| By SHAWN L. NANCE/CHIANG MAI | MARCH, 2003 - VOLUME 11 NO.2 |
Public alarm is mounting over the soaring death toll in Thailand’s war on drugs and many have urged authorities to rethink their tactics. The all-out war against drugs launched by the Thai government at the beginning of February has prompted harsh criticism from international diplomats and the domestic press, but Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is unmoved. Amid the public outcry over the rising number of casualties and extra-judicial police tactics, he has been defiant, dismissing the bloodshed as "irrelevant", and rejecting all criticism of the anti-narcotics drive. In the process of attempting to eliminate all drugs from the Kingdom by April 30, officials have reduced the complex drugs issue to a simple conflict of good versus evil. "In this drug war, drug dealers must die. But we do not kill them," the PM said of the campaign. "It is a matter of the bad guys killing the bad guys." The death toll has been dramatic. Nearly 50 lives have been claimed each day since the campaign kicked off on Feb 1. Fatalities include women and 16-month old children. Thai police say most of those killed were drug dealers silenced by their own or rival gang members, adding only a couple dozen were killed by the police—all in self-defense. But many aren’t convinced. Critics blame the Thai Ministry of Interior for pressuring police and provincial governors to meet the targets set by the ministry’s blacklist of suspected dealers. Police and local officials have been awarded financial bonuses and other incentives for reaching the tally. Those who fail have been threatened with sacking or a transfer to one of the 3,000 inactive posts set aside by the government. "There are only two ways to meet this goal easily," explains Somchai Hamla-or, President of the Human Rights Committee of the Law Society of Thailand. "One is to arrest the suspect, but this doesn’t eliminate them from the blacklist until the suspect is prosecuted. So the quickest way to eliminate them from the list is that the suspect die by whatever means." By most statistical measures, the first month of the campaign was a success. Nearly 30,000 were arrested and at least 80,000 surrendered to police. But the growing public alarm over the estimated 1,300 deaths—leading some to call it the bloodiest period in modern Thai history—has compelled the government to quit releasing death figures to the public. But it may be too late to palliate the public’s anxiety. Tay Saysong, a Hmong villager from Nan province, says since Feb 1, the police have come to search his village every night, oftentimes checking the wrong homes and people. Though nobody has been killed in his village, they are still scared. "People are afraid to go anywhere at night. If they are out late, they don’t come home, and some don’t even sleep at night anymore." Human rights advocates and ethnic tribal organizations worry that ethnic minorities and the poor are particularly vulnerable to such police intimidation and other human rights violations. Ahpae Mafoe, an Ahka representative from the Inter Mountain Peoples Education and Culture in Thailand Association (Impect), an indigenous non-governmental developmental organization, says some blacklisted suspects have been killed even though they had used drugs only a few times, or because they are on the bad side of village headmen or a competing local political faction. Some innocent villagers have fled from the police in fear, only to be gunned down on suspicion. "Most of these people don’t have bank accounts, but save their money at home," says Ahpae of the mistaken killings and arrests. "So the police think they’re selling drugs. Even if you have a drug dealer’s number in your mobile phone, you can get arrested because [the police] never believe the tribals or the poor." Tay Saysong wonders why the police have been passing instant verdicts on the spot instead of allowing Thailand’s judicial system to level a decision. "We are a democracy. We need to let the courts decide who is guilty and who is not." Friends and families of the drug war’s victims have not been satisfied with police reports and forensic experts aren’t helping to clarify matters. Coroners are withholding information as to what kind of gun was used and where bullets hit the victim to help determine if professionals or amateurs carried out the killings. "Forensic experts have not been getting quick cooperation from police who investigate some of these cases," says Somchai, citing the example of a suspect who was killed while lying in a hospital bed in Tak province. "It makes it look like gunmen are roaming around all over the country, but no one has been arrested by the police. It means our police are either involved in the killings or they are very inefficient." But, according to Thaksin, critics of the drug war have lost sight of the "big picture." In fact, the PM has been resolute in his defense of the campaign, drumming up support by resorting to maudlin appeals to protect future generations. "You should ask yourselves if you’re concerned about your children," Thaksin implored during his weekly radio address. "You have been caring for them since they came into this world." The campaign’s detractors say they also care for Thailand’s youth but feel the social costs of the drug war have been incalculable. "When these children lose their parents, who’s going to feed them?" asks Chome Saenyakul, an ethnic Lisu activist. Many ethnic minorities, Chome argues, have few socioeconomic opportunities to study, work and travel, so they have little choice but to turn to drugs, despite understanding the dangers. "[The government] has put up all the billboards and have told everybody that drugs are bad, but they haven’t done anything to give them an opportunity." It is not the first time such a complex matter has been reduced to a simple black and white issue, says Chaiyan Rajchagool, a lecturer in the Faculty of Social Science at Chiang Mai University. "No one objects to drug suppression. But if you raise questions, you can be blamed as someone who supports the drug dealers." Thai Defense Minister Thammarak Isarangukra na Ayudhya has done just that, telling the local press that critics are in the drug dealers’ pockets. "The drug traders have a lot of money and they can hire anyone to write an article to attack the government." Chaiyan sees historical parallels with this Manichean approach to Thailand’s problems, referring to instances when people disputed large-scale development projects, championed citizenship rights for ethnic highlanders, and disagreed with the government during the Communist purge. "Many poor farmers didn’t even know who Marx was, but fled their villages in fear of officials or because they had problems with local authorities, and then were labeled as Communist." Chaiyan has first-hand experience with such tactics to defame opponents of the government, having been accused of disloyalty to the state before for defending the rights of ethnic highlanders. "Now, if you are Thai, you should not say anything bad about your country. In the last 40 years, people in power have been using these kinds of nationalistic tactics to keep others silent." He adds that the war on drugs reflects the government’s concept of democracy as majority rule where the minority must sacrifice their rights and keep quiet on populist issues. Amid the silence, however, the death toll continues to mount. And some worry the longer the public remains mute, the longer extra-judicial practices will be tolerated and the worse Thailand’s drug problem will become. Thus far, the campaign has focused only on short-term success by eliminating the drug dealers’ foot soldiers. The second phase, to target the drug kingpins and the 700 state officials thought to be involved in drug activities, is now underway. Critics are not impressed, but instead question the logic of parading anti-drug credentials at home, while befriending the Burmese military junta, guardians of the world’s largest amphetamine producing gangs. Ethnic Chinese and Wa drug producers in Burma have announced their territories in the Golden Triangle would be opium-free by 2005. But most have already begun shifting production from opium to amphetamines. And with the blessings of Burma’s regional commanders the pills flow freely to Thailand, which has been dubbed the world’s number-one user of speed by the UN International Narcotics Control Board. "If peace doesn’t happen in Burma," Chaiyan explains, "then Thailand will face this drug problem endlessly." Others point to the limited scope of the anti-narcotics campaign and say a more comprehensive approach is needed to eliminate the drug scourge. Such a holistic solution, domestically and regionally, would include not only cooperation among authorities, say Impect’s representatives, but among people at the grassroots level as well. In the meantime, however, ethnic highlanders and others adversely affected by the drug war continue to live in fear. They place little hope in the ability of the authorities to consider the big picture and help them plan a better future for Thailand’s ethnic groups. "The government’s development projects are not in accordance with the ethnic peoples’ way of life," charges Ahpae. "The government doesn’t understand their ways, and they don’t even want to know. They use the hill-tribes to sell and lure tourists and then turn around and blame them for the country’s drug and environmental problems." "Besides," she adds, "they are tackling the issue at the tail, not the head." Now that the second phase of the crusade is underway, it remains to be seen if the authorities can net the big fish. But even as the police take aim at the kingpins, Chaiyan holds little hope for the ultimate success of Thailand’s war on drugs. "The big dealers will just develop more sophisticated distribution networks."