THAI VILLAGERS KILLED IN APPARENT DRUGS DISPUTE

BANGKOK, - Suspected guerrillas have raided a Thai
village near the Myanmar border, taking hostages and killing nine in
an apparent drug trafficking dispute, police said on Friday.

A group of about 30 gunmen, believed to be members of the United Wa
State Army, attacked Maesoon village in Chiangmai province, about 750
km (469 miles) north of Bangkok late on Thursday, they said.

They took an unknown number of Thais into the jungle, pursued by Thai
troops. When police went to the area on Friday, they found nine
villagers' bodies, all male. Some had apparently died from gunshots
and some had been beaten to death.

Police said they suspected a conflict over drug trafficking.

The Myanmar-based UWSA, which signed a ceasefire with the Yangon
military government five years ago, has been accused of taking over
the drug trafficking business in the Golden Triangle from the former
opium warlord, Khun Sa, after he surrendered to the military in 1996.

The Golden Triangle, at the intersection of Thailand, Laos and
Myanmar, is responsible for the majority of the world's heroin supply,
narcotics agencies say.