THAILAND SHOOTS TO KILL IN DRUGS WAR

THE empty coffins lined up outside the entrance to Pankgol police station
in northern Thailand are a clear warning to local drug dealers of the fate
that awaits them.

The grisly display speaks volumes about the brutal methods allegedly being
adopted to deliver Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's pledge to rid
Thailand of drug dealing in just three months.

The campaign seems to be bearing fruit, provided, that is, that success can
be measured in terms of the number of corpses that have been piling up
around the country over the past week. Already some 100 dealers are
believed to have been killed.

The mounting death toll has prompted accusations from human rights groups
that police death squads are carrying out state-sanctioned executions to
fulfil Shinawatra's pledge.

According to human-rights groups, this 'war on drugs' has uncomfortable
echoes of past abuses by Thailand's military rulers, who used
extra-judicial killings to quell opposition.

The fear now is that politicians are once again encouraging the police to
pursue an illegal 'shoot to kill' policy, this time to eliminate the
rampant drugs problem. Although drug dealers in the kingdom still face the
death penalty, the new strategy seems to be hastening the process by
dispensing with the legal process altogether.

During the first weekend of the campaign, which was launched at the
beginning of this month, 23 suspected dealers were found dead in various
parts of the country. According to police, 19 died during shoot-outs
between rival drug gangs. Officially, security forces only killed four
suspects who allegedly resisted arrest.

Since then, the death toll has continued to rise, amid rumours that
traffickers are liquidating potential informants and covering their tracks.
In total it is estimated that around 100 dealers have already died, either
at the hands of the police or drugs gangs.

Some 5,700 dealers have also been arrested and a state-owned warehouse near
Bangkok used for confiscated drugs is said to be full to the rafters.

Srirak Plipat, director of Amnesty Thailand, said: "This current campaign
seems stronger, and that worries us. We call on the government to respect
human rights and bring drug dealers to trial, not just execute them."

Opposition leader Chuan Leekpai said the government's harsh rhetoric
appeared to condone extra-judicial killings. He warned that any abuses
could hurt Thailand's international standing.

"Shooting someone merely because they are suspected of selling drugs or
associated with traffickers will create problems," said Chuan.

"We could be accused of human rights violations and the international
community could boycott us."

Similar complaints surfaced during a crackdown last year in north-eastern
Thailand. Locals claimed that 'death squads' had been hunting down
small-town drug dealers so that local authorities could announce that their
region was drug-free.

But anti-drug campaigners say that police need to fight fire with fire if
they want to stop armed drug traffickers, particularly along smuggling
routes in the notorious Golden Triangle, the second-biggest opium producing
area after Afghanistan.

Disanadda Disakul, director of Doi Tung, a royal foundation that promotes
alternative crops for opium farmers in the Golden Triangle, where Burma,
Thailand and Laos meet, said: "I don't deny that some police are taking
advantage of the situation... but up in the hills there are people with
arms carrying (amphetamine) pills, and they are ready to shoot first."

Police insist that they only open fire when necessary, and the prime
minister has been quick to defend them. "Do not put the safety of drug
dealers above that of police. If the police do not shoot when they fight,
they will die," said Thaksin.

Thailand's Interior Minister, Wan Muhammad Nor Matha, also issued a blunt
message, saying that drug dealers who continued their illegal trade would
"be put behind bars or even vanish without a trace". He added: "Who cares?
They are destroying our country."

Police certainly have incentives to bring in drug suspects, dead or alive.
The government has offered a bonus of one million baht (#14,500) for each
major dealer that police take out of operation during the crackdown.

Drug users are also being targeted, including foreigners who indulge during
their stay in Thailand. Raids on nightclubs and bars appear to be on the
increase, and foreigners are often forced to undergo urine tests for banned
substances.

Last week more than 300 government workers were tested for drugs, nine were
positive.

Analysts say Thaksin is responding to rising public alarm over the spread
of cheap methamphetamine pills, known as 'yaa baa', or crazy medicine,
which are sold for as little as #1 each. In the past few years, 'yaa baa'
has overtaken heroin and other drugs as Thailand's number one problem.

Security forces say around 700 million pills were smuggled into the country
last year from neighbouring Burma, where drug warlords face few
restrictions. Thailand estimates that it has three million regular 'yaa
baa' users, accounting for 5% of the total population.

Given the scale of the problem, and the suspected involvement of senior
state officials in the illicit trade, Thaksin seems to have taken on an
impossible challenge. But that may be the point. Thaksin, a telecom magnate
who ran for office on a populist ticket, likes to use thorny issues to
consolidate his grip on power.

He once vowed to solve Bangkok's notorious traffic congestion in six
months. When the period ended and nothing had changed, he blamed state
bureaucrats for blocking reforms.

This time, his fire will be directed at local officials and police who may
not be pulling their weight in the battle against drugs. When the current
campaign ends on April 30 - Thaksin has even set a deadline of 9pm - the
public will probably be told that some people are blocking reforms and must
be replaced by the prime minister's loyalists.

Panitan Wattanyagorn, political scientist at Thailand's Chulalongkorn
University, said: "He's trying to unify his control over the bureaucracy,
and to do that he needs public support. People admire Thaksin for
confronting drugs."