Thailand - Killing the Pushers
June 2003 - 19 min 00 sec
Police training Clark: Thai police are playing for keeps in their latest war on drugs.
02:12 The three month crackdown aims to rid the country of its network of dealers.
Pichai Pichai: These people betray the nation because they know that the drugs will destroy people’s brains and bodies.
02:21 Young girl in yaba raid
Clark: Heroin is not the big problem any more – it’s yaba – speed by another name – amphetamine tablets which Thais pop in their millions.
02:31 Police shooting
The police have been told to take tens of thousands of dealers off the streets – and they’re doing just that with deadly results.Much of this footage is too gruesome to show – but it’s become the staple of nightly news bulletins here over the past few months.The police say most of these deaths involve drug dealers shooting other drug dealers – but many Thais believe the police are behind the killings.
No-one argues that Thailand has a drug problem, or that many of the people killed in this campaign were drug dealers. The real debate is over the method and the central charge is that the police and the army have been acting as judge, jury and executioner.
03:14 Music
Pichai shooting targets Clark: Regional Police, Chief Pichai Sunthornsajjabul, has a reputation as one of one of Thailand’s toughest cops.
03:41 He hit the headlines a couple of years ago by declaring his own war on drugs – dubbed the Shortcut to Hell campaign – he reportedly endorsed the idea of police killing drug traffickers to get around a corrupt legal system.
Now, he says, he was misquoted.
Pichai
Pichai: This phrase refers to drug dealers. They won’t live long because society doesn’t want them.
04:07 Police training Clark: But these men are not being trained to arrest anyone – they’re being trained to kill.Police commander Pichai says Thailand’s addiction to amphetamines – to yaba – is producing new threats.
04:24 Pichai
Pichai: These days we’re getting situations where people on yaba are going crazy and taking hostages.
04:38 Clark: And when there are hostages involved, Thai police don’t take prisoners.
Pichai: Our task is to rescue the hostages and eliminate the bad guys.
04:58 Night vision of raid
Clark: The police are being helped in this latest campaign by the army, lending real firepower to the government’s stated aim of a war on drugs.
05:09 Both the police and soldiers were kitted out as if for war during this night time raid in a village in the north.
Soldier: This is the police! Please hurry up!
05:24 Clark: Our night vision camera let’s you see. Imagine just how terrifying it must be to be woken in pitch dark and confronted with this.
There’ve been hundreds of raids like this in villages all over Thailand.
05:39 Police have a blacklist of more than 40,000 people suspected of dealing drugs – if your name’s on it, expect a visit.
Hours of work here produced a gun but no drugs – it was a night of fruitless searching.As day broke we asked one of the young men in the village if people here used drugs.
Lorlo
Lorlo: There used to be people addicted to yaba and other drugs, yes. It’s better now, because previously our village was famous for drugs. That was many years ago.
06:05 Clark: The government’s message on drugs has certainly come through loud and clear.
Lorlo: We’re afraid of being shot or identified mistakenly.Interpreter: Do you mean by the police?Lorlo: I don’t care who it is. Whoever it is that shoots.
06:21 Body in grass
Clark: Thailand’s Human rights Commission now has a growing file of what are known as silent killings – where people on the drugs blacklist have been killed – police say by rival drug dealers.
06:31 PraditSuper: Prof. Pradit ChareonthaitaweeHuman Rights Commissioner Pradit: They blame the silent killings on the drug dealers themselves, nothing to do with the government or nothing to do with the police force but the public doesn’t believe that.
06:43 Clark: And nor does one of Thailand’s Human Rights Commissioners, Professor Pradit Chareonthaitawee
Pradit: This is not right. What they are doing is quite barbarous and inhuman.
07:04 Phongthep
Clark: Can you categorically deny that there is any shoot to kill policy by the police or the army units at the moment?
Super: Phongthep Thapkanjana Justice Minister Phongthep: There is no policy directed by the government to do that, definitely no. And if some policemen, if they did something illegally, then they will be taken to court. They will be charged.
07:20 Clark: But not all Thais have as much faith in their legal system.
07:40 Suwit walking down street Suwit Baison’s parents were shot dead a month into the campaign.
His stepfather was on the blacklist as a marijuana user – that meant he had to report to his local police station – his wife went with him. As they were driving home a group of armed men drove up beside them.
Suwit Suwit: When the car was next to my parents the men inside wound the window down and fired at them. Then the car made a u-turn and drove back in the direction of the local police station, where they apparently came from.
08:05 Suwit approaches Prime Minister Clark: Convinced that the police were behind the killing and wouldn’t investigate, Suwit took his case directly to Thailand’s Prime Minister – as the TV cameras rolled.
08:21 Suwit: I’ve got a petition. My parents were shot dead in Petchaboon after they reported to the police.
Suwit: I was a bit nervous because I wasn’t sure what the consequences would be.
08:37 I asked the local medical rescue officers about other deaths they’ve dealt with. They told me all 10 people killed earlier in this area were shot with the same 11 millimetre. bullets.
Pills
Music 09:11
Clark: Because drugs are such a big problem in Thailand there was a sense, early in the campaign, that the public might have been happy to turn a blind eye to police acting outside the law.
09:20 Candle beside grave of Chakraphan But the death of 9 year old Chakraphan Srisa-ad was a killing too far.
09:32 The boy’s father was small time drug-dealer arrested in a police sting. When his mother panicked and drove off in the car, shots were fired – Chakraphan was killed.
Bullet holes in windscreen At first, the chief of police conceded his officers fired the fatal bullet.
09:51 A police spokesman came to Chakraphan’s funeral – the force sent flowers – but there were signs the police story was changing.
Music Pongsaphat: What ws the cause of his death, we don’t know yet
Pongsaphat But since his death we still feel a responsibility about what happened with him. The thing that caused his death has come from the police operation, so it doesn’t matter whether the police shot him or somebody else shoots him to death. But we take responsibility from the beginning until today.
10:10 Clark: The dead boy’s grandmother Liem says he dreamed of being a policeman.
10:35 Liem with photo of Chakraphan
Liem: I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and he said, “a policeman.” He said he’d like it – he could shoot all the criminals.
Clark: Chakraphan’s uncle is in no doubt the police killed his nephew.
Liem and Somchai Somchai: At the moment police are still denying it, which is common. I’ve seen several similar cases. The police will never admit it because it would be bad for the government’s policy.
10:59 Bullet holes in car
Clark: The policemen at the scene of the killing say unidentified gunmen on a motor scooter fired the shots that killed Chakraphan. No other witnesses can be found. The policeman overseeing the investigation says the three officers concerned will be punished if the investigation finds them at fault.
11:11 Chakthip
Chakthip: Even though we think the police may have acted in self-defence, I decided to press a murder charge against them so that we can guarantee a transparent investigation and find out whose bullets killed the victim. The boy could have been killed by police by mistake.
11:35 Street scenes
Clark: If there’s been some ambivalence among Thais themselves about police methods in this war on drugs then it’s because the drug problem is so big. And to get a sense of how big, it’s worth heading north.
12:08 Tourists on elephants To elephant country, where the tourists sway about, flooding the country with dollars, euros and yen.
12:25 They’ve brought a prosperity which is the envy of many of Thailand’s neighbours. But behind the tourist land of smiles is a society which has an enduring history of drug use and abuse – of which yaba is simply the latest in a long line.
Dr Theerawat Dr Theerawat: Yaba is the most serious drug problem in Thailand. It has been a major problem for five years, and remains so.
12:50 Rehabilitation centre Clark: Five years ago most of the patients at this drug rehabilitation centre were heroin addicts – now it’s full of yaba users.
13:04 The Centre’s director, Doctor Theerawat Wongton supports the government’s war on drugs.
Dr Theerawat Dr Theerawat: This campaign should continue. If we stop, new drug dealers will take the place of the old ones. So the suppression, prevention and rehabilitation campaigns have to be sustained.
13:20 Soldiers walking through grassland
Clark: Out in the hilly border regions is where Thailand’s drug problems begin. These are Thai soldiers whose job it is to keep the border secure.
13:46 This is the frontline in Thailand’s war on drugs. The border with Burma is just one hundred and fifty metres down the track. And most of the amphetamines come from Burma, smuggled over on hundreds of jungle paths.
13:59 And sure enough, just down the track, we met the people who are meant to be policing the other side of the border Soldiers of the so-called Wa-army – a separatist militia who’ve been given control of this area by the Burmese government and who are behind much of the drug smuggling.
14:12 Wa soldier The absurdity of the situation emphasised by the fact that the two sides, literally, do not speak the same language.
14:28 Border check Thai soldier: This guy doesn’t seem to understand us. This morning there was someone who spoke Thai.
14:36 Clark: Multiply this experience across several hundred similar crossing points and you see the problem.
People are going back and forth here all day, everyday – doing all sorts of business – much of it legal – much of it not.
View into Burma Unless those on the Burmese side want to stop drug smugglers, eliminating dealers is temporary at best.Kraisak: This is the key and it needs international, regional collaboration on this
14:57 KraisakSuper: Senator Kraisak Choonhavan and of course Burma has to take a more serious look at this.Clark: That’s not very likely, though, is it?Kraisak: It’s very unlikely, because the area that are producing drugs is an area where it is now dominated by the so-called Wa state. They are basically responsible for the production of drugs.
15:11 Border check
Clark: Is it fair to say that unless you stop the supply of drugs coming over the border from Burma then this war on drugs can’t be won?Phongthep: We have to suppress the supply,
15:39 Phongthep and if we can suppress the supply from our neighbouring countries then we have very few drugs entering ours, because most of the drugs, especially methamphetamines, which were consumed in Thailand, are made outside. Clark: In Burma, mostly?Phongthep: Outside Thailand, I just don’t want to pinpoint where.
Pradit in office Clark: But arguing with the government here can get you into trouble.
16:18 Professor Pradit, the Human rights Commissioner, started getting death threats when he went public with his criticism of the killings.
Pradit Pradit: The spokesman for the Thai Rak Thai party, which is the government party, accused me of being a traitor to the kingdom.
16:30 So many people rang me at home -- they are going to kill me, they are going to put a bomb under my car or they are going to burn my house.
Prime Minister Thaksin Clark: So far, Thailand’s Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra – a former policeman -- has been dismissive of criticism, even from a UN body.
16:53 Don’t worry about that , he told journalists as the campaign gathered pace. The United Nations is not my father. We’re a member of the UN and we’ll follow the rules. If they want to investigate us they can.
Street scenes Clark: The Prime Minister knows there’s no sympathy among Thais for drug dealers.
17:18 But there are some who say the cost is too high.Kraisak: We’ve had bystanders being wounded and killed.
Kraisak Cases that are not related to drugs have been branded as drug related. We even see local communities settling scores, being labelled as drug related. The process of law has seemingly been ignored and this is the most important thing.
17:30 Suwit watching video Clark: Weeks after confronting his Prime Minister, Suwit Baison is still no closer to really knowing who killed his parents.
17:54 Suwit: When I first approached the Prime Minister I was confident I would get justice from the day of my petition -- but I’m not as confident now.
Chakraphan’s funeral Clark: And will there be justice for nine year old Chakraphan, killed as his small-time drug dealer father was being arrested. His uncle wants something done about drugs, but he also understands the rule of law.
18:19 Somchai Somchai: The police made a malicious judgement. It’s as though we’re living in a country without laws. We’re heading towards barbarism.
18:32 Pichai
Clark: For career policemen like Lt Col Pichai – with his shortcut to hell philosophy -- there’s black and white.
18:45 Pichai: If he’s a criminal we don’t care about him. But if he’s innocent and killed by mistake, then we would care.
18:53 Clark: The trouble is, it’s a little late to prove your innocence after the shooting stops.
19:03 THAI DRUGSReporting: Chris Clark and Peter LloydCamera: David LelandEditor: Simon Brynjolffsen
(Ref: 1688)
June 2003 - 19 min 00 sec
Police training Clark: Thai police are playing for keeps in their latest war on drugs.
02:12 The three month crackdown aims to rid the country of its network of dealers.
Pichai Pichai: These people betray the nation because they know that the drugs will destroy people’s brains and bodies.
02:21 Young girl in yaba raid
Clark: Heroin is not the big problem any more – it’s yaba – speed by another name – amphetamine tablets which Thais pop in their millions.
02:31 Police shooting
The police have been told to take tens of thousands of dealers off the streets – and they’re doing just that with deadly results.Much of this footage is too gruesome to show – but it’s become the staple of nightly news bulletins here over the past few months.The police say most of these deaths involve drug dealers shooting other drug dealers – but many Thais believe the police are behind the killings.
No-one argues that Thailand has a drug problem, or that many of the people killed in this campaign were drug dealers. The real debate is over the method and the central charge is that the police and the army have been acting as judge, jury and executioner.
03:14 Music
Pichai shooting targets Clark: Regional Police, Chief Pichai Sunthornsajjabul, has a reputation as one of one of Thailand’s toughest cops.
03:41 He hit the headlines a couple of years ago by declaring his own war on drugs – dubbed the Shortcut to Hell campaign – he reportedly endorsed the idea of police killing drug traffickers to get around a corrupt legal system.
Now, he says, he was misquoted.
Pichai
Pichai: This phrase refers to drug dealers. They won’t live long because society doesn’t want them.
04:07 Police training Clark: But these men are not being trained to arrest anyone – they’re being trained to kill.Police commander Pichai says Thailand’s addiction to amphetamines – to yaba – is producing new threats.
04:24 Pichai
Pichai: These days we’re getting situations where people on yaba are going crazy and taking hostages.
04:38 Clark: And when there are hostages involved, Thai police don’t take prisoners.
Pichai: Our task is to rescue the hostages and eliminate the bad guys.
04:58 Night vision of raid
Clark: The police are being helped in this latest campaign by the army, lending real firepower to the government’s stated aim of a war on drugs.
05:09 Both the police and soldiers were kitted out as if for war during this night time raid in a village in the north.
Soldier: This is the police! Please hurry up!
05:24 Clark: Our night vision camera let’s you see. Imagine just how terrifying it must be to be woken in pitch dark and confronted with this.
There’ve been hundreds of raids like this in villages all over Thailand.
05:39 Police have a blacklist of more than 40,000 people suspected of dealing drugs – if your name’s on it, expect a visit.
Hours of work here produced a gun but no drugs – it was a night of fruitless searching.As day broke we asked one of the young men in the village if people here used drugs.
Lorlo
Lorlo: There used to be people addicted to yaba and other drugs, yes. It’s better now, because previously our village was famous for drugs. That was many years ago.
06:05 Clark: The government’s message on drugs has certainly come through loud and clear.
Lorlo: We’re afraid of being shot or identified mistakenly.Interpreter: Do you mean by the police?Lorlo: I don’t care who it is. Whoever it is that shoots.
06:21 Body in grass
Clark: Thailand’s Human rights Commission now has a growing file of what are known as silent killings – where people on the drugs blacklist have been killed – police say by rival drug dealers.
06:31 PraditSuper: Prof. Pradit ChareonthaitaweeHuman Rights Commissioner Pradit: They blame the silent killings on the drug dealers themselves, nothing to do with the government or nothing to do with the police force but the public doesn’t believe that.
06:43 Clark: And nor does one of Thailand’s Human Rights Commissioners, Professor Pradit Chareonthaitawee
Pradit: This is not right. What they are doing is quite barbarous and inhuman.
07:04 Phongthep
Clark: Can you categorically deny that there is any shoot to kill policy by the police or the army units at the moment?
Super: Phongthep Thapkanjana Justice Minister Phongthep: There is no policy directed by the government to do that, definitely no. And if some policemen, if they did something illegally, then they will be taken to court. They will be charged.
07:20 Clark: But not all Thais have as much faith in their legal system.
07:40 Suwit walking down street Suwit Baison’s parents were shot dead a month into the campaign.
His stepfather was on the blacklist as a marijuana user – that meant he had to report to his local police station – his wife went with him. As they were driving home a group of armed men drove up beside them.
Suwit Suwit: When the car was next to my parents the men inside wound the window down and fired at them. Then the car made a u-turn and drove back in the direction of the local police station, where they apparently came from.
08:05 Suwit approaches Prime Minister Clark: Convinced that the police were behind the killing and wouldn’t investigate, Suwit took his case directly to Thailand’s Prime Minister – as the TV cameras rolled.
08:21 Suwit: I’ve got a petition. My parents were shot dead in Petchaboon after they reported to the police.
Suwit: I was a bit nervous because I wasn’t sure what the consequences would be.
08:37 I asked the local medical rescue officers about other deaths they’ve dealt with. They told me all 10 people killed earlier in this area were shot with the same 11 millimetre. bullets.
Pills
Music 09:11
Clark: Because drugs are such a big problem in Thailand there was a sense, early in the campaign, that the public might have been happy to turn a blind eye to police acting outside the law.
09:20 Candle beside grave of Chakraphan But the death of 9 year old Chakraphan Srisa-ad was a killing too far.
09:32 The boy’s father was small time drug-dealer arrested in a police sting. When his mother panicked and drove off in the car, shots were fired – Chakraphan was killed.
Bullet holes in windscreen At first, the chief of police conceded his officers fired the fatal bullet.
09:51 A police spokesman came to Chakraphan’s funeral – the force sent flowers – but there were signs the police story was changing.
Music Pongsaphat: What ws the cause of his death, we don’t know yet
Pongsaphat But since his death we still feel a responsibility about what happened with him. The thing that caused his death has come from the police operation, so it doesn’t matter whether the police shot him or somebody else shoots him to death. But we take responsibility from the beginning until today.
10:10 Clark: The dead boy’s grandmother Liem says he dreamed of being a policeman.
10:35 Liem with photo of Chakraphan
Liem: I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and he said, “a policeman.” He said he’d like it – he could shoot all the criminals.
Clark: Chakraphan’s uncle is in no doubt the police killed his nephew.
Liem and Somchai Somchai: At the moment police are still denying it, which is common. I’ve seen several similar cases. The police will never admit it because it would be bad for the government’s policy.
10:59 Bullet holes in car
Clark: The policemen at the scene of the killing say unidentified gunmen on a motor scooter fired the shots that killed Chakraphan. No other witnesses can be found. The policeman overseeing the investigation says the three officers concerned will be punished if the investigation finds them at fault.
11:11 Chakthip
Chakthip: Even though we think the police may have acted in self-defence, I decided to press a murder charge against them so that we can guarantee a transparent investigation and find out whose bullets killed the victim. The boy could have been killed by police by mistake.
11:35 Street scenes
Clark: If there’s been some ambivalence among Thais themselves about police methods in this war on drugs then it’s because the drug problem is so big. And to get a sense of how big, it’s worth heading north.
12:08 Tourists on elephants To elephant country, where the tourists sway about, flooding the country with dollars, euros and yen.
12:25 They’ve brought a prosperity which is the envy of many of Thailand’s neighbours. But behind the tourist land of smiles is a society which has an enduring history of drug use and abuse – of which yaba is simply the latest in a long line.
Dr Theerawat Dr Theerawat: Yaba is the most serious drug problem in Thailand. It has been a major problem for five years, and remains so.
12:50 Rehabilitation centre Clark: Five years ago most of the patients at this drug rehabilitation centre were heroin addicts – now it’s full of yaba users.
13:04 The Centre’s director, Doctor Theerawat Wongton supports the government’s war on drugs.
Dr Theerawat Dr Theerawat: This campaign should continue. If we stop, new drug dealers will take the place of the old ones. So the suppression, prevention and rehabilitation campaigns have to be sustained.
13:20 Soldiers walking through grassland
Clark: Out in the hilly border regions is where Thailand’s drug problems begin. These are Thai soldiers whose job it is to keep the border secure.
13:46 This is the frontline in Thailand’s war on drugs. The border with Burma is just one hundred and fifty metres down the track. And most of the amphetamines come from Burma, smuggled over on hundreds of jungle paths.
13:59 And sure enough, just down the track, we met the people who are meant to be policing the other side of the border Soldiers of the so-called Wa-army – a separatist militia who’ve been given control of this area by the Burmese government and who are behind much of the drug smuggling.
14:12 Wa soldier The absurdity of the situation emphasised by the fact that the two sides, literally, do not speak the same language.
14:28 Border check Thai soldier: This guy doesn’t seem to understand us. This morning there was someone who spoke Thai.
14:36 Clark: Multiply this experience across several hundred similar crossing points and you see the problem.
People are going back and forth here all day, everyday – doing all sorts of business – much of it legal – much of it not.
View into Burma Unless those on the Burmese side want to stop drug smugglers, eliminating dealers is temporary at best.Kraisak: This is the key and it needs international, regional collaboration on this
14:57 KraisakSuper: Senator Kraisak Choonhavan and of course Burma has to take a more serious look at this.Clark: That’s not very likely, though, is it?Kraisak: It’s very unlikely, because the area that are producing drugs is an area where it is now dominated by the so-called Wa state. They are basically responsible for the production of drugs.
15:11 Border check
Clark: Is it fair to say that unless you stop the supply of drugs coming over the border from Burma then this war on drugs can’t be won?Phongthep: We have to suppress the supply,
15:39 Phongthep and if we can suppress the supply from our neighbouring countries then we have very few drugs entering ours, because most of the drugs, especially methamphetamines, which were consumed in Thailand, are made outside. Clark: In Burma, mostly?Phongthep: Outside Thailand, I just don’t want to pinpoint where.
Pradit in office Clark: But arguing with the government here can get you into trouble.
16:18 Professor Pradit, the Human rights Commissioner, started getting death threats when he went public with his criticism of the killings.
Pradit Pradit: The spokesman for the Thai Rak Thai party, which is the government party, accused me of being a traitor to the kingdom.
16:30 So many people rang me at home -- they are going to kill me, they are going to put a bomb under my car or they are going to burn my house.
Prime Minister Thaksin Clark: So far, Thailand’s Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra – a former policeman -- has been dismissive of criticism, even from a UN body.
16:53 Don’t worry about that , he told journalists as the campaign gathered pace. The United Nations is not my father. We’re a member of the UN and we’ll follow the rules. If they want to investigate us they can.
Street scenes Clark: The Prime Minister knows there’s no sympathy among Thais for drug dealers.
17:18 But there are some who say the cost is too high.Kraisak: We’ve had bystanders being wounded and killed.
Kraisak Cases that are not related to drugs have been branded as drug related. We even see local communities settling scores, being labelled as drug related. The process of law has seemingly been ignored and this is the most important thing.
17:30 Suwit watching video Clark: Weeks after confronting his Prime Minister, Suwit Baison is still no closer to really knowing who killed his parents.
17:54 Suwit: When I first approached the Prime Minister I was confident I would get justice from the day of my petition -- but I’m not as confident now.
Chakraphan’s funeral Clark: And will there be justice for nine year old Chakraphan, killed as his small-time drug dealer father was being arrested. His uncle wants something done about drugs, but he also understands the rule of law.
18:19 Somchai Somchai: The police made a malicious judgement. It’s as though we’re living in a country without laws. We’re heading towards barbarism.
18:32 Pichai
Clark: For career policemen like Lt Col Pichai – with his shortcut to hell philosophy -- there’s black and white.
18:45 Pichai: If he’s a criminal we don’t care about him. But if he’s innocent and killed by mistake, then we would care.
18:53 Clark: The trouble is, it’s a little late to prove your innocence after the shooting stops.
19:03 THAI DRUGSReporting: Chris Clark and Peter LloydCamera: David LelandEditor: Simon Brynjolffsen
(Ref: 1688)