SUPHANBURI (Thailand): Six weeks shy of his ninth birthday Chakkapan Srisa-ard achieved a notoriety he could never have expected. He died, caught in gunfire during a police sting operation in Bangkok, a victim of a bloody government war on drugs that is coming under increasing scrutiny.
Chakkapan’s death came after his father was arrested making a drug delivery to undercover agents. When his mother tried to escape in the family car, police opened fire. Chakkapan, hit in the back, died on the spot. Police have arrested three officers but they say they fired in the air and the fatal shots came from a gang member on a motorcycle.
Raeed Junuthai, a 53-year-old housewife murdered a week earlier in Suphanburi province, shows another facet of the deadly force unleashed by Thai leaders to smash the drug scourge in a country with one of the highest rates of amphetamine abuse.
Her husband Somkiat relates how a district councillor warned Raeed two weeks ago she was on a drugs blacklist and should report to local police. The next morning a gunman shot her dead a few hundred metres from her home.
Neighbours said a stranger in a white pick-up asked for her while she was out fishing in rice paddies. Soon after they saw him stop his car, walk up to her and heard gunfire. Somkiat found her face down beside the road, shot in the head, back and arms.
The dress, weapon and competence of the gunman leave Somkiat convinced she was shot by undercover police.
Both deaths shed light on one of the world’s bloodiest drug war. By Friday, government figures showed more than 1,140 deaths and 8,500 arrests since Feb 1.
Police put the killings at 500, but acknowledge shooting only 22, claim self-defence, and say drug gangs are behind the rest. But like most Thais, lawyer Somchai Homlaor of the human rights group Asia Forum, believes police death squads are to blame.
The driving force behind the crackdown is Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire business tycoon turned politician who prides himself on decisive action. Five years ago he pledged to solve Bangkok’s traffic problems in 90 days, only to face media derision when little changed.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.
