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At least 87 suspected drug traffickers have been killed, the majority at the hands of their own cronies, in the first seven days of Thailand's war on drugs, the national police chief said in Bangkok yesterday.
"Police killed eight of them in self-defence," Major General Pongsapat Pongcharoen told Thai television in an interview. "The rest were killed by drug gang members."
On February 1 Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra launched a highly publicized three-month war on drugs aimed at eliminating the scourge from the kingdom.
In the first week of the campaign police have arrested some 9,232 people and seized 4.25 million methamphetamine pills and 150 million baht (US$3.5 million) in assets.
The death toll revealed by Pongsapat illuminates a disturbing trend within the ranks of suspected drug gangs, namely that they are willing to kill each other to avoid the risk of betrayal should their accomplices turn themselves in.
"Police want to arrest them alive, but drug dealers are concerned that more information will be leaked to police (by their fellow dealers), so they decide to kill them," Pongsapat said.
(China Daily February 10, 2003)
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