Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, undaunted by an avalanche of criticism after more than 2,500 people were killed in his first war on drugs, launched another one on Monday, vowing to destroy drug bosses.

"We have to take serious actions against them because these wicked diseases never die," Thaksin said.

"We will continue our drastic actions against those I see as destroyers of everything from the future of our nation, our economy and our society. Many families have fallen apart because of them," he told hundreds of law enforcers and volunteers.

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Thailand's Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has announced a second phase of his controversial war on drugs, vowing to destroy drug bosses.

Mr Thaksin says he needs to maintain his drastic approach because drug dealers are destroying the future.

He has ordered school principals to keep a close eye on students and directed village chiefs to monitor unemployed youths, the main targets of drug dealers.

The main weapon in the current drive will be legal restraints, including anti-money laundering and tax evasion laws.

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Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday warned drug dealers against remaining in the trade while his government staged an "all-out war" on drugs over the next year.

"Nobody will be able to help them if they continue dealing in drugs. If they want to see the Prince of Hell, let me know," he said.

Thaksin said that the government would carry out another round in the war on drugs from this month until October of next year.

Thousands of suspected drug dealers were killed in the previous round of the government's war on drugs, attracting criticism from human-rights activists.

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A recent US State Department report salutes Thailand's progress in shutting down international drug traffickers, but much remains to be done on the home front.

Despite stepped up efforts at suppression by Burmese authorities, huge quantities of methamphetamines _ known in Thailand as ya ba (crazy drug) _ are still made in clandestine labs in Burma and smuggled into Thailand via the common border and through neighbouring countries. Intelligence sources say that most of the estimated 800 million ya ba tablets produced annually in Burma enter into Thailand.

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Chiang Mai _ The director of the Northern Narcotics Control Centre is confident Thailand will be free of illegal drugs in six or seven years.

Thailand will also support drug suppression in neighbouring countries through intelligence sharing and technical assistance.

Pitthaya Jinawat told a workshop he was certain Thailand would be free of illegal drugs by 2010 or 2011, well before 2015, the year set by the United Nations for Asian nations to become drug free.

Thailand will also provide training, intelligence and equipment to its neighbours in Southeast Asia, especially Laos and Vietnam, for use in fighting drugs.

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A Knowledgeable Source Claims That, Contrary To Common Belief, Opium Poppy Cultivation Has Increased In Some Areas Of Burma

"I don't like drugs and addicts. They don't want to work and they commit crimes to fund their habit." These were the first words out of the mouth of Sai Kam (not his real name), who agreed to meet and tell "everything" about the drug business along the Thai-Burmese border. Sai Kam is an agent for an anti-narcotics group based in Nam Hkam in northern Shan State of Burma. There has been a significant increase in opium poppy cultivation between Nam Hkam and Kutkai areas in the past years because of the reduced output in Wa, Kokang and other regions of the state, he said.

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The Drug Combating Center in Chiang Mai recently held a training session for 250 teachers, Boy Scout leaders and other community leaders within the municipal area. Atthacha Kampanartsaenyakorn, head of the Drug Combating Center, said he believed communities working with the center were becoming stronger, but the drug scourge would continue if there was not a sufficiently vigorous and able law enforcement against drug dealers and money launderers.

He cited the cases of Laota Saenlee, whose conviction was cancelled by the Court of First Instance and of Wei Hsuesh-kang's righthand man, whose properties had been confiscated by the Anti Money Laundering Office (AMLO) but were returned to him after he hired a talented lawyer to fight his case.

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Following a royal amnesty to mark HM the Queen's birthday, 203 of the 3,787 prisoners in Chiang Mai Central Prison walked free on September 9.

They were all considered as 'trustworthy' prisoners and had less than one year of their sentences to go. Most had been arrested in connection with drug offences.

This is the second release of male prisoners at Chiang Mai Central Prison. The first took place on National Mother's Day, when 109 prisoners were released.

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Good news has been slowly accumulating in and around Thailand that the tide is turning against illicit drugs, and especially against the criminals who make, sell and smuggle them. The latest small step forward was the decision by US authorities that the significance of the drug trade has dropped. President George W. Bush removed Thailand from a list of 22 countries where there is big-time drug trafficking. It is a realistic decision, although some will argue it could divert attention from the hurricane of drug trafficking all around the calm eye which is Thailand.

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An Australian who has spent the last 11 years in nine Thai prisons has gone on a hunger strike to convince authorities to extradite him so he can face drug charges in the United States.

Martin Garnett, 37, who is known to prison authorities as Mitchell Blake, marked his 4,000th day of incarceration with the promise to refuse food until he is transferred out of the country or he dies.

According to a report in The Australian, Garnett said his extradition to the US has been stalled because Thai authorities stand to lose face if he reveals information about corruption in the prison system.

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July was a 'productive' month for the police, as 700 people allegedly involved in drug trafficking in the eight northern provinces were arrested, according to the Provincial Police Bureau Region 5. The two provinces that yielded the most arrests were Chiang Rai (301) and Chiang Mai (192).

Of these, four were actual drug producers and 10 were simply 'mules' who carried drugs into Thailand from other countries. In those figures there were also 318 drug users and 161 others were caught in possession of drugs.

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A Klong Toei drug boss was found guilty of drug trafficking yesterday and sentenced to life imprisonment on circumstantial evidence.

Supap "Pap 70 Rai" Sidaeng, an underworld leader in the slum community, was found guilty of methamphetamine trafficking in a verdict sure to set a new trend in drug litigation.

In a departure from other drug cases relying on physical evidence, Supap was convicted because the Criminal Court was certain he was a "first-tier trafficker".

"The defendant is a Jek Pua [first-tier trafficker] and corroborated testimonies of drug gang members have told this court that Jek Pua-level bosses are not personally involved in drug transactions," the verdict said.

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Clearing Laos' hills of poppies has created major social and health problems for traditional farmers

The Lao government's headlong rush towards its 2005 deadline for total opium eradication is hailed by drug control agencies as a remarkable success. But many Lao people have little cause to celebrate.

International NGOs and development specialists have issued warnings about the looming humanitarian disaster inflicted on hilltribes people, cajoled and coerced to abandon their traditional opium livelihoods without any alternatives in place.

The cold statistics of the Laos Opium Survey 2004 and the triumphalist comments of Antonio Maria Costa, director of the United Nations Office of Drug and Crime, or Undoc, about the end of opium in the Golden Triangle, ignores the human costs and suffering for the Hmong, Akha and other hilltribes ravaged by disease in resettlement zones.

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The most cost-efficient way to rid Thai society of HIV-positive injection drug users is, apparently, to murder them. In a bid to draw world attention to the issue, NYC-based Human Rights Watch and Montreal-based Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network this weekend are awarding their annual International Award for Action on HIV/AIDS to the Thai Drug Users' Network. The network has been operating across Thailand to reduce drug abuse and HIV infection while documenting up to 3,000 government-sponsored killings of drug users in the last year.

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Dying for Thai drugs

The most cost-efficient way to rid Thai society of HIV-positive injection drug users is, apparently, to murder them. In a bid to draw world attention to the issue, NYC-based Human Rights Watch and Montreal-based Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network this weekend are awarding their annual International Award for Action on HIV/AIDS to the Thai Drug Users' Network. The network has been operating across Thailand to reduce drug abuse and HIV infection while documenting up to 3,000 government-sponsored killings of drug users in the last year. "People are terrified because anyone can suggest a name for a [anti-drug/HIV] blacklist," explains Karyn Kaplan, TDN's international advocacy co-ordinator. "They go down to the police station and when they leave cops follow people suspected of [taking] drugs and kill them. There were no trials. They were just shot."

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Rattananurak Health Rehabilitation Center in Lampang's Muang district was officially opened by the Minister of Public Health, Sudarat Keyuraphan, on August 20. The center, on Huay Peng Road, began operating last December for drug rehabilitation for addicts from 17 northern provinces.

The center's main programs are based on a community-based drug rehabilitation method. All drug users and addicts live together as a big family in a safe and drug-free environment. The center also develops their social skills, alter their behavior and increase their opportunities to be employed and keep them off drugs in future.

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To the Editors of the Chiangmai Mail:

Thanks for publishing Eric Knudsen's outstanding letter: "What's The Drug War About" (Sat, Aug. 14th).

I'd like to add that the United States government is in no position to give any other nation advice on how to run an anti-drugs campaign. No other nation has wasted more resources in fighting drugs and no other nation has imprisoned more of its citizens for drug law violations than the U. S., yet no other nation has been less successful in solving its drug problem than the United States.

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Phuket, Thailand has proposed the setting up of 10 more border liaison offices in the four Mekong countries and an increase in the frequency of patrols along the Mekong river in a bid to stem the flow of illicit drugs.

The proposal was tabled during a four-day meeting of representatives of drug suppression agencies from Thailand and Burma. The meeting, which began Sept 5 and ended yesterday, was co-chaired by Narcotics Control Board (NCB) secretary-general Pol Gen Chidchai Wannasathit and Burma's police chief Pol Maj-Gen Khin Yin.

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The Narcotics Control Board has set up teams to examine the deaths of 2,500 people who perished last year during the war on drugs.

Pol Lt-Gen Chidchai Wannasathit, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, said three teams comprising staff from the Attorney-General's Office, the Justice Ministry and law enforcement officers would investigate the cause of death in each case.

Police had also set up a working group to look into the cases, he said, after His Majesty the King urged an inquiry during his birthday speech last December.

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But The Big Fish Escapes Again

Drug Suppression Division of Provincial Police Bureau, Region 5, in cooperation with Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), United State's Department of Justice arrested a Hmong drug dealer, Chaiyong Worachotwanaprai, 31, and seized a total of 750,000 ya ba tablets in Chiang Dao district, Chiang Mai on August 15.

A press conference was held at the Provincial Police Bureau, Region 5 with Chiang Mai Governor Suwat Tantipat, Pol Lt Gen Chalor Chuwong, Commissioner of Provincial Police Bureau, Region 5, Pol Lt Gen Watcharapol Prasarnratchakij, Commander of the Drug Suppression Division, and American and Thai officials of the DEA, and Chiang Mai Police Airborne Unit in attendance.

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