POLICE BLACKLIST SPAWNS ANOTHER STATISTIC

Sonjit Khayandee was so terrified she wanted to run away, writes John
Aglionby. Her neighbour had just been assassinated a day after he had
pleaded his innocence to the police.

Although he was not a user the neighbour had found out he was on the
government blacklist. Sonjit had herself just made a similar visit to the
police.

On the advice of her family - fleeing would make her look guilty, they said
- - the 42-year-old illiterate grocery shop owner from Phet Buri, a town 75
miles south-west of Bangkok, stayed put.

Three days later, on February 20, Sonjit was also assassinated, one of
hundreds of allegedly innocent victims in the Thai prime minister's war on
yaa baa, the drug which has overrun Thailand.

The authorities claim there have only been 31 extra-judicial killings by
police and all were in self-defence. The remainder of the deaths, they say,
were down to the drug gangs settling old scores.

But Sonjit's nephew, Sorasak Kwanyooyen, said the family is convinced that
the police - worried they would be reprimanded or sacked for not
"eliminating" enough drug dealers - needed to execute his aunt for their
statistics.

"We cannot say it openly but in our hearts we are almost certain it was the
police," he said.

As with many other killings, witnesses said the murderers looked like
police officers, detectives spent less than half an hour taking statements
and did not even feel it was necessary to collect and examine all the six
bullets and casings fired at Sonjit, who Mr Sorasak says, had never taken
yaa baa .

"We have not heard anything about the investigation since then," he said.

Police in Phet Buri declined to comment on the case but Tom Kruesopon, a
social analyst and loyal Thaksin supporter, said cases like Sonjit's are an
unfortunate cost of war and must be put in perspective.

"If we let the drug dealers stay out there and didn't declare war, how many
innocent lives would be lost?" he said. "Millions. The prime minister is
not taking lives, he's saving lives."