HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES CRITICAL AS BODIES PILE UP IN ANTI-DRUG WAR

BANGKOK, Thailand - The death toll in Thailand's war on drugs is growing,
and so too is criticism among human rights groups and the relatives of the
dead that police are pursuing the task too zealously.

Worried about the massive flow of the stimulant methamphetamine from
neighboring Myanmar, the government launched a three-month war on drugs
Feb. 1. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra promised to cleanse the country
of drugs, highly unlikely given the vast sums of money and deeply rooted
networks in the drug trade.

The campaign - in which at least 12 people have been killed by police so
far - has attracted criticism from the political opposition and human
rights activists who say the police are using a "shoot-to-kill" strategy.

"Police should not take the law into their own hands. They should arrest
and try suspects. This way, court testimony or police investigations will
lead to the arrest of the big fish," opposition leader and former Prime
Minister Chuan Leekpai told reporters. "Shoot-to-kill is a measure used by
authoritarian governments not an elected democracy."

Police say they have also arrested 7,000 suspected dealers, seized 4.2
million methamphetamine pills and confiscated 15 million $350,000 in cash
and assets in drug-related cases.

With drugs seeping into schools and even Buddhist monasteries, mostly
flowing in from neighboring Myanmar, the campaign has strong public
support. But some families say police are far too quick to pull the trigger.

"Come and see our house and how we live. How could a poor family like ours
be drug sellers?" asked the daughter of a suspected narcotics dealer shot
dead by police in the central Thailand town of Suphanburi. She gave a false
name, Da.

The man was one of 91 people police say have been killed during the 12 days
of the drug war so far, mostly in gang hits.

Police department spokesman Maj. Gen. Phongsaphat Phongcharoen says police
only fire back in self-defense.

"I think human rights activists shouldn't worry too much about these
traffickers' lives," said Interior Minister Wan Mohamad Noor Matha.

Human rights activist Somchai Homlahor told a recent seminar that with more
than 25,000 people on a police blacklist of suspected dealers, the safety
of some innocent people will be jeopardized.

Thaksin has visited Myanmar, also known as Burma, in recent days to seek
cooperation from its military rulers to stem the deluge.

Drug agencies estimate that more than 1 billion pills of the stimulant
methamphetamine are smuggled into Thailand each year along with large
amounts of heroin, and that more than 3 million Thais are addicted to the
speed pills.

Thailand accuses the United Wa State Army, a former ethnic rebel group
which signed a cease-fire with the Myanmar government, of trafficking in
the so-called Golden Triangle, where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and
Thailand meet.

It and other trafficking organizations are known to have connections with
senior Thai military and police officers as well as politicians and
businessmen, but critics say it's unlikely any of them will be netted in
the latest anti-drug campaign.

"We are too scared to say anything, but I don't believe that he was
involved with drugs," said the daughter of Kosol Nakraratho, who was on the
police's wanted list and later killed by gangsters in the eastern town of
Chonburi. She declined to give her name.

"We can only say that this is a big loss in our lives and he should not
have been killed in such a way," she said.