THAKSIN DECLARES VICTORY IN WAR ON DRUG TRADE

Thai Premier Says Illegal Drugs Are Not Easily Available Any More But
Critics Question the Price of Success

BANGKOK - Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is declaring a
victory in his government's drive against illegal drugs, but critics
are questioning the official definition of 'success' and the price at
which it has been achieved.

'We have done quite a good job in less than a year on a problem left
to fester for 20 years,' Mr Thaksin told reporters on Monday.
'Narcotics are now not a grave social and national menace as in the
past. But we will not stop here. It will be a relentless, continuing
campaign.'

He is declaring formally the success of the anti-drug war today in a
televised event in front of 50,000 government officials and others at
the Royal Plaza. The gesture is meant as a gift to King Bhumibol
Adulyadej, who celebrates his 74th birthday on Friday.

Government officials do not claim that the country is entirely
drug-free, but say that drugs - principally methamphetamines produced
largely across the border in Myanmar's Wa-controlled areas - are no
longer available widely.

Since March, around 40 million amphetamine pills and some two billion
baht (S$88 million) worth of traffickers' assets have been seized.

Today, methamphetamine pills, known locally as 'yaba', cost between
300 and 400 baht each, up from 100 baht before the crackdown, when
they were available widely and threatened to spawn a spiralling
addiction problem for Thai youth.

Interior Ministry figures published in the Bangkok Post show that
82,247 villages are now drug-free, 327,224 drug addicts have undergone
rehabilitation and more than 52,000 suspected drug producers and
traders have been arrested.

But the war on drugs has also left a trail of 2,625 bodies - not all
of them traffickers.

Many critics and analysts believe the end should not be allowed to
justify the means even if the war on drugs has been successful at
least in the short term.

An Amnesty International report said: 'The government has failed to
initiate independent, impartial, effective and prompt investigations
into these killings.'

Police said most of the deaths were due to gunfights when traffickers
tried to evade arrest, or when gang members turned on one another to
silence those who they thought might rat on them.

They said the drug trade was so powerful that the crackdown was
considered a war and pointed out that 31 officers and soldiers had
been killed and 36 hurt.

Mr Thaksin rejected accusations of human rights abuses. He said the
future of Thailand's children would be left at the mercy of rapacious
drug traffickers if the government had not done something to curb the
trade.

But many locals said police had gunned down even minor drug dealers
who neither offered resistance nor tried to run away. Bystanders,
including old women and children, were killed in some cases.

Celebrated forensic scientist Porntip Rojanasunan has cast doubt on
the circumstances of some of the killings, saying they appeared to be
extra-judicial executions.

Thailand's National Human Rights Commissioner Vasan Panich, echoing
the view of the Thai middle class which polls showed supported the
bloody campaign, said: 'The policy is essentially good.' But he noted:
'Whatever the government does, it should follow due process.'

Opposition Democrat Party deputy leader Abhisit Vejjajiva told The
Straits Times yesterday: 'The government has won the battle, perhaps
not the war, that remains to be seen.'

A drugs and crime analyst added: 'The war may look like a success in
the short term, but does the end justify the means? The drugs have
been stockpiled across the border. They will come back.'

A total of 261 people have taken their cases before the National Human
Rights Commission.

They allege various degrees of intimidation, planting of drugs on them
by police, wrongful seizure of assets, murder of relatives by police
and other wrongs committed during the crackdown.

In a report, the commission slammed the police, saying the crackdown
had corroded the judicial system.

It expressed the hope that future campaigns would respect proper
judiciary processes.

[sidebar]

CRACKDOWN: AT WHAT COST?

*Since March, around 40 million amphetamine pills and some two billion
baht (S$88 million) worth of traffickers' assets have been seized.

*The Interior Ministry says 82,247 villages - 100 per cent of the
target - are now drug-free.

*A total of 327,224 drug addicts, 48 per cent more than targeted, have
undergone rehabilitation and more than 52,000 suspected drug producers
and traders have been arrested.

*But the war on drugs has also left a trail of 2,625 bodies, not all
of them traffickers.

*A total of 261 people have gone to the National Human Rights
Commission, accusing the police of using intimidation, planting drugs,
seizing assets wrongfully, murdering their relatives and committing
other wrongs.