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Drug-free Thailand deadline criticized
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- An ambitious plan by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to banish drugs from "every square inch" of his country within four months is being criticized by the country's former police chief. The plan, announced by the prime minister Tuesday, gives officials in the war against illegal drugs until April 30 to make sure Thailand is drug free -- otherwise their jobs could be on the line. Addressing provincial governors, police and military leaders and state officials Thaksin said their efforts toward achieving the drug-free goal would be assessed at 9 p.m. on that day, and anyone who failed to perform would face the heat. "You are finished if you do not do your job," he warned. Former national police chief, General Sawat Amornwiwat told the Bangkok Post Thursday however that the plan was "unrealistic" so long as senior officials and politicians are in cahoots with drug traffickers. "The main obstacle is that influential people provide support for the drug traffickers," the English-language daily quoted him as saying. Root causes
Sawat, who now heads a Thai senate committee monitoring the implementation of anti-drugs policy, said that the government should focus its attention on the roots of the drug trade, rather than on quantities of drugs seized. "The government should make it as a policy that the origins of the drugs be traced and the money seized. It's not effective to focus solely on the amount of drugs seized," he said. Sawat said his committee would soon submit a plan to the government on more effective drug suppression efforts. Thailand has a huge drugs problem with an estimated 300,000 drug addicts. A rapidly growing problem is the numbers addicted to methamphetamine, or speed. Although thousands of soldiers have been deployed along the Thai border with Myanmar -- the major source of methamphetamine pills -- officials say they are fighting a losing battle. For every single pill seized, they say, another nine gets through. OathAnnouncing his plan earlier this week, Thaksin said representatives from all of Thailand's provinces would be required to attend a ceremony in Bangkok on January 31 to swear an oath that they would not be involved in the drugs trade. The ceremony will be televised live across the country. "I want to see every square inch getting X-rayed and authorities making a clean sweep of drugs in every area within three months from now," he said. Since coming to power in 2001, Thaksin has launched several high profile political drives aimed at cracking down on corruption and cleaning up Thai society -- the latter including a nationwide 2 a.m. closing time for all bars and nightclubs. He has also pushed for the fast-tracking of executions for convicted drug traffickers -- a policy that has been condemned by human rights groups but proved massively popular with Thai voters. However, critics have accused the millionaire former telecoms tycoon of promoting poorly thought-out campaigns that grab headlines but lack real substance.
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The main obstacle is that influential people provide support for the drug traffickers
