UNEASE GROWS OVER DEATHS OF INNOCENT VICTIMS OF BLACKLISTS

Facing mounting public pressure over the possibility that flawed
drug-suspect blacklists are causing innocent lives to be taken in the war on
drugs, the Interior Ministry ordered the Narcotics Control Board (NCB) to
check the lists.

The move comes amid growing complaints of wrongfully included names on the
blacklists, controversy over the death of a nine-year-old boy killed in a
police sting operation and pressure from human-rights groups.

The Human Rights Commission has received 27 complaints from people who say
their names have been wrongfully included on the blacklists, and southern
villagers this week marched to protest being summoned to turn themselves in
to officials.

The Interior Ministry has three different types of blacklists - one compiled
by police; one compiled by village heads, kamnan and local administrative
organisations; and one compiled by the NCB. Suspects whose names are on both
police and local officials' blacklists go to the top of police wanted lists,
but NCB lists are not double-checked.

The blacklist compilation process came under attack from outgoing NCB
secretary-general Kitti Limchaikit. He said the ministry had met and decided
to have acting NCB secretary-general Police Lt-General Chidchai Wannasatit
check the blacklists.

Earlier, controversy raged over how a nine-year-old boy was killed last
Sunday night in a police anti-drug sting operation in the heart of the
capital.

Chakraphan Srisa-ard was hit by two bullets on the back seat of the getaway
car driven by his mother, who was reportedly trying to flee after police had
captured her husband.

Initial accounts on the Lan Luang Road tragedy had it that police stray
bullets killed the child, but the officers involved were quoted as insisting
they did not fire at the car.

Three officers from Bang Chan police station were preliminarily charged with
manslaughter. While they have received strong morale support from their
superiors, social critics are pointing to the case as evidence of how the
government's thinly-veiled extra-judicial killing policy against suspected
drug traffickers could go terribly wrong.

According to Police Maj-General Chakthip Kunchorn na Ayutthaya, deputy
metropolitan police chief, the three officers claimed a "third party" was
involved in the shooting and could have been responsible for the boy's
death.

The plainclothes police team met with Sataporn Srisa-ard, 34, for a
purported drug trade in front of the Manangkhasila Residence at around 9pm.
When he delivered 6,000 amphetamine pills, the officers flashed their badges
and arrested him.

In the car with the boy, Pornwipa Kerdrungruang, his wife, saw the incident
and quickly moved from the front passenger seat to the driver seat and sped
off, police reported. Accounts of what happened after that were murky.

[Content not related to drug policy snipped for brevity]