DEATH TOLL IN THAILAND'S WAR ON DRUGS PASSES 140 IN FIRST NINE DAYS

Police say most of those killed were shot by fellow gang members - many of
whom are corrupt policemen

DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR and ASSOCIATED PRESS in Bangkok

At least 144 drug suspects have been killed in the first nine days of the
Thai government's latest crackdown on the drugs trade, a report said
yesterday.

The Bangkok Post quoted a police officer as saying that just eight of the
suspected drug dealers were shot dead by police, all of whom acted in
self-defence, while the rest were throught to have been killed by fellow
drug dealers. "Dealers are killing each other to avoid the risk of betrayal
should their accomplices turn themselves in," Major-General Pongsaphat
Pongcharoen said.

The shooting of drugs suspects, while not unusual in Thailand, has caused
concern among domestic and international human rights groups, who worry that
authorities may be conducting extrajudicial killings.

Few observers believe that a gang war has spontaneously broken out to
coincide with the three-month campaign. Somchai Homlaor, secretary-general
of the Asia Forum human rights group, said: "The only sensible conclusion is
the police are sending out death squads."

A military source said part of the drug trade was carried out by corrupt
police who had good reason to dispose of people who might confess their
crimes.

The campaign is focused on the mushrooming methamphetamine trade. Since the
start of the crackdown, authorities have confiscated more than 4.2 million
amphetamine tablets, searched 8,852 localities and made 6,906 arrests. Among
those held were 361 major drug dealers and 30 producers, they said.

A further 159 suspected dealers and traffickers were detained at some of the
2,292 checkpoints set up nationwide, the authorities said. In the northern
city of Chiang Mai, 50 small-time dealers surrendered to police in a single
day.

The "war On drugs" was launched to curb the escalating drug use in Thailand.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has ordered that the country be drugs-free
by mid-April and threatened severe consequences for officials who fail to
achieve eradication targets. Critics have cautioned that the objective
cannot be achieved in such a short time and that the plan is unrealistic.

Yesterday, Mr Thaksin was on the second day of a two-day visit to
neighbouring Myanmar, during which he was expected to ask the country's
ruling military junta to help stem the vast flows of illegal drugs from
Myanmar into Thailand.

Millions of methamphetamine pills and large quantities of heroin are
smuggled each year from Myanmar into Thailand, where health officials
estimate that more than three million of the country's 64 million people are
using methamphetamine pills. Police are bracing for up to one billion pills
to be trafficked into Thailand this year.

Myanmar's rulers deny involvement in the drug trade but are allied with the
United Wa State Army, an ethnic group the US government describes as one of
the world's top drug trafficking organisations.

In his meetings yesterday with Myanmar's leaders, Mr Thaksin was also
expected to discuss the repatriation of illegal workers from Thailand,
economic co-operation and tourism.