THAILAND PLANS WEEKLY EXECUTIONS

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Thailand plans to execute drug offenders every
week, starting Wednesday, in a bid to deter traffickers.

"From now on we will conduct weekly executions against drugs offenders,"
Interior Minister Purachai Piemsomboon said Wednesday.

"We are executing convicted narcotics offenders quickly to send a clear
signal to drug traffickers that this government is serious about taking
tough action against them," he said.

Executions are carried out by firing squads in Thailand.

There are 19 prisoners on death row in Thailand, all of them at Bangkwang
prison. Eleven were convicted of trafficking in methamphetamines, three of
whom were to be executed later Wednesday. For the first time journalists
would be allowed to film part of the death the execution, prison officils said.

Purachai did not say whether the weekly plan would bring forward the
execution dates. One convicted trafficker was executed last week.

The prisoners condemned to die Wednesday were identified as a 47-year-old
man from Hong Kong, a 33-year-old Taiwanese man and a 40-year-old Thai man.

They were convicted of conspiring to smuggle 7.5 pounds of heroin. Further
details of the case were not immediately available.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government, which took power in
February, has vowed to crack down on the drugs, which is mostly smuggled
from neighboring Myanmar, also known as Burma. Heroin and methamphetamines
are considered the leading cause of crime in Thailand.

The army on Wednesday announced it confiscated 7.6 million methamphetamine
tablets in the second-largest seizure ever.

A task force ambushed a drugs caravan manned by unidentified gunmen in
northwestern Tak province near the Myanmar border on Monday, an army
statement said. There were no casualties. It gave no details of any arrests.

In all, 325 convicts in Thailand have received death sentences, 184 for
drug trafficking. All but 19 are going through the appeals process.
Thailand has executed 298 prisoners since capital punishment was adopted in
1935.

The Bangkok Post newspaper reported Sunday that the government has
requested King Bhumibol Adulyadej that drug traffickers on death row be
deprived their right of petition for a royal pardon, which can delay their
execution by up to nine months.