DAVID O'SHEA : At a police rehabilitation centre in Thailand's north, addicts are being weaned off the drug they are all hopelessly addicted to.
INMATES CHANT : We don’t do it. None of us do it.
It's the first centre in the country opened at a police station since a new government campaign began to wipe out the drug known as the crazy pill, Ya Ba.
LECTURER (Translation) : Ya Ba will destroy your memory.
O'SHEA : Three of the 70 inmates are forced under the table for tonight's meal, for sneaking in some alcohol. The addicts are alternately cajoled or humiliated in an effort to keep their minds off the drug. Ya Ba is a stronger and more addictive variant of amphetamine or speed, and it's been flooding into Thailand at an alarming rate in recent years. There are now 3 million users.
SANDRO CALVANI, UN DRUG CONTROL PROGRAM : That means 5% of total population, but if you eliminate children and elderly - they don't use drugs - on the young adults it can be much more than 5%.
O'SHEA : In an effort to counter this national disaster, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced an all-out war on drugs that began on 1 February.
THAKSIN SHINAWATRA, THAI PM : We declare war. A final war to defeat narcotic drugs once and for all.
O'SHEA : At the time, no-one imagined he meant it literally - a war with plenty of body bags and even collateral damage. Kayla and her family were among the first victims of Thaksin's war. Her husband was shot dead on the very first day of the campaign after rumours that he was involved in the drug trade. Her eldest son says his father was a ginger farmer and had nothing to do with drugs.
SON OF VICTIM (Translation): We were walking home to have lunch with Mum. I was about 100-200 metres behind him. He walked in front of me. I was behind him.
INTERPRETER : Then he was shot?
SON OF VICTIM : Yes.
O'SHEA : They have no idea what to do or who to turn to. The police came to question them about the murder but they've heard nothing more.
INTERPRETER : Did you see who shot him?
SON OF VICTIM : Yes, but I didn't know who they were.
INTERPRETER : How many people?
SON OF VICTIM : Two.
INTERPRETER : What did the gunmen look like?
SON OF VICTIM : They were quite big and tall.
INTERPRETER : Short hair, long hair?
SON OF VICTIM : Short hair.
O'SHEA : That was day one. By the end of the month, well over 1,000 others had been shot dead.
COLONEL PANURAT MEEPIEN, SENIOR POLICE COMMANDER (ADRESSING TROOPS) (Translation): We have three months to eradicate narcotics from our precinct.
O'SHEA : The front-line troops in Thaksin's war are the Thai police. Colonel Panurat Meepien is a senior commander under strict instructions to conduct an all-out assault on drugs in his patch. He oversees six stations in central Bangkok and he's constantly on the move checking on his subordinates.
COLONEL PANURAT MEEPIEN (Translation): This is the superintendent. See? He makes arrest a lot.
O'SHEA : Like police chiefs and government officials all around the country, he's been threatened with the sack if he doesn't meet Government-imposed targets to win this war.
REPORTER : Are you feeling the pressure from above?
COLONEL PANURAT MEEPIEN : Yes. This police station top 10 in success in suppressed amphetamine. 116,000 pills.
O'SHEA : Superintendent Krailert also reports to Panurat.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT (ADDRESSING TROOPS) (Translation): Today when you're out there, you must get the names of these drug addicts in the community. After you get those names, your people are to pressure them. Understood? That's it for the meeting. Thank you.
O'SHEA : Today Krailert will lead one of 12 teams from his station out on to the streets. They work with two blacklists, one drawn up by the police and the other from the Interior Ministry. The lists contain the names of thousands of users and dealers.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT : Let's chat there. What did you use?
YOUNG MAN : Ya Ba.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT : Did you smoke it?
YOUNG MAN : Yes.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT : So you're not addicted now?
YOUNG MAN : No, I'm not.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT : Where do you get it?
YOUNG MAN : Someone got it for me.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT : I'm telling you, your name is on the list.
O'SHEA : A fairly standard drug inquiry so far. But then Krailert ventures into the territory that sets this campaign apart.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT : If you get killed buying drugs, don't blame me. Got it? No-one knows who is shooting who these days.
O'SHEA : With 1,500 names on the blacklist already executed, it sounds like, and is understood to be, a direct threat.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT (SPEAKING TO TWO YOUNG GIRLS): You know drugs are bad. If you buy them, you could get killed. You never know these days who is killing who.
O'SHEA : These women know very well that if they don't take his advice and change their ways, they could well be the subject of tomorrow's headline. The newspapers are full of stories about people just like them. Among the statistics, collateral damage so far includes a pregnant woman, a 75-year-old woman, and a one-year-old child. The Prime Minister admits there has been collateral damage, but he's always claimed that the majority of the murders are committed by drug dealers, trying to silence potential informers.
THAKSIN SHINAWATRA, THAI PM: Dirty business will involve dirty people. It seems natural they use dirty means to kill each other.
O'SHEA : But at the daily editorial meeting at The Nation group, Thailand's leading independent media organisation, no-one believes this for a minute.
THEPCHAI YONG, EDITOR, THE NATION GROUP : Nobody's buying that line because we believe that authorities, the police in particular, were involved in many of the killings. So if what the Interior Minister claims is true, that the killings were the result of a double crossing, or killings among drug dealers themselves, it means drug dealers are in control of the country. But the public understanding now is that the higher the number of drug suspects killed, the better grading you get. So this is tantamount to giving authorities the licence to kill.
O'SHEA : Not many Thais are raising their voices in protest, such is the climate of fear generated by the killings. Opposition Senator Kraisak Choonhavan is one of the few people here brave enough to make the link between the police crackdown and the rising death toll.
KRAISAK CHOONHAVAN, OPPOSITION SENATOR : This morning I receive very disturbing news that the police might be hiding some of the evidences and some of the judiciary, extra-judiciary killings are very nebulous.
REPORTER : Hiding some of evidence of the killings or the confiscation?
KRAISAK CHOONHAVAN : Of the killings, of the actual due process, you know, of investigation. There are many cases that people caught with two or three pills and then arrested and then re-arrested, appear to be with more pills.
DR PORNTHIP ROJANASUNAN, FORENSIC SCIENTIST : First piece, look like a bullet hole.
O'SHEA : Dr Pornthip Rojanasunan, a renowned forensic scientist based at the Justice Ministry, has examined many of the victims.
DR PRONTHIP ROJANASUNAN : Because in many, many cases of death from shooting in the drug abuse, I saw the arrangement of the drug package in the shirt or in the trouser. I think it's not original.
REPORTER : A set up, you mean?
DR PORNTHIP ROJANASUNAN : A set up, yeah.
O'SHEA : She says there's clear evidence crime scenes have been tampered with.
DR PORNTHIP ROJANASUNAN : Because the piece of cloth or the position of the body will show that this was not the original position, maybe from the drain of the blood stains, and the bullets.
O'SHEA : Colonel Panurat is aware of the evidence linking police to the killings but brushes it aside, claiming self-defence.
COLONEL PANURAT : Killing like this nobody like. Even police doesn't like, but sometimes we can't avoid these things.
REPORTER : Can't avoid?
COLONEL PANURAT : Yeah.
REPORTER : What do you mean?
COLONEL PANURAT : You know, sometimes self-defence sometime.
It's now openly suggested that government pressure on the police to make arrests and reach their blacklist targets is the reason that so many people are being killed.
THEPCHAI YONG, EDITOR, THE NATION GROUP : The government wanted all the provinces in the country to meet certain criteria, to show that they have been successful in combating drugs. So they are measuring the failure or the success of the campaign on statistics. I mean, the higher the numbers of people get killed for being drug addicts, the higher the number of people who come out openly to enforce drugs. I mean, the better ratings, I mean, you get. That means more killings, more drug arrests and that means a lot of innocent people will be victims of the campaign.
O'SHEA : One month into the campaign the government conducts the first evaluation and Chiang Rai province is one of 23 across the country that's not reached its blacklist target. It's a warning to Acting Police Commander Atakit Korntong to lift his act.
COMMANDER ATAKIT KORNTONG (Translation): What we are doing in Chiang Rai right now is the correct and most suitable way. If other provinces do better, we'll adopt their methods. But if it is extra judicial or pre-emptive killings, we'll try to avoid that.
O'SHEA : But the pressure from Bangkok is intense, and he knows that he will have to respond somehow.
COMMANDER ATAKIT KORNTONG (Translation): Yes, we have to comply with the demands of the interior ministry.
O'SHEA : The governor's job too is on the line. He calls a crisis meeting to work out how to improve the arrest strike rate and get Chiang Rai province off the list of non-performers. In the 24 hours after this meeting broke up, six people were shot dead, and by the time the next evaluation came up, Chiang Rai was off the list. Some Thais consider the campaign of killings good for the country. Ameena is an anti-drug campaigner in Klong Toei, a Bangkok slum notorious for having more dealers than anywhere else in the capital.
AMEENA, ANTI-DRUG CAMPAIGNER (Translation): There have been about 500 people killed recently. But there are more than 60 million in Thailand. What if these baddies were alive to hurt the good people? They deserved to die. There should be more killed.
O'SHEA : Ameena is typical of many Thais who support the Prime Minister's hard-line policy. But she's taken it one step further and now works openly with the police as an informant.
POLICEMAN: Lek?
AMEENA : He's a drug addict.
POLICEMAN : The boy?
AMEENA : Of course he is.
O'SHEA : Ameena's knowledge of Klong Toei is so helpful that the police now feel they can crack open the drug network operating here.
POLICEMAN ADDRESSING JOURNALISTS : Today we will put an end to the notorious Klong Toei. Once a drugs nest, it will be no more, thanks to the local people in Klong Toei.
O'SHEA : She leads them on a raid, stage managed for the evening news.
POLICEMAN : The owner is not here.
REPORTER : The owner is a dealer, is he?
POLICEMAN : Just small dealer in the community.
O'SHEA : While the cameras were here, no drugs were found, but later on, the police apparently found a stash of Ya Ba pills in a garbage bin in front of the house. If it's true that drug dealers are protecting themselves by killing potential informants, it's odd that Ameena feels comfortable with such a high public profile as an informer. This first month of the war is aimed at eliminating demand - a fairly futile exercise given the number of users. While Ya Ba is very much a Thai problem, even foreign tourists are getting caught up in these swoops.
MAN AT CLUB : He has a cold, flu and he arrived today on Qantas Flight 2 from London and leaves in two days time. He hasn't taken anything. This must be correct.
POLICEMAN : Are you where?
MAN AT CLUB : London, I'm a designer.
POLICEMAN : Designer?
MAN AT CLUB : Yeah. I make clothes.
O'SHEA : A similar scene is played out at another club. More urine is passed and more names recorded. It's hardly an exercise that will do anything to destroy the drug networks. At the end of the first phase of the campaign, it's impossible to tell whether demand has been reduced, although the 1,500 corpses have sent a chilling message to dealers and users alike. The second phase of the war is supposed to be about eliminating supply, but that task was never going to be easy.
SANDRO CALVANI: You can't put in your pocket or on a truck 1 billion pills, or 60 million pills per month and reaching 2 million consumer per day. It's such a huge operation that you need big infrastructure.
KRAISAK CHOONHAVAN: We know that the drugs to proliferate at this level, it must have some collaboration with unscrupulous or corrupt officials at one point or another on the trans-shipment of it.
O'SHEA : Prime Minister Thaksin himself has admitted corruption is an obstacle. He's spoken of a third blacklist that no-one has seen yet, which contains over 700 names. Powerful and well-connected members of the military, police and government, who are either directly involved in the drug trade or protect those who are. But after two months, there is no sign that Thaksin will really take these people on. It's much easier to give a few addicts a hard time. At the end of the first month, the killings dramatically declined. Perhaps 1,500 dead was considered enough to be a powerful deterrent. But if all Thaksin's war achieves is a pile of dead bodies, and the country is still awash with Ya Ba, then the whole thing will have been a dramatic and tragic waste of time.
REHABILITATED ADDICTS SING: “Poor woman, her son behaved badly, mixed with the wrong crowd, and took drugs. Smoked marijuana, sniffed glue and got drunk. Poor man, the drugs almost took his life.”
INMATES CHANT : We don’t do it. None of us do it.
It's the first centre in the country opened at a police station since a new government campaign began to wipe out the drug known as the crazy pill, Ya Ba.
LECTURER (Translation) : Ya Ba will destroy your memory.
O'SHEA : Three of the 70 inmates are forced under the table for tonight's meal, for sneaking in some alcohol. The addicts are alternately cajoled or humiliated in an effort to keep their minds off the drug. Ya Ba is a stronger and more addictive variant of amphetamine or speed, and it's been flooding into Thailand at an alarming rate in recent years. There are now 3 million users.
SANDRO CALVANI, UN DRUG CONTROL PROGRAM : That means 5% of total population, but if you eliminate children and elderly - they don't use drugs - on the young adults it can be much more than 5%.
O'SHEA : In an effort to counter this national disaster, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced an all-out war on drugs that began on 1 February.
THAKSIN SHINAWATRA, THAI PM : We declare war. A final war to defeat narcotic drugs once and for all.
O'SHEA : At the time, no-one imagined he meant it literally - a war with plenty of body bags and even collateral damage. Kayla and her family were among the first victims of Thaksin's war. Her husband was shot dead on the very first day of the campaign after rumours that he was involved in the drug trade. Her eldest son says his father was a ginger farmer and had nothing to do with drugs.
SON OF VICTIM (Translation): We were walking home to have lunch with Mum. I was about 100-200 metres behind him. He walked in front of me. I was behind him.
INTERPRETER : Then he was shot?
SON OF VICTIM : Yes.
O'SHEA : They have no idea what to do or who to turn to. The police came to question them about the murder but they've heard nothing more.
INTERPRETER : Did you see who shot him?
SON OF VICTIM : Yes, but I didn't know who they were.
INTERPRETER : How many people?
SON OF VICTIM : Two.
INTERPRETER : What did the gunmen look like?
SON OF VICTIM : They were quite big and tall.
INTERPRETER : Short hair, long hair?
SON OF VICTIM : Short hair.
O'SHEA : That was day one. By the end of the month, well over 1,000 others had been shot dead.
COLONEL PANURAT MEEPIEN, SENIOR POLICE COMMANDER (ADRESSING TROOPS) (Translation): We have three months to eradicate narcotics from our precinct.
O'SHEA : The front-line troops in Thaksin's war are the Thai police. Colonel Panurat Meepien is a senior commander under strict instructions to conduct an all-out assault on drugs in his patch. He oversees six stations in central Bangkok and he's constantly on the move checking on his subordinates.
COLONEL PANURAT MEEPIEN (Translation): This is the superintendent. See? He makes arrest a lot.
O'SHEA : Like police chiefs and government officials all around the country, he's been threatened with the sack if he doesn't meet Government-imposed targets to win this war.
REPORTER : Are you feeling the pressure from above?
COLONEL PANURAT MEEPIEN : Yes. This police station top 10 in success in suppressed amphetamine. 116,000 pills.
O'SHEA : Superintendent Krailert also reports to Panurat.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT (ADDRESSING TROOPS) (Translation): Today when you're out there, you must get the names of these drug addicts in the community. After you get those names, your people are to pressure them. Understood? That's it for the meeting. Thank you.
O'SHEA : Today Krailert will lead one of 12 teams from his station out on to the streets. They work with two blacklists, one drawn up by the police and the other from the Interior Ministry. The lists contain the names of thousands of users and dealers.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT : Let's chat there. What did you use?
YOUNG MAN : Ya Ba.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT : Did you smoke it?
YOUNG MAN : Yes.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT : So you're not addicted now?
YOUNG MAN : No, I'm not.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT : Where do you get it?
YOUNG MAN : Someone got it for me.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT : I'm telling you, your name is on the list.
O'SHEA : A fairly standard drug inquiry so far. But then Krailert ventures into the territory that sets this campaign apart.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT : If you get killed buying drugs, don't blame me. Got it? No-one knows who is shooting who these days.
O'SHEA : With 1,500 names on the blacklist already executed, it sounds like, and is understood to be, a direct threat.
SUPERINTENDENT KRAILERT (SPEAKING TO TWO YOUNG GIRLS): You know drugs are bad. If you buy them, you could get killed. You never know these days who is killing who.
O'SHEA : These women know very well that if they don't take his advice and change their ways, they could well be the subject of tomorrow's headline. The newspapers are full of stories about people just like them. Among the statistics, collateral damage so far includes a pregnant woman, a 75-year-old woman, and a one-year-old child. The Prime Minister admits there has been collateral damage, but he's always claimed that the majority of the murders are committed by drug dealers, trying to silence potential informers.
THAKSIN SHINAWATRA, THAI PM: Dirty business will involve dirty people. It seems natural they use dirty means to kill each other.
O'SHEA : But at the daily editorial meeting at The Nation group, Thailand's leading independent media organisation, no-one believes this for a minute.
THEPCHAI YONG, EDITOR, THE NATION GROUP : Nobody's buying that line because we believe that authorities, the police in particular, were involved in many of the killings. So if what the Interior Minister claims is true, that the killings were the result of a double crossing, or killings among drug dealers themselves, it means drug dealers are in control of the country. But the public understanding now is that the higher the number of drug suspects killed, the better grading you get. So this is tantamount to giving authorities the licence to kill.
O'SHEA : Not many Thais are raising their voices in protest, such is the climate of fear generated by the killings. Opposition Senator Kraisak Choonhavan is one of the few people here brave enough to make the link between the police crackdown and the rising death toll.
KRAISAK CHOONHAVAN, OPPOSITION SENATOR : This morning I receive very disturbing news that the police might be hiding some of the evidences and some of the judiciary, extra-judiciary killings are very nebulous.
REPORTER : Hiding some of evidence of the killings or the confiscation?
KRAISAK CHOONHAVAN : Of the killings, of the actual due process, you know, of investigation. There are many cases that people caught with two or three pills and then arrested and then re-arrested, appear to be with more pills.
DR PORNTHIP ROJANASUNAN, FORENSIC SCIENTIST : First piece, look like a bullet hole.
O'SHEA : Dr Pornthip Rojanasunan, a renowned forensic scientist based at the Justice Ministry, has examined many of the victims.
DR PRONTHIP ROJANASUNAN : Because in many, many cases of death from shooting in the drug abuse, I saw the arrangement of the drug package in the shirt or in the trouser. I think it's not original.
REPORTER : A set up, you mean?
DR PORNTHIP ROJANASUNAN : A set up, yeah.
O'SHEA : She says there's clear evidence crime scenes have been tampered with.
DR PORNTHIP ROJANASUNAN : Because the piece of cloth or the position of the body will show that this was not the original position, maybe from the drain of the blood stains, and the bullets.
O'SHEA : Colonel Panurat is aware of the evidence linking police to the killings but brushes it aside, claiming self-defence.
COLONEL PANURAT : Killing like this nobody like. Even police doesn't like, but sometimes we can't avoid these things.
REPORTER : Can't avoid?
COLONEL PANURAT : Yeah.
REPORTER : What do you mean?
COLONEL PANURAT : You know, sometimes self-defence sometime.
It's now openly suggested that government pressure on the police to make arrests and reach their blacklist targets is the reason that so many people are being killed.
THEPCHAI YONG, EDITOR, THE NATION GROUP : The government wanted all the provinces in the country to meet certain criteria, to show that they have been successful in combating drugs. So they are measuring the failure or the success of the campaign on statistics. I mean, the higher the numbers of people get killed for being drug addicts, the higher the number of people who come out openly to enforce drugs. I mean, the better ratings, I mean, you get. That means more killings, more drug arrests and that means a lot of innocent people will be victims of the campaign.
O'SHEA : One month into the campaign the government conducts the first evaluation and Chiang Rai province is one of 23 across the country that's not reached its blacklist target. It's a warning to Acting Police Commander Atakit Korntong to lift his act.
COMMANDER ATAKIT KORNTONG (Translation): What we are doing in Chiang Rai right now is the correct and most suitable way. If other provinces do better, we'll adopt their methods. But if it is extra judicial or pre-emptive killings, we'll try to avoid that.
O'SHEA : But the pressure from Bangkok is intense, and he knows that he will have to respond somehow.
COMMANDER ATAKIT KORNTONG (Translation): Yes, we have to comply with the demands of the interior ministry.
O'SHEA : The governor's job too is on the line. He calls a crisis meeting to work out how to improve the arrest strike rate and get Chiang Rai province off the list of non-performers. In the 24 hours after this meeting broke up, six people were shot dead, and by the time the next evaluation came up, Chiang Rai was off the list. Some Thais consider the campaign of killings good for the country. Ameena is an anti-drug campaigner in Klong Toei, a Bangkok slum notorious for having more dealers than anywhere else in the capital.
AMEENA, ANTI-DRUG CAMPAIGNER (Translation): There have been about 500 people killed recently. But there are more than 60 million in Thailand. What if these baddies were alive to hurt the good people? They deserved to die. There should be more killed.
O'SHEA : Ameena is typical of many Thais who support the Prime Minister's hard-line policy. But she's taken it one step further and now works openly with the police as an informant.
POLICEMAN: Lek?
AMEENA : He's a drug addict.
POLICEMAN : The boy?
AMEENA : Of course he is.
O'SHEA : Ameena's knowledge of Klong Toei is so helpful that the police now feel they can crack open the drug network operating here.
POLICEMAN ADDRESSING JOURNALISTS : Today we will put an end to the notorious Klong Toei. Once a drugs nest, it will be no more, thanks to the local people in Klong Toei.
O'SHEA : She leads them on a raid, stage managed for the evening news.
POLICEMAN : The owner is not here.
REPORTER : The owner is a dealer, is he?
POLICEMAN : Just small dealer in the community.
O'SHEA : While the cameras were here, no drugs were found, but later on, the police apparently found a stash of Ya Ba pills in a garbage bin in front of the house. If it's true that drug dealers are protecting themselves by killing potential informants, it's odd that Ameena feels comfortable with such a high public profile as an informer. This first month of the war is aimed at eliminating demand - a fairly futile exercise given the number of users. While Ya Ba is very much a Thai problem, even foreign tourists are getting caught up in these swoops.
MAN AT CLUB : He has a cold, flu and he arrived today on Qantas Flight 2 from London and leaves in two days time. He hasn't taken anything. This must be correct.
POLICEMAN : Are you where?
MAN AT CLUB : London, I'm a designer.
POLICEMAN : Designer?
MAN AT CLUB : Yeah. I make clothes.
O'SHEA : A similar scene is played out at another club. More urine is passed and more names recorded. It's hardly an exercise that will do anything to destroy the drug networks. At the end of the first phase of the campaign, it's impossible to tell whether demand has been reduced, although the 1,500 corpses have sent a chilling message to dealers and users alike. The second phase of the war is supposed to be about eliminating supply, but that task was never going to be easy.
SANDRO CALVANI: You can't put in your pocket or on a truck 1 billion pills, or 60 million pills per month and reaching 2 million consumer per day. It's such a huge operation that you need big infrastructure.
KRAISAK CHOONHAVAN: We know that the drugs to proliferate at this level, it must have some collaboration with unscrupulous or corrupt officials at one point or another on the trans-shipment of it.
O'SHEA : Prime Minister Thaksin himself has admitted corruption is an obstacle. He's spoken of a third blacklist that no-one has seen yet, which contains over 700 names. Powerful and well-connected members of the military, police and government, who are either directly involved in the drug trade or protect those who are. But after two months, there is no sign that Thaksin will really take these people on. It's much easier to give a few addicts a hard time. At the end of the first month, the killings dramatically declined. Perhaps 1,500 dead was considered enough to be a powerful deterrent. But if all Thaksin's war achieves is a pile of dead bodies, and the country is still awash with Ya Ba, then the whole thing will have been a dramatic and tragic waste of time.
REHABILITATED ADDICTS SING: “Poor woman, her son behaved badly, mixed with the wrong crowd, and took drugs. Smoked marijuana, sniffed glue and got drunk. Poor man, the drugs almost took his life.”