and beseeched Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra to have the case investigated.

Mr Suwit was a television cameraman assigned to cover a function where Mr
Thaksin was appearing.

The Thai Premier listened intently and then said he planned to call a
meeting of six agencies involved in the anti-drug crackdown.

'We need to review some flawed areas. If setting targets creates problems
like this, I will talk to my subordinates about it,' he said.

In follow-up investigations, the complexity of the drug issue surfaced.

It transpired that Mr Suwit's mother had indeed been arrested by police for
dealing in methamphetamines last year - and had allegedly bribed them with
50,000 baht to be let off the hook.

Meanwhile, Mr Suwit told reporters that the most serious flaw of the policy
in the crackdown on drug dealers is that officers must meet the 25 per cent
target, adding that 'a clean-up team goes after those who have surrendered
to the police'.

Targets given to provincial governors and police commanders are a part of
the problem. They have been ordered to reduce the number of drug peddlers on
their lists by 25 per cent by Feb 28, the end of the first month of the
crackdown.

But the accuracy of the Interior Ministry's list of 46,177 names has been
widely questioned, even by national police chief Sant Saratunond.

Thailand's National Human Rights Commission has received complaints from
around 50 people who say they have mistakenly been included on the list.
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