4 SUSPECTS SHOT DEAD ON DAY 1 OF DRUG WAR

Four drug suspects were shot dead, 264 others taken into custody and
727,742 methamphetamine tablets seized on Saturday - the first day of the
government's war on narcotics, police said yesterday.

Royal Thai Police spokesman Maj-General Pongsapat Pongcharoen said the
detentions and seizures were made in 231 separate raids.

Ten of those taken in were big-time traffickers, he said.

The most arrests were made by Metropolitan Police, who nabbed 63 suspects,
followed by Provincial Police Bureau 1 with 42 suspects in 32 raids, and
Provincial Police Bureau 7, which nabbed 38 suspects in a total of 32
raids, Pongsapat said.

Provincial Police Bureau 6 reportedly seized the most drugs, with a haul of
598,000 methamphetamine tablets.

Pongsapat said the 1,459 raids nation-wide - targeting mainly villages and
communities with a reputation for rampant drug abuse or trafficking - had
yielded satisfactory results.

"Although certain raids did not find any wrongdoing, they were effectively
a preventive measure," he said.

Police conducted a combined total of 1,505 raids yesterday, but the results
had yet to be compiled, Pongsapat said.

Pongsapat said a total of 1,850 tip-offs were mailed to PO Box 1234 BKK
10330, the special tip-off address set up by the government, between
January 21 and 30.

Of the tip-offs received, some 1,091 were from Bangkok residents, he said.

The government warned in the run-up to the launch of its war on drugs that
it would use extreme measures against traffickers to fulfil its goal of
eradicating illicit drugs within three months.

"February 1 marks the beginning of the war on drugs. As we stand united, I
heard some drug kingpins have fled to neighbouring countries for fear of
being caught dead," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said during his
weekly radio address on Saturday.

Opposition Leader and Democrat Party leader Chuan Leekpai warned yesterday
that the government should not violate basic human rights in its war
against illegal drugs.

Chuan said the government had indicated several times that officers
battling traffickers would "shoot to kill".

This would tarnish Thailand's image in regard to human rights and the
international community might boycott Thai products to protest against
human-rights violations, he said.

But Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Noor Matha yesterday downplayed worries
about possible human-rights violations, saying law enforcers would abide by
the law in their suppression of drug trafficking.

The minister admitted that traffickers might suspend their activities for a
while because of the advance warning, but the government would continue
putting pressure on them through continual crackdowns.

He said the Interior Ministry had also worked with the Anti-Money
Laundering Office to investigate transactions by suspected drug traffickers.

The war on drugs has the support of a majority of Bangkok residents, a
survey by Assumption University found.

The university said yesterday that 84.2 per cent of the 1,412 Bangkokians
polled supported the campaign.

However, 65.3 per cent voiced concern that corrupt law enforcers might take
the chance to frame innocent people.