THAI POLICE LAUNCH 'FINAL' BLITZ ON DRUGS

The Crackdown Is Aimed At Securing A Largely Drug-Free Thailand By The
King's Birthday Next Week

BANGKOK - Thai police have launched what they called a 'final assault' on
illegal drugs, aimed at wiping out most of the trade by next week.

Raids were launched on nearly 600 locations in Bangkok and eight northern
provinces on Thursday, electronic sensors have been set up at the Myanmar
border to fight drug smuggling and fresh troops have been sent to patrol
the area.Advertisement

More than 3,000 drug enforcers raided several locations in and around
Bangkok on Thursday, concentrating on the poor communities of the Klong
Toey port area, long known as a centre for illegal drugs. Police arrested
121 people.

The government plans to declare the country 'drug-free' on King Bhumibol
Adulyadej's 74th birthday on Dec 5, though officials admit that it is not
possible to eradicate drug use.

'No country will be able to completely stamp out drugs from its society,'
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said this week.

'What we are doing is to limit the amount of drugs to a controllable level.'

He said the drug problem had already been curbed significantly, to a degree
where drug money no longer had the potential to destabilise the country.

On Wednesday, the authorities incinerated some 19 million methamphetamine
pills, plus marijuana, heroin, ketamine and Ecstasy - totalling an
estimated 2.9 billion baht (S$125 million).

US Drug Enforcement Administration regional director William Snipes, who
was present, said the war on drugs had been effective but 'whether that is
a lasting effect, we will have to wait and see'.

'Temporarily, we look at it as successful.'

The authorities have also installed electronic sensors on the Myanmar
border near the northern cities of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai and beefed up
troop numbers and border patrols aimed at stemming the flow of drugs -
mostly 'yaba' or methamphetamines - from Myanmar.

Police also raided almost 400 locations across Thailand's northern
provinces, arresting 67 people.

Arrest warrants have been issued against more than 900 suspects, reports said.

The government plans to mark next Wednesday with a formal declaration that
the war on drugs has been won and that Thailand is largely drug-free.

Earlier this year, more than 2,000 people were killed in the first phase of
the government's controversial crackdown.

Most were street-level traffickers, but some were innocents caught in the
crossfire. Police claimed that while many had been killed in gunfights,
most were victims of internecine gang wars spawned by police pressure.

However, local and foreign human rights activists claimed that many had
been summarily executed by police - an accusation angrily rejected by Mr
Thaksin.