JAIL OR DEATH FOR DEALERS: PM

There are two options in dealing with drug dealers - prison or the
cemetery, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday as he urged
police and other officials to keep working hard in the government's war on
drugs.

Thaksin, in Chiang Mai to explain the government's policy on drugs, noted
the anti-drugs campaign had gone quiet recently, and as a result, urged
everyone involved to focus on three fronts to fight the social menace.

"The methods are intensive drug suppression, in particular seizing drug
money, reducing the number of drug addicts, and lastly, encouraging
youngsters to become involved in constructive activities," he said.

Every schoolmaster has to make his or her school drug-free, he said.

"If there are any drug addicts, that person must be cured because if we
leave him or her that way, they will become a drug dealer and the vicious
drug cycle will continue," the prime minister said.

"For those who are still selling drugs, the government has set two options
for them, either it is prison or a temple cemetery," he said.

The prime minister noted that northern Thailand is close to the origin of
drugs but that it needed be "like a dam that has to be strong enough to
protect people in the country."

"If possible, we would launch a strike on Mong Yawn, which is close to the
northern Thai border, because it was built with drug money. But we can't do
this because of international law," he said.

Separately, Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Noor Matha said yesterday that
many major drug dealers had been arrested in the last few days as police
stepped up their suppression activities in four northern provinces.

Elsewhere, the Anti-Money Laundering Office's deputy secretary-general, Pol
Colonel Peeraphan Prempooti, said that police in co-operation with the
Exmont Group, which is an international financial crime |suppression
organisation, had managed to recover some US$5 million (Bt215 million) in
drug money deposited in Singapore and Swiss accounts. "Soon, we will |get
some more money back |from Hong Kong banks, too," he added.

Drug dealers could no longer escape from the long arm of the law with their
drug money, he said, no matter where they put it.

He said the agency planned to hold a three-day seminar starting today for
legal professionals to exchange information and co-operation about seizing
drug suspects' assets.

On some concerns raised about the selection of AMLO personnel, Peeraphan
said recruitment at the agency is tougher and more complicated than for any
other government unit in order to prevent the hiring of spies or other
people related to the drug trade.

"Every possible aspect of the candidate's background is examined in
detail," he said.