THAI DRIVE AGAINST DRUG DEALERS TURNS INTO A BLOODBATH

600 Killed After Premier's Pledge, Reports Alex Spillius in Arunothai

A murky sun rose over jagged jungle mountains, heralding undoubtedly the
worst day of Si-ying Yoo's life. But unlike nearly 600 other suspected drug
dealers killed during the past three weeks in Thailand, he at least ended
it alive.

Cocks crowed by the dozen as a team of eight heavily armed members of the
Thai security forces burst into his humble wooden home in Arunothai
village, less than a mile from the Burmese border. With the aid of a
sniffer dog they had, within a couple of hours, found 5,700 methamphetamine
pills known as yaa baa, or crazy medicine, with a street value of ?1 each.

Undercover officers had purchased three of the highly addictive pills from
him a few days before using notes that they had photocopied in advance. The
same notes were found at his house. He now faces life imprisonment.

The suspect sat bleary-eyed, stunned and handcuffed as six television crews
swarmed around him and the drugs were laid out on a bench. Delighted top
police and military brass breezed in for the cameras.

This was the side of a new anti-drugs campaign that the authorities wanted
the world to see. The other, more violent, one is wrecking Thailand's
relatively favourable human rights record and easy-going reputation.

In the three weeks since the prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, vowed to
stamp out drugs within three months, the killing has turned into a
bloodbath, with at least 580 alleged drug dealers dead.

Several ministers have all but condoned extra-judicial killing, with the
interior minister, Wan Mohammed Noor, saying all dealers should be
"eliminated". Every day newspapers and television programmes show pictures
of supposed peddlers lying in pools of blood, all with guns and bags of
pills in their hands.

Thai and international human rights groups and members of the opposition
have accused the government of instituting a "shoot to kill" policy. But Mr
Thaksin says there is nothing to be worried about. "We do follow the law.
When we clean up a house, dust billows. Don't panic."

But Thais do worry. An opinion poll yesterday showed that while 90 per cent
of people backed the campaign, a startling 70 per cent feared that they
could be framed or killed in a police raid.

The police claim they have killed only 20 drug dealers in self-defence, and
that others died at the hands of fellow gang members nervous about being
informed on. The victims have been shot at close range in the head or
chest. There have been no witnesses and no investigations. Pathologists say
they are not being asked to perform autopsies.

The case of Prachai Wannachairoj is typical. As he sat outside his home in
the north-eastern city of Udon Thani, said a neighbour, a pick-up truck
pulled up in a hurry. Two men jumped out of the back and shot him at close
range. His wife swears that the family has never been involved in drugs. "I
am still afraid they are going to come and kill me," she said.

The parents of eight-year-old Jirasak Unthong were killed in front of their
son as they returned home from a Buddhist temple. His father was shot in
the head and his mother in the back.

The national human rights commission has given warning of creating a
"kingdom of fear" and a culture of impunity for the police.

Among the public, methamphetamines are seen as a social scourge,
particularly since addiction has soared among middle-class schoolchildren
and young nightclubbers. The army predicts that a billion pills will reach
Thailand this year from highly mobile factories controlled by armed gangs
of ethnic rebels based just inside Burma.

The majority of those shot or arrested during the campaign have been, like
Yoo, small-time addicts and dealers. The prime minister has admitted that
700 police and army officers, education and health officials, village
leaders and local administrators are caught up in trafficking. He has
promised action, but with no tangible results so far.

One military intelligence official involved in the dawn raid at Arunothai
concurred that a number of senior advisers and donors to the prime
minister's party were probably linked to the illicit trade. "If Thaksin is
so serious, why doesn't he go after them first?" he asked.