DECLINE IN KILLING RATE 'SUSPICIOUS'

Points To Official Involvement In Deaths, Says Chuan

Opposition leader Chuan Leekpai said yesterday that the slowdown in the
"silencings" of drug suspects in the past week could be an indication that
authorities were behind most of the killings, not drug gangs as reported by
the government.

In his weekly Chuan Online programme, Chuan said the number of reported
"silencings" of drug dealers, allegedly by nervous drug gangs, had
decreased dramatically since the government toned down its stand on the
killings, which it had initially reported as a positive development.

The programme was carried on the Democrat Party's website.

The Thaksin government launched its three-month war on drugs to much
fanfare last month.

During the first month, the government and police boasted of the high
number of drug suspects killed, saying most of the slayings were ordered by
drug bosses in an effort to erase any links with them.

The way the spiralling death toll was announced appeared to show that the
government and police considered it to be a major achievement of the war on
drugs, while police apparently showed no interest in investigating the
murders, Chuan said. This prompted many critics to suspect that authorities
were behind the killings, he said.

Following this criticism, the government toned down its stand and
"corrected" the figures, saying most of the murders were unrelated to the
drug war, he said.

"It is worth noticing here that had the 'silencings' been ordered by the
drug bosses as claimed by the government, the high rate of killings
reported over the past month should have continued over the past week,"
Chuan said.

"The criminals [reportedly behind the killings] should not have acted as if
they were taking orders from the government. But the facts show, as many
have said, that the silencings - although some really were committed by
drug gangs - were carried out by police, who were given a green light by
the government. That green light has resulted in the loss of more than
1,500 lives in a short period of time," he said.

Chuan also said the government should stop saying that critics of the
"silencings" are siding with drug traffickers.

The Democrat Party leader said he disagreed with the use of violence, but
pointed out that it was a Democrat-led government that passed the
Anti-Money Laundering Act that the current administration was using to
seize the assets of drug traffickers. "Had we sided with drug traffickers,
this law would never have been enacted," Chuan said.

In another development, a police source said the police general identified
by Privy Councillor Phichit Kullayavanijaya as being involved in drug
trafficking was retired and had been blacklisted by anti-narcotics
officersand that police were gathering evidence to take action against him.
The source added that the retired general had close connections to several
political parties.