THAILAND: All Eyes on Premier’s Threat to Drug Producers in Burma

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Aug 22 2003 (IPS) - At home, short temper and intimidation have worked to get Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra desired political results, but will the same combination help him when taking on stubborn outsiders?

That question has arisen this week in the wake of the verbal salvos fired by Thaksin at South-east Asia’s most notorious drug traffickers, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), which runs its narcotics trade from the Shan state in Burma.

To some Burma watchers, the level of the outburst was unprecedented, since the Thai premier not only threatened to send troops into Burma to crush the Wa’s narcotics trade along the This-Burma border but used extraordinarily strong language in his threat.

”It was very unusual, coming from the prime minister. In the past, it was the Thai army that made such statements,” Soe Aung, external affairs director of the Network for Democracy and Development, a group of Burmese exiles in Thailand, told IPS.

Thai troops ”would shoot to kill,” Thaksin was quoted as having told the local press on Thursday. ” Their (Wa) drugs have gradually killed our children, so we won’t spare them.”

On Friday, Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai was reported to have fired a missive to Burma’s military government, demanding that Rangoon crack down on the Wa’s drug production and supply of the narcotics into Thailand.

Surakiart has asked ”for increased cooperation from Burma in fighting drug production and smuggling,” the ‘Bangkok Post’ newspaper states in its Friday edition.

Thaksin launched this broadside at the Wa following an aborted attempt by the drug traffickers to smuggle in one million methamphetamine pills into Thailand on Wednesday. Nine armed Wa operatives were killed in a 30-minute gun duel in Thailand’s northern Chiang Mai province during this attempt, the English-language daily ‘The Nation’ reported.

To Thais, the premier’s stance is an extension of the tough line he has taken since the beginning of this year to cleanse this country of methamphetamines, or ‘ya baa’ as it is known here.

In February, the Thaksin administration launched a harsh nationwide anti-drug campaign to counter the estimated 700 million methamphetamine pills that are supplied every year to meet local demand.

”The government’s anti-drug campaign has received tremendous public support, and this focus on the Wa will be seen as part of that policy,” Chayachoke Chulasiriwongs, head of the international relations department at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, said in an interview.

The current approach is far removed from before, Chayachoke added. ”Thaksin has raised the profile of the drug issue and shown that it can be dealt with, unlike the previous governments who would sweep issues they could not tackle – like drugs – under the carpet.”

In fact, the anti-drug agency says that this year’s ‘war on drugs’ has made a noticeable impact. ”There has been a shift in the routes drug smugglers are using to bring in ‘ya baa’ from Burma into Thailand,” said Chartchai Suthiklom, deputy secretary general of the Narcotics Control Board.

Previously, the favoured routes were Thailand’s northern-most Chiang Rai province, Chartchai revealed in an interview. ”But after the crackdown, the smuggling has shifted, with the jungles in Mae Ai (in the Chiang Mai province) being used.”

Human rights groups, however, faulted the government for using excessive violence during the first three months of the anti-drug campaign. According to available reports, close to 2,270 alleged drug dealers were killed during the campaign, which amounts to some 25 extrajudicial-type deaths per day.

But there is no disagreement when the spotlight turns to the role of the Wa drug lords and their hosts, the Burmese military government, in keeping Thailand supplied with ‘ya baa.’

”This link has also enabled drugs being produced in eastern Burma to be transported across the country to its western border, to meet the demand in India and Bangladesh,” said Debbie Stothard of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (ALTSEAN), a regional human rights lobby.

That this happens openly is ”an indictment of the junta,” she added.

Currently, Wa leaders like Wei Hsueh-kang are wanted by the U.S. government for trafficking both heroin and speed pills. The U.S. State Department, in fact, has offered two million U.S. dollars to anyone who hands him over to U.S. officials.

Nevertheless, it is no secret that Wei Hsueh-kang and former drug lord Khun Sa receive protection from Rangoon’s regime due to the security and assistance the Wa has provided the Burmese government along the Thai-Burma border.

In fact, Thaksin visited Burma in February this year with the hope of getting Rangoon to pressure the Wa into cutting its drug links with Thailand. ”I will discuss the drugs issues with the Burmese to work out joint measures against drug trafficking along the border,” the prime minister had said on the eve of that visit.

That has been followed by other overtures Bangkok has made to Rangoon in a spirit of friendship, including Thailand’s recent effort to be sympathetic towards the Burmese government following a battery of criticism for its imprisonment of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party members.

”Thaksin has enjoyed a cosy relationship with the Burmese government,” said Stothard. ”So his outburst was unusually hardline.”

Consequently, two questions arise: Will the junta agree to mount a crackdown on the Wa? Will the Wa heed Thaksin’s words? According to Stothard, a shift from the status quo is unlikely, since the ”Wa is a key ally of the junta and Rangoon has not responded with results when on previous occasions links with the Wa were made.”