RIGHTS-THAILAND: ‘Victory’ in Anti-drug War Comes with High Cost

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, May 2 2003 (IPS) - In declaring ”victory” after a three-month assault on Thailand’s drug trade that ended this week, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has confirmed his passion for swift results – even if, critics say, it comes at the expense of human rights principles.

By the week’s end, Thaksin was on a high at the impressive achievements across the nation during his government’s ‘war on drugs’, which ran from Feb. 1 to Apr. 30.

In all of Thailand’s 75 provinces, the crackdown against illegal drugs has gone beyond the initial target, which was slashing the number of drug traders by 75 percent in each province, say government officials.

In 10 provinces, law enforcement officials say they have achieved a 100 percent success rate – meaning a decimation of the entire drug trade. In most other provinces, anti-narcotics forces are supposed to have netted between 80 to 90 percent of drug dealers.

”We wanted to prove to the public that it can be done – getting rid of drugs in Thailand,” says Pimuk Simaroj, deputy spokesman for Thaksin’s governing Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thai) party. ”Now the public knows that Thai Rak Thai is serious about its policies.”

Among others, government officials point to the dramatic escalation in the price of methamphetamines, or ‘ya baa’ as the Thai call it, during the anti-drug drive

”Today the price of ‘ya baa’ has gone up by twice or thrice the amount it was being sold when the campaign against drugs began,” says Chatchai Suthiklom, deputy secretary-general of the Narcotics Control Board (NCB).

In late January, speed pills were selling for 80 to 120 baht a tablet (about 1.80 to 2.80 U.S. dollars), but the current price is close to 360 baht (8.4 dollars) per pill.

Besides that, the Narcotics Control Board churns out other numbers to boost the government’s claim of success: Some 1,765 major dealers in the drug trade and some 15,244 minor dealers were caught, they say. More than 280,000 drug pushers and addicts had given themselves up to the authorities and were sent for rehabilitation.

Furthermore, the board states that 15.5 million speed pills were seized during the just-finished three-month period.

The government’s anti-drug crusade arose out of the disturbing reputation Thailand has gained – in a population of 62 million people, as many as one in 17, or 5.9 percent, of Thais aged 15 years and above are hooked on ‘ya baa’

This South-east Asian country, according to U.N. figures, is the world’s largest user of methamphetamines.

Newspapers have reported that there are over 600,000 students, from primary schools to universities, who are drug addicts. This addiction is fed from neighbouring Burma, which annually supplies 500 million to 700 million amphetamine pills from the drug laboratories located along the Thai-Burma border.

But while acknowledging the gravity of the country’s drug problem, human rights activists point to the macabre side of the three-month campaign – an estimated 2,274 people killed across Thailand during the war on drugs.

These drug-related killings, which averaged over 25 a day, are stark when set against the average murder toll per month, which is about 400, according to available records. In 2001, close to 300 murders were recorded every month in Thailand. Official statistics, however, offer a different picture – only 42 drug suspects shot by the police, and even those, in most instances, are supposed to have been in acts of self-defence.

”The government did not use too much force,” says Pimuk, who is also a TRT parliamentarian from Bangkok. ”The campaign was conducted according to the law.”

Since early February, the authorities have maintained that the many mafia-style murders were largely the work of the dealers themselves killing each other to avoid being arrested.

”It is troubling when the government knows it can do anything and get away with it,” says Sunai Phasuk, an analyst at Forum Asia, a Bangkok-based regional human rights watchdog. ”The government is asserting that as long as it can deliver quick results, it can bypass human rights and the rule of law.”

What is more, concerns expressed by the international community about the rights violations during the anti-drug campaign have been pooh-poohed by the government, adds Sunai.

”The government is behaving as if it does not need to listen to international criticism,” he adds. ”At times, in reaction, the government has turned to nationalist rhetoric.”

Besides that, the human rights community here is up against the lack of public outrage or the absence of civilians wanting to wage a legal battle over the rights violations carried out during the drug campaign.

This silence is also manifest amid the police raids of bars and nightclubs and their forcing people there to take urine tests to check for traces of drug use. The police have conducted such tests in both clubs where Bangkok’s rich gather, and in venues that draw citizens living on a tight budget.

”Even the media and the opposition party have been somewhat quiet, not openly challenging the government’s claims of success,” says Sunai. ”This is because the war on drugs became a popular issue with the public.”

For those critics who question Thailand’s ”success” – given that similar anti-drug crackdowns have failed in almost all countries where they have been launched – the narcotics board’s Chatchai offers a pointed response about the very word ”success”.

”You have to clarify the definition of success,” he says. ”In Thailand’s case, the government pledged to achieve a target in three months – reducing the number of drug dealers and users – and it has been done.”