THAILAND ARMS VILLAGERS TO FIGHT DRUG WAR

The Thai army has started training northern villagers in the use of
firearms and explosives as it steps up its war against drugs from Myanmar

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 would provide training including instruction in the use of
firearms and explosives and conduct classes on drug laws for 592
"high-risk" villages by the end of 2001, Lt-General Chamlong Phothong
told the Post.

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

Drug traffickers frequently use towns in northern Thailand as
transshipment points, and the Thai army has alleged that Myanmar's
military is deeply involved in drug production and shipment.

Villagers from Phaya Phrai village, two kilometres from the Myanmar
border, told reporters that "unknown foreign troops" frequently
entered their village.

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

In recent weeks, top Thai army officials have said that drug
production in Myanmar was reaching new highs, threatening Thailand's
national security and contributing to methamphetamine abuse in Thai
schools.