DRUG ORPHANS: A COMMUNITY IN CRISIS

Education, Financial Support Seen As Vital in District Hit By
Drug-Related Violence

LOEI - Drug deaths have orphaned one in eight children at Ban Ahee
community school in Tha Li district, leaving many traumatised.

"Some children have become very hard in their personalities after
losing their parents," said schoolteacher Panjapol Jampanil. "Some
witnessed their parents being shot dead in drug-related violence."

Ban Ahee community school has 238 students from Grade 1 to Grade 9, 31
of them now orphaned after their parents died in drug-related incidents.

"Drugs have destroyed my family," said a 15-year-old student at the
school.

The girl's father, who was involved in drugs, was shot dead in 1999.
Her mother died of liver disease soon after. Her grandmother passed
away late last year.

"My dream has ended. My younger sister and I are all alone," the girl
said.

The girls are, however, determined to achieve success at school
despite their predicament.

Panjapol said drugs had first appeared in Ban Ahee community in 1995,
when methamphetamine tablets began appearing and were soon being
handed out like candies at entertainment events.

One teacher had heard that payoffs kept police from doing anything
about the problem right from the beginning.

"The spread of drugs has affected the community to the point where
authorities are reluctant to grant us any aid because we have a drug
problem in the community," Panjapol said.

Many of the students also used drugs.

Panjapol said all 12 male ninth graders at the school were tested
positive for drugs in 1998 and, sadly, most of them ended up in jail.

But Panjapol added that students could still have a bright future if
they were given support.

"One of our brightest students lost his father because of the drug
trade. If these children have financial support, their lives will be
better," Panjapol said.

Samian Khanyoo, director of Ban Nong Pokkati school, said that
financial support would give educational opportunities. "And the
education will not only shield them from drugs to a certain extent,
but will also lead them to opportunities."

Financial contributions to help these children can be made through a
bank account in the name of "Pratharnthip for Thai Children," Bank for
Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, account number 0332933924.

Police cite African connection

More and more African men are being arrested on drug charges, mostly
for trying to smuggle cocaine into the country, a senior policeman
said yesterday.

African drug smugglers, mostly from Nigeria and Zimbabwe, run
garment-export businesses as fronts, Lt-General Watchara
Prasanrajakit, commissioner of the Narcotics Suppression Division,
told reporters.

They rely on their Thai wives for contacts with local drug dealers and
money laundering, he said.

"More cocaine is coming from those countries and the drug has become
popular in Asia," he added.

Africans were among those arrested in the latest police crackdown on
drug smugglers over the past week.

Two male Zimbabwean nationals, aged 26 and 31, were arrested
separately in Bangkok with small amounts of cocaine in their
possession, along with two Thai women.

An Iranian man and three Laotians - two of them women - were among the
other suspected foreign smugglers arrested.

The Iranian was nabbed on Thursday in the Sukhumvit area in possession
of 3.6 kilograms of heroin while allegedly handing the drug to a
police agent posing as a |dealer.

Also on Thursday, the three Laotians were arrested in a police sting
operation in Mukdahan allegedly in possession of more than 17,000
methamphetamine pills.

On June 11, two Thai men were arrested in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai
district in possession of 44 heroin bars weighing 17kg, Watchara said.