UNDER-FIRE PM CHANGES TACK IN THAI DRUGS WAR

Worldwide Concern Forces Rethink On Government Crackdown On Speed As Police
Put Rising Death Toll At Up To 1,500

The embattled Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has been forced to
rethink his six-week-long war on drugs, which has led to 1,200 apparent
extra-judicial killings by police.

Although international alarm over the death toll has prompted the review,
many Thais and independent analysts believe the changes - halting supply
rather than eradicating demand - will prove only cosmetic.

They claim that the prime minister will have to take much more radical
steps if he wants to succeed in eliminating methamphetamines, known as yaa
baa ("crazy pill") in Thailand, or speed in the west. The drug was
virtually unknown five years ago but now up to one-in-10 adult Thais are
addicted.

Thai army intelligence estimates that more than 3m pills enter the country
every day, the vast majority from 55 factories over Thailand's northern
border with Burma and most of the rest from 10 similar plants in
neighbouring Laos.

Mr Thaksin is trying to divert attention from the rising death toll, which
the police yesterday put at 1,498. The prime minister now refuses to speak
to the press and has instructed government forces to focus their efforts on
preventing the drugs reaching Thailand, which is seen as the world's most
amphetamine-addicted country.

Few Thais believe the official denials that declare that police are
responsible for only a few dozen deaths; nor do they believe police claims
that most of the killings can be attributed to drug barons settling scores
or silencing potential informants.

One of the first raids - or "village order operations" as the authorities
prefer to call them in the new, softer, campaign - was on Friday in Ban Lan
village two miles from the Burmese border in Fang district, one of the main
trafficking routes into northern Thailand.

Villagers woke to find their homes surrounded by hundreds of heavily armed
troops, police officers and sniffer dogs. Based on tip-offs from
informants, a dozen houses were systematically searched.

"I am not involved in the drug business so I had nothing to hide," insisted
Ong Panya, whose house appeared somewhat luxurious for an orange plantation
worker. "I don't think they will find anything here [in this village]
because we have seen on the TV that such a raid can happen anywhere and so
I'm sure everything will have been hidden."

Sure enough, the search found nothing illicit beyond eight unauthorised
firearms and 11 illegal migrants.

Army officers claim that their task is being made significantly harder
because neither of Thailand's neighbours is showing any inclination even to
pretend to try and stop the flow of drugs, which, in Burma's case, are
produced mostly by the ethnic minority United Wa State Army or the Shan
State Army.

Ita Tamma, one of the illegal migrants caught in Ban Lan, said: "The
Burmese let us come [over the border]. They don't stop anyone."

Even if Burma and Laos were more helpful, many Thais believe that their
government would still be waging a losing battle: the border is several
thousand miles long with as many crossing points.

David Jaeua, a former dealer who lives about 50 miles south of Ban Lan,
believes the border is unsealable because so many corrupt Thai officials
are involved in the lucrative trade.

"I used to pay the police three baht [about 4.5p] a pill when making a
monthly shipment of 100,000 pills and also give money to politicians and
local officials," he said. "There are 10 big dealers like me in my village
alone."

These dealers have their greatest impact on young men, according to Major
Somjai Kidkeukarun, who is running an army rehabilitation camp near the
country's second city, Chiang Mai.

"Urine tests show that 80 to 90% of new army recruits are yaa baa users,"
the major said.

Mr Thaksin is also seeking to hit the dealers and users financially.
Provincial governors and police commanders have been ordered to seize the
assets of drug dealers. As an incentive, it was announced last week,
government officials will be rewarded with up to 30% of what they seize

Critics of the government see this as merely a less-deadly but equally
frightening variant of the extra-judicial killings, in that police and
civil servants will be driven by fear of failure and greed to seize as much
as they possibly can.

Senator Kraisak Choonhavan believes that by using such tactics in its war
on drugs the government has merely cowed many Thais into a permanent state
of fear.

"People feel helpless," Mr Kraisak said, "because they can easily become a
victim of salacious and unsubstantiated gossip."

Despite the human rights abuses, the war has recorded some successes.
Millions of pills and millions of dollars worth of assets have already been
seized, while tens of thousands of addicts have volunteered to enrol in the
new rehabilitation courses. Thai society is also starting to accept that
taking yaa baa should no longer be tolerated.

Ex-dealers such as David Jaeua believe it will be hard to sustain any
success. "Many dealers stopped operating in February because of the
pressure of police operations. But the price of yaa baa has risen so much
that dealers are starting [operations] again. The rewards now outweigh the
risks."

Despite the new official reticence over the high loss of life, the body
count is still rising.

Mr Jaeua is convinced that the police, who insist they are not randomly
executing people, are responsible for most of the deaths. "Drug dealers
would not kill people in the way they are being gunned down," he said.
"It's just not the way theyoperate."

Kavi Chongkittavorn, a senior editor at the newspaper The Nation and an
ardent critic of Mr Thaksin, agrees that something has to be done but says
the prime minister is merely pandering to the desire for instant results.

"Thaksin is not really tackling the problem seriously, he's just being
populist," Mr Kavi said. He, like many other ana lysts - including foreign
diplomats - believe long-term success will only come through a combination
of prevention through education and policies that go way beyond Mr
Thaksin's current programmes.

"If he's really serious about fighting drugs Thaksin's got to swallow
several bitter pills himself," one diplomat claimed. "He's got to clean up
corruption, stop engaging with Burma and sacrifice the politically
well-connected drug lords."

Most people with first hand experience of yaa baa agree. Jaras Saiya, a
40-year-old tractor driver who chose to attend Major Somjai's
rehabilitation camp after the paranoia and hallucinations induced by taking
seven pills a day for 10 years became unbearable, put it simply.

"The war on drugs is good for the sake of Thailand," Jaras Saiya said. "But
it will only work if the policy makers are strict and honest and not the
ones committing the crimes."