Thailand: Public Executions of Drug Traffickers Begin,
US
Troops to Train Thais, Regional Tensions
Mount
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/182.html#thaiexecutionsLast
month, DRCNet reported on the Thai government's effort to
come to grips with
a burgeoning methamphetamine problem fueled by
imports from neighboring
Burma
(
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/175.html#thailand
and
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/176.html#thaimeth).
In the run up to
last month's national drug summit, some ministers dared
to
suggest that Thailand might legalize the meth trade. Instead,
the
government has declared war on drug traffickers while paying
lip service to
treatment of addicts.
In what could become a regularly scheduled
spectacle, on
Wednesday four condemned drug traffickers were paraded before
the
media in shackles before being taken inside Bangkok's maximum
security
Bangkwang Prison and executed.
"From now on we will conduct weekly
executions against drug
offenders," Thai Interior Minister Purachai
Piemsomboon told the
assembled journalists. "We are executing convicted
narcotics
offenders quickly to send a clear signal to drug traffickers
that
this government is serious about taking tough action
against
them."
Another government spokesman, announcing that the
executions had
taken place, added, "The Thai government wants to reassure
the
world that it takes the drug problem seriously."
According to
reports in the Far Eastern Economic Review and the
South China Morning Post
(both published in Hong Kong), the US
military is set to get involved in the
region's drug wars, a move
the newspapers say is likely to increase tensions
with Burma and
China, both of which share borders with Thailand.
After
5,000 US troops come to Thailand next month to participate
in joint military
exercises, a small group will stay behind to
act as "instructors" for newly
formed Task Force 399, a 500-man
anti-drug unit manned by Thai Special
Forces, two infantry
companies and Thai Border Police. Twenty soldiers
from the US
1st Special Forces Group will train the task force,
the
newspapers said.
But the anti-drug mission risks provoking
confrontations with the
Burmese military or the 15,000-strong United Wa State
Army, a
Burmese ethnic army outside of Rangoon's control which
supplies
the bulk of the cross-border meth trade. And that could bring
in
the Chinese. China is the Burmese junta's closest ally and
major
arms supplier. The Wa rebels also carry Chinese weapons,
now
including surface-to-air missiles, and are helping Beijing
construct a
road network through their area of northeast Burma.
Task Force 399 is
also causing grumbling among nationalistic
elements of the Thai
military. "This is raising some concern
among progressive ranking
officers," Panitan Wattanayagorn, a
Chulalongkorn University military affairs
scholar, told the
Review.
Maj.-Gen. Anu Sumitra, the 3rd Army
intelligence chief, told the
Review the task force will not confront Burmese
troops but will
stay on the Thai side of the border. Even so, said
Panitan,
"There is an increasing risk of confrontation, but both
sides
stand to lose from confrontation. The government must not
make
the Burmese feel we are representing the West."
China, for its
part, agreed last month to a Thai proposal for
regional cooperation against
drug trafficking and has helped move
tens of thousands of Wa from the
northern border with China to
Burma's southern border with Thailand.
Thai intelligence
officials told the Review they suspect China wants to keep
a
close eye on US military moves in northern Thailand.
Meanwhile, a
power struggle in the Burmese junta between army
commander Gen. Maung Aye and
the junta's first secretary, Lt.-
Gen. Khin Nyunt adds another complicating
factor. Maung Aye is
said to have close ties to the Wa State Army,
while Knin Nyunt is
a bitter foe. What is shaping up is a fluid and
dangerous
situation along the Thai-Burmese border. The drug-smuggling
Wa
are supported by Maung Aye, opposed by Knin Nyunt, armed by China
--
which now wants to be part of the anti-drug effort -- and are
facing off
against the Thai military backed by US Special Forces.
"If not handled
properly, this could be even messier than
Colombia," one Western intelligence
official told the Review.