THAILAND ENFORCES A POLICY OF TAKE-NO-PRISONERS IN ITS WAR ON DRUGS

Away from the scrutiny of the "embeds" and their videophones, another war
is under way in which more than 2,000 people have died in the last two
months and more than 42,000 prisoners have been taken.

The war is in Thailand. It was declared on Feb. 1 by Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra against the country's epidemic of drug taking and trafficking,
mostly of amphetamine pills known as yaa baa -- crazy pills -- manufactured
by warlords in neighbouring Burma.

What is not clear, though, is who is killing whom.

According to the police and government, the vast majority of the killings
have been kingpins in the drug trade murdering lesser dealers who might
inform on them.

Opposition politicians and human rights organizations don't believe it.

They think Thaksin has given the police a licence to shoot-to-kill the
pedlars as the most direct way of dealing with Thailand's massive drug
problem. At least three million Thais, five per cent of the country's 63
million population, are thought to be addicted to the yaa baa pills.

But Thai people do not appear to be impressed by warnings from the United
Nations, Amnesty International and their own Human Rights Commission that
the war might undermine their hard-won democracy and rule of law.

A recent poll showed that up to 90 per cent of Thais support their prime
minister's war. That sampling of opinion was taken before some highly
publicized "civilian" deaths, including several children, bystanders and a
75-year-old grandmother.

In response Thaksin ordered the justice ministry to investigate the police
actions.

This has only led to suspicions that different branches of government have
their own song sheets. Police failed to respond to the justice ministry
requests for reports on the deaths of more than 1,000 people killed in the
first month of the campaign.

Attorney General Wichian Wiriyaprasit said last week he was confused by the
lack of response from the police because the order for the probe came from
the prime minister.

"I suspect the silencings were carried out to prevent the dead from
implicating the police," he said.

Certainly, several hundred police officers are on a list compiled in recent
months of 55,000 people suspected of being involved in the drug trade.

Thaksin, himself a former police officer who began his climb to being
Thailand's richest man by selling computers to his employers, has made no
bones about what he expects of his former colleagues.

"In this war, drug dealers must die," Thaksin said at the start of the
campaign. "But we don't kill them. It's a matter of the bad guys killing
the bad guys."

Thaksin has set quotas and deadlines for police chiefs and regional
governors to clear names from the list of 55,000 suspects. Those officials
who don't meet their quotas will be fired or re-assigned, he warned.

"The government's strategy is to smoke out pushers, who will be eliminated
by their own kind," Thaksin said. "I don't understand why some people are
so concerned about them while neglecting to care for the future of one
million children who are lured into becoming drug users."

Interior Minister Wan Mohammed Noor Matha, who appears to be more in the
loop than the justice minister, was equally blunt. Drug dealers, he warned,
will "be put behind bars or even vanish without a trace. Who cares? They
are destroying our country."

Police acknowledge killing 42 suspects in shoot-outs in the first seven
weeks of the campaign. They say six police officers have been killed and
another 15 wounded.

Critics don't believe that account. "According to our research, most of
them are killed by police because they want to meet their [quota] target,"
said Somchai Homlaor, secretary general of the Thai human rights group
Forum Asia. "In many provinces there are death squads roaming around
killing drug dealers. The rule of law and democracy could disappear overnight."

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions and
Amnesty International have expressed concern about the conduct of the war.
After Thailand's national human rights commissioner, Dr. Pradit
Chareonthaitawee, made similar comments, he started getting death threats
from anonymous telephone callers.

Some people in the government are sensitive to the harm this campaign might
be doing to Thailand's international reputation.

Last month, the foreign ministry held a briefing on the war for more than
50 Bangkok-based diplomats. "We are not insensitive to the concerns of the
international community, but we want the international community to see our
side of the story," a ministry spokesman told reporters after the meeting.

"It's necessary for the government to take decisive action to deal with the
drug problem."

Any embarrassment the Thai government might feel about the conduct of its
war -- and there's precious little evidence it feels any -- might end when
the war itself ends at the end of this month.

With the drug problem dead and buried, at least until the Burmese druglords
can arrange a new network, the hyperactive Thaksin has another war plan on
his map table.

This one, starting in May, is going to be against the national blight of
corruption. It is unlikely the death toll will be as high in the next war.

But anyone on the take must be wondering under what rules of engagement the
police will be operating.