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Burma's police chief clueless about Suu Kyi hunger strike
BREAKING THE CHAIN
On the trail of the traffickers

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Burma's police chief clueless about Suu Kyi hunger strike
The Nation - Published on September 7, 2008

Naypyitaw, Burma - Burma's police chief on Sunday claimed to know nothing about a hunger strike being staged by Nobel laureate and political dissident Aung San Suu Kyi to protest her five-plus years under house arrest.

Addressing a press conference in Naypyitaw, the military's new capital situated 350 kilometres north of Rangoon, Police Chief Khin Yee said Suu Kyi had recently been visited by her lawyer and doctor and neither had told the government about her hunger strike.

On Friday, the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party issued a statement claiming that Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest in Rangoon since May 2003, had refused food deliveries to her home-cum-jail for the past three weeks to protest her ongoing detention.

The NLD said Suu Kyi had refused to receive food packages from friends to protest her unlawful detention which has "exceeded the legal limit."

  Suu Kyi is under house detention in her family home on charges of disturbing the peace. The detention followed an attack by pro- military thugs on Suu Kyi's convoy in Tepeyin, Sagaing division in northern Burma on May 30, 2003. Several of her followers were killed in the melee.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been kept in near complete isolation, allowed monthly visits by her doctor and occasional visits by UN special envoys.

Last month she refused to meet with UN special envoy to Burma Ibrahim Gambari on the grounds that he had done nothing to secure her freedom.

Over the past two months Suu Kyi has been allowed three meetings with her lawyer Kyi Win, which is unusual, and last saw her doctor Tin Myo on August 1.

Burma's Police Chief Khin Yee said neither man had mentioned Suu Kyi's hunger strike to authorities. He added that the dissident's release would be in "accordance with the law."

  Under Myanmar emergency law political prisoners can only be kept under detention for a maximum of five years on charges of disturbing the peace, but Suu Kyi's detention was last May extended for another six months, raising legal questions.

Burma's ruling junta has been sending mixed signals about the duration of Suu Kyi's incarceration.

There have been hints that she may be released within six months, but many observers believe it is unlikely that she will be released before the next general election slated for 2010.

Suu Kyi's NLD party won the 1990 polls by a landslide, but the party has been denied power by the military for 18 years and she has been kept under house arrest for around 13 of the past 18 years.

Burma has been under military rule since 1962. Ironically, it was Suu Kyi's father, Aung San, who fathered the military establishment as part of the country's independence movement from its former colonial master Britain.

Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, is deemed Burma's democracy icon and one of the few opposition leaders with enough popular and international support to undermine the military's monopoly of political power in the south-east Asian nation.

September 7, 2008 10:28 pm (Thai local time)

http://nationmultimedia.com/2008/09/07/regional/regional_30082806.php

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BREAKING THE CHAIN
Police have their hands full trying to hold back the rising tide of drugs flooding in from neighbouring countries
By Maxmilian Wechsler

Despite continuous suppression efforts by Thai anti-narcotic agencies, supported by their foreign counterparts, the smuggling of drugs from neighbouring countries into Thailand continues unabated. Some are destined for local consumption and some are exported abroad.

"With an estimated 500,000 drug addicts, most of them taking the relatively cheap ya ba (methamphetamine) , the Thai authorities are facing a daunting task in suppressing the drug trade," said a foreign law enforcement officer based in Thailand.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) confirmed that ya ba is the leading drug in terms of abuse, followed by marijuana, "ice" (crystal methamphetamine, still increasing), inhalants, cough syrups, ecstasy, ketamine, cocaine, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, heroin, opium and kratom, a local leaf.

According to statistics (see table) provided by the Office of the Narcotic Control Board (ONCB), there were 95,136 drug cases with 104,847 arrests in Thailand during 2007. This is in comparison to 74,272 cases and 82,463 arrests the previous year. Both the amounts of drug cases and arrests have been steadily increasing since 2004, when 55,345 cases and 61,169 arrests were recorded. In 2003, before the war on drugs, there were 102,184 cases with 109,045 arrests.

As the foreign officer noted, "The figures can be interpreted in different ways. The police are working harder with better results, more drugs are coming in, or a combination of the two - but no one really knows."

Large shipments of drugs seized in Thailand, or originating here and intercepted in other countries during the past few months are evidence that Thailand is a big player in the drug trade. Some examples:

Chiang Mai police seized 10kg of ice and 370,000 ya ba tablets in July. A married couple was arrested.

Around 1.7 million ya ba tablets were seized and five suspects arrested in separate operations in Chiang Rai province on August 24. According to a source, the pills were smuggled from Burma and destined for Bangkok and neighbouring provinces.

Outside Thailand, the Taiwanese authorities announced on June 13 the seizure of 31kg of heroin smuggled by sea in a container from Thailand. Investigators claimed that it was the largest quantity of smuggled drugs confiscated in Taiwan this year.

And in one of the biggest seizure of drugs ever, the Australia authorities confiscated 850kg of pseudoephedrine, a precursor chemical used in the production of ice, hidden in three consignments of ornaments and statues that arrived at Port Botany in Sydney in sea cargo from Thailand on July 4. Three men were arrested.

NEW CAMPAIGN

Police Lt-Gen Wuthi Liptapallop, Commissioner of the Narcotic Suppression Bureau (NSB), is convinced that more seizures and arrests can be attributed to the increased efficiency and capabilities of law enforcement authorities. He noted that a new anti-drug campaign began in April, with the participation of the NSB, Provincial Police Regions 1 to 9 and the Metropolitan Police. A number of the operations have targeted foreign gangs.

The commissioner admits that there has been an increase in the consumption of cocaine, mainly in entertainment venues around Bangkok in areas such as RCA, Soi Nana, Khao San Road and Pratunam. "The NSB is now investigating 22 major drug syndicates, both Thai and foreign," said Pol Lt-Gen Wuthi.

Deputy commissioner of the NSB Maj-Gen Aditep Panjamanond is in charge of drug suppression efforts in the northern part of Thailand. "The situation is not as serious as before - thanks to the good work of many different Thai government agencies, including the Royal Thai Army," he says.
Maj-Gen Aditep admits, however, that ya ba is still coming into the country in large amounts, but said it is not as easy to bring drugs in from Burma as it was in the past.

He is very much concerned about the drug precursors which are coming to Burma from China, India and Thailand.

"My job is to stop the flow of these chemicals," said the Maj-Gen, who added that Taiwanese chemists involved in the manufacture of drugs are living along the Thai-Burmese border.

BUILDING TRUST

As Commander of the Crime Suppression Division (CSD), one of most important tasks of Police Maj-Gen Pongpat Chayapun is to root out the drug trade.

Noting that the ONCB and the NSB focus primarily on big dealers, he said the CSD goes after both big and small operators

. "However, I like to focus more on the local community level, on the small-time drug dealers who start out just taking drugs and end up selling them.

"One mistake I would like to highlight is that during a drug suppression operation police often obtain information from the people by getting closer to the community.

"The problem is that after the operation is over they move on, instead of maintaining a long-term presence," said the Maj-Gen.
"I have been trying to change this approach, with some success.
"My method is to send the police into the community, let them serve the community wherever possible and build up a good relationship. When the community trusts the police they will be involved in solving the drug problem," he said.

Maj-Gen Pongpat first began putting his theory into practice at Bangkunnon community in Thon Buri about 10 years ago. Since then the pilot project has been extended to other communities.

According to Maj-Gen Pongpat, the drug problem in Bangkunnon has decreased as a result of the CSD work, and the people there are understandably happy about this.

He added: "Another problem is a lack of information exchange among the different police divisions, departments and units. The whole system should be overhauled."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/070908_Perspective/07Sep2008_spec02.php

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On the trail of the traffickers
Bangkok Post : Sunday September 07, 2008
By Maxmilian Wechsler

POLICE COLONEL Pornsak Surasit , superintendent of operation Unit 7 of the Crime Suppression Division, provided some intelligence gleaned from his own experience and investigations:

- Ya ba (methamphetamine) in Thailand is primarily smuggled in from Burma to Thailand's northern provinces of Chiang Rai via Chiang Saen district; Chiang Mai via Chiang Dao district; and Tak via Wang Chao district. The drug is then commonly trafficked to Bangkok hidden in cars transporting produce.

Ya ba is imported to Kanchanaburi province in the west of Thailand via Sangkhlaburi district, and then sent on to Bangkok. The drug is also transported along the Andaman Sea to Ranong in the South via Burma's Kaunthaung region by fishing boat. The pills usually reach Thai markets in four suburbs of Bangkok before being distributed to agents throughout the metro area.

The production cost of ya ba in Burma is about 90,000 baht for 2,000 pills (one pack). In Bangkok this sells for 180,000 to 250,000 baht, with a single pill bringing around 300 baht.

- Crystal methamphetamine, known as "ice", is usually imported to Thailand's Sa Kaew province in the via the Rong Klua market on the Cambodian border and also smuggled to Tak via Mae Sot district.

(left to right) Police Lt-Gen Wuthi Liptapallop, Police Maj-Gen Aditep Panjamanond , Police Col Pornsak Surasit and Police Maj-Gen Pongpat Chayapun.

Ice is often sold to well-off people in various up-market entertainment places, or to adolescents who organise parties in condominiums and private residences. Production cost is 600 baht for one gramme, sold for about 3,000 baht when it arrives in Bangkok.

- Ecstasy tablets come mainly from Malaysia by car through southern Thailand. Sometimes ecstasy is also flown from Singapore to Bangkok.

The production cost is about 280 baht for one pill, selling for 1,500 to 1,800 baht in Bangkok. Therefore the drug is bought mostly by the well-to-do.

- Ketamine is imported mostly from India or Pakistan. Production cost is about 600 to 700 baht a bottle, sold in Bangkok for 1,500 to 2,000 baht.

- Marijuana is imported to Thailand from Laos via Nong Khai, Mukdahan and Nakhon Phanom provinces in the Northeast of Thailand and by boats along the Mekong River.

Marijuana is mostly sent to Southern Thailand for sale at tourist spots.The production cost is about 1,500 baht per kilogramme, sold wholesale in Thailand for up to 15,000 baht. Smaller amounts are marked up much higher.

- Heroin causes fewer problems in Thailand these days. It is still smuggled from Burma by minority groups over mountain passes. In bigger lots, it is sent by boat via Trat and Chanthaburi provinces in eastern Thailand. 

Production cost is about 200,000 baht per kilogramme. The finished product is sold in small amouts in Thailand and around the world for tremendous profits.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/070908_Perspective/07Sep2008_spec03.php
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