THAI EXECUTIONS MEANT TO SHOCK

The Public Supports The Government's Antinarcotics Strategy - A Fast-track
Death Row For Convicts

BANGKOK, THAILAND - When Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra swept to victory
here in January, he said his government would focus on three main areas:
rooting out corruption, saving the beleaguered economy, and combating drugs
with increased vigor.

The public and pundits may dispute his intentions, let alone his success
with the first two goals. But there is no arguing that he is fulfilling his
promise to hit hard on drug criminals.

Thailand's escalation in its war on drugs was most evident on April 18,
when it executed four convicted drug traffickers at the Bangkwang Maximum
Security Prison in Bangkok. Two of those executed were foreigners - a Hong
Kong national and a Taiwan national. One week before, the government went
ahead with its first execution since it came to power, and the first of a
drug offender in years.

But not only were the latest executions carried out by firing squad, one
after the other, the news media was invited to cover the prisoners' last
moments, after they were informed at 4 p.m. that they were to be executed
just one hour later. Reporters were not present at the execution, but
pictures of the convicts eating their last meals and kissing the earth
filled television reports that evening and newspapers the next day.

"Right now, in China and Malaysia, they do the same thing," Deputy Prime
Minister Gen. Thammarak Isurangura told the Monitor in a statement
explaining why the media was invited. "We need to have the population be
afraid of committing offenses such as these, and be submissive to the law."

Strong Public Support

Indeed, in contrast to weakening support in the United States for the death
penalty, the latest poll taken by the Rajjapatra Institute in Bangkok
showed that 88.4 percent of Thais support capital punishment. In a 2000
Harris poll, 64 percent of Americans approved, versus 75 percent in 1997.

Currently, seven drug traffickers are on death row at Bangkwang and 180
other convicted drug criminals have been sentenced to die, but have not yet
exhausted their appeals. A total of 318 inmates, 288 men and 30 women, are
on death row for various crimes.

According to Chartchai Suthiklom, the deputy secretary general of the
Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), capital punishment is a useful
tool in their war, and is a punishment that fits the crime. "The punishment
is quite high, but is meant for the big-timers, and it's not only Thailand
that has execution," Mr. Chartchai says. "The method of punishment must
actually punish the perpetrator, and if you look at drug criminals, they
are worse than murderers. Murderers kill one person, a drug dealer kills
1,000, and kills the future of the country as well, so why not give them
the highest punishment?"

Although cultivation of drugs such as opium and marijuana, and the
production of heroin and methamphetamines, has decreased considerably here
due to highly successful crop eradication programs, Thailand still finds
itself a major transit hub of illicit narcotics.

As part of the "Golden Triangle," the flow of drugs into Thailand from
neighboring Burma, and to a lesser extent, Laos and Cambodia, is still
rampant, and is now the main target of Thailand's counter-narcotics
operations. While figures on the quantity of narcotics being smuggled
through Thailand are difficult to estimate, several seizures - each
consisting of dozens of kilograms of heroin and millions of methamphetamine
pills over the last year - indicate the drug trade here is alive and kicking.

While many of the drugs flowing through Thailand eventually find their way
out of the country, drug use among Thais continues to rise, and is used by
the government as further justification for the hard line on drug traffickers.

According to the ONCB, there are now 300,000 Thais addicted to drugs, and 2
million casual users, in a country of 66 million. Moreover, they are not
using "softer" drugs like marijuana - the most frequently consumed drug is
the highly addictive stimulant, methamphetamine. This, Chartchai says,
signifies the need to do "whatever it takes" to fight those who are
bringing drugs into the country.

Rising Prison Population

And the results are clear. According to the ONCB, in 1992, Thailand had a
total prison population of 54,955, of which just under one-fourth were
incarcerated for drug crimes. In 1999, the last year for which figures are
available, the prison population had risen to 115,079, 50 percent of whom
were incarcerated for drug crimes.

While the executions met with approval from the general public, the
government - and the prime minister in particular - received condemnation
from international nongovernmental groups for both extending the death
penalty to drug criminals and foreigners, and creating the spectacle to
drive home the point.

"By using execution, you just take one life, and that doesn't mean that
it's going to solve the problems of poverty and lack of education that
contribute to the drug problem in the first place. People still won't
understand how bad the problem is," says Saovanee Limmanont, executive
director of Amnesty International Thailand.

"I agree with [Prime Minister] Thaksin when he said there must be some
fight against the drug problem," adds Ms. Saovanee. "But not the death
penalty - that's not the answer. The other thing is that using those
executions, making a spectacle of it to the public, is not fair to the
family of the inmates. They shouldn't use execution as a PR tool."

Whether it was international pressure, or Thai uneasiness over the media
hype, something about the way in which the April 18 executions were carried
out has led to a reversal on the media-coverage policy. When the next
execution takes place, the media will not be there as witnesses. Some
speculate that perhaps the identity of the next person on death row had
something to do with it: What would public reaction be to the coverage of a
woman's last hours?

According to Thammarak, the reasoning behind the reversal is that the point
the government wished to make - that drug traffickers will be dealt with
harshly - has been sufficiently made.

But while the point may have been made to the public, prisoners should not
expect any show of mercy. "There are no exceptions to the law.... The judge
can make a decision [on sentencing] and we must accept his decision once he
does," Chartchai says. "Everyone is equal when you commit a crime in this
country.... Otherwise, [criminals] will think Thailand is a haven for
committing crime."