Police probed for killing boy as Thai drugs war intensifies

South China Morning Post ^ | February 24, 2003 | ASSOCIATED PRESS in Bangkok

[MrLeRoy]

Three police officers who gunned down a 9-year-old boy in downtown Bangkok faced legal action as a high-profile war on drugs intensified, officials said on Monday. A pregnant woman was also shot to death in another drug-related case. About 500 people have been killed since Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra declared on February 1 that he was launching an all-out effort to root out drugs within three months.

Despite an outcry from human rights groups over the killings, a poll said a majority of respondents were satisfied with the Government's tough measures against narcotics traffickers.

Support for the war on drugs was expressed by 70 per cent of 8,674 Bangkok residents surveyed in a Suan Dusit poll, conducted between February 15-23, though pollsters did not specifically ask whether respondents favoured the killings.

The nine-year-old boy was shot mistakenly in a sting operation conducted on Sunday night by three police officers posing as drug buyers, said police spokesman Major General Pongsaphat Phongcharoen.

After the three officers arrested a suspected trafficker who sold them more than 3,000 methamphetamine pills, the man's wife sped away in their car with their 9-year-old son. Lieutenant Colonel Sathit Prom-uthai and two subordinates gave chase and opened fire on the vehicle, killing the boy, the police spokesman said.

''This case is not regarded as a summary execution, but since the police mistakenly caused the death of the boy they are facing legal action,'' Mr Pongsaphat said. ''Investigators are probing the case.''

As of Saturday, the death toll in the war on drugs had climbed to 484 people. According to the police spokesman, almost all the killings were by gangsters trying to silence possible informers. He said only 22 of the dead were killed by police, acting in self-defence.

On Sunday, at least 18 more drug-related killings were recorded, including the boy in Bangkok and a woman in northern Ayuthaya province who was eight months pregnant. Police said they believe she was the victim of a gangland hit.

[MrLeRoy]

Wod_list ping

[dcwusmc]

Scary and disgusting. I do believe a LOT of our WODDIES would love to see the same thing here at home.

[tdadams]

And some people wonder why we're so opposed to an all out drug war here in the U.S. They're simply acting as judge, jury and executioner in Thailand in the name of eradicating drugs. Nearly 500 dead in the last few weeks, including children. Let's not wish that on America.