DYING FOR THAI DRUGS

The most cost-efficient way to rid Thai society of HIV-positive
injection drug users is, apparently, to murder them. In a bid to draw
world attention to the issue, NYC-based Human Rights Watch and
Montreal-based Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network this weekend are
awarding their annual International Award for Action on HIV/AIDS to
the Thai Drug Users' Network. The network has been operating across
Thailand to reduce drug abuse and HIV infection while documenting up
to 3,000 government-sponsored killings of drug users in the last year.

"People are terrified because anyone can suggest a name for a
[anti-drug/HIV] blacklist," explains Karyn Kaplan, TDN's international
advocacy co-ordinator. "They go down to the police station and when
they leave cops follow people suspected of [taking] drugs and kill
them. There were no trials. They were just shot."

The murders first gained international attention at the international
AIDS conference held in Bangkok this past July. But now that the
international media are gone, activists fear the TDN itself now faces
a government crackdown. Which means the lives of people like Kaplan,
who will be a keynote speaker at this weekend's award ceremonies in
Montreal, are now literally in danger.

"I grew up a privileged kid in New Jersey and went to Thailand in 1988
to teach English with the YMCA," Kaplan says. "Then I began meeting
vulnerable people, like little girls sent to Bangkok from their
villages to work in the sex industry. HIV was the most pressing issue
facing

them. There was a lot of frustration and anger that these young people
in the prime of their lives had no clue what was happening [with HIV]
and were dying."

Today, 16 years later, Kaplan is still in Thailand and has no plans to
move back to New Jersey. She also has a Thai boyfriend. "My mom came
to visit me in Thailand last month and she just wants me to be happy,"
Kaplan says. "And I am happy. This is what I do. I get a lot of
strength from my mother and in turn I offer strength to people who
need it."