THAILAND ARMS VILLAGERS IN ANTI-DRUG WAR

BANGKOK: As Thailand steps up its war against drugs from Myanmar, it
has begun arming northern villagers and training them to fight
traffickers and even the Myanmar army, reports said yesterday.

"A civilian army has begun to take shape along the Thai-Myanmar
border, with more than 5,000 members trained ... (to fight) foreign
troops and exploitation by drug traffickers,'' the Bangkok Post said.

The army will provide training in the use of firearms and explosives
and classes on drug laws to 592 "high-risk'' villages by the end of
next year, Lt-Gen Chamlong Phothong told the Post.

Last year's massacre by Myanmar drug traffickers of nine villagers in
the northern town of Ban Mae Soon Noi and rise in methamphetamine
production in Myanmar have necessitated the new policy, he said.

Myanmar traffickers often use towns in northern Thailand as
trans-shipment points, and the Thai army has alleged that Myanmar's
military is involved in the drug trade.

Some of the villages in northern Thailand previously were controlled
by the private army of Myanmar-based drug warlord Khun Sa.