Turning Up the Heat

When Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to eliminate illegal drugs from "every square inch of the country" by Apr. 30, listeners could be forgiven their doubts. This was the man, after all, who once pledged to untangle Bangkok's perpetually snarled roads. Traffic, it turns out, is still a problem, but early results of this new drug war suggest that traffickers are becoming an endangered species. During the first week of February, the police announced that 9,232 alleged dealers were arrested, and nearly 7,000 more surrendered. Authorities seized upwards of 41 million amphetamine pills. It seemed Thaksin was getting the results he'd demanded.

But another number was troubling many people: in the same period, 144 alleged dealers turned up dead. The police claimed they were involved in only eight of those cases, all in self-defense. The rest, they maintained, were dealers snuffing out rival dealers to prevent them from ratting on each other. Human rights activists, among others, were incredulous. The Thai police have long been plagued by accusations of extrajudicial killing—most infamously in 1996 when six dealers were shot dead after being handcuffed—and the body count has again heightened fears that cops might be acting as judge, jury, and executioner. "If the police weren't involved," asked human rights lawyer Somchai Homlaor, "why hasn't one murderer been arrested?"

By week's end, the Senate announced plans to hold an inquiry into police practices. "These extrajudicial killings have to stop," said Senator Kraisak Choonhavan, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs. Thaksin shot back at his critics, saying they should ignore "the thinking of foreigners" and be thankful someone is taking on dealers who've made addicts of half a million Thais. His mantra is simple: "We will be cruel to them because they have been cruel to the country."