2,300 deaths in drug war prompt call for inquiry
By Rafael D. Frankel
Special to the Tribune
May 23, 2003
BANGKOK -- The United States is reconsidering its support for Thailand's counternarcotics operations after a three-month war on drugs here by the government left more than 2,300 people dead.
The breadth of the changes to American-Thai cooperation will depend on the results of an investigation by the Thai government into those deaths, a U.S. official here said. However, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency already is contemplating changes in its counternarcotics training assistance to Thailand.
"The Royal Thai Government needs to thoroughly investigate these cases and prosecute the killers in full accordance with the law--and in a fast and transparent manner," the official said.
Despite the concern U.S. officials expressed to Thailand at several diplomatic levels, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Tuesday announced the beginning of a new phase in the drug war.
Thailand and the United States have cooperated for more than 30 years in counternarcotics operations in the Golden Triangle, the dense jungle spanning parts of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos where much of the world's opium is grown.
The United States provides about $3 million in aid annually to Thailand for training counternarcotics agents and intelligence gathering. The DEA has a Thai bureau, and its agents occasionally accompany their Thai counterparts as observers during drug stings.
Of the 2,300 people slain in the campaign, Thai police insist a few dozen suspects were killed by its officers, and only in self-defense. According to the government, the rest were killed by drug dealers trying to cover their tracks.
International criticism rained on Thailand as the death toll mounted. Local human-rights organizations said Thai police were shooting drug suspects rather than trying to arrest them.
But local support for the drug war--opinion polls consistently put it at more than 90 percent--spurred the government to take its battle to a new phase.
Organized-crime figures, smugglers, corrupt politicians and rogue police constituted an "axis of evil," Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha said May 1. They would all be targeted in the coming "war on dark influences," as Shinawatra named it.
"The aim [of the new campaign] is to eradicate their roles in society, so that the law enforcement will cover everyone in the kingdom," a spokesman for the prime minister said. If the guilty come clean, no harm will come to them, he said.
Some critics of the methods used in the drug war are cautiously optimistic there will not be more of the daily multiple killings.
Thai Human Rights Commissioner Pradit Chareonthaitawee, who came under fire from the government for criticizing the methods employed during the drug war, said the government will be more cautious because of the international disapproval the killings brought.
Still, he is worried about whether the government will "follow the law, follow the constitution and follow the international [human-rights agreements] of the United Nations" in the months ahead.
Details of the new campaign were being concluded at the same time Shinawatra and Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai received the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Special Envoy Hina Jilani, who is on a fact-finding mission to assess the situation in Thailand. Jilani's visit was scheduled before the drug war began.
©2003 The Chicago Tribune
Friday, May 23, 2003
Thursday, May 15, 2003
S.F. financier in Thai court in child sex abuse case
Rafael D. Frankel, Chronicle Foreign Service
Chronicle staff writer Stephanie Salter contributed to this report
Thursday, May 15, 2003
Bangkok -- Handcuffed, barefoot and wearing a white face mask to protect against the SARS virus, San Francisco financier Thomas Frank White appeared in Thailand criminal court Wednesday for the first of eight scheduled hearings to determine whether he will be extradited to Mexico to face charges of alleged child sex abuse, child prostitution and providing drugs to minors.
White, 68, a multimillionaire who made his fortune in San Francisco in investment securities and discount online stock brokering, has been held in Bangkok's Remand Prison since Feb. 13, two days after he was arrested at the request of the Mexican government.
Mexico issued warrants for White's apprehension in 2001 for crimes he allegedly committed against eight boys, ages 10-16, at his villa near Puerto Vallarta.
Through his attorneys, White has denied wrongdoing and termed the charges "entirely baseless" and "not credible."
According to Thai Special Prosecutor Piyathida Jermhunsa, extradition hinges on the prosecution showing evidence that White committed acts in Mexico serious enough to earn at least a one-year sentence there as well as in Thailand. The three-judge panel also must unanimously find that there is no political motivation behind the extradition and that Mexico would do the same for Thailand were the roles reversed.
White faces a daunting challenge in trying to avoid extradition. Both the Thai prosecution and defense attorneys said they could not remember a case where extradition was not granted.
"Nobody ever gets out of extradition," said White's secondary counsel, Kunacha Chaichumporn. "It's just a matter of time."
White's lead attorney, Kittyporn Arunrat, did not attend Wednesday's hearing because of duties in an unrelated case, which caused a postponement of the proceedings until July 4.
White is also named as the defendant in a California civil suit filed by Daniel Garcia, 20, of Modesto. He accuses White of sexually molesting him when Garcia was a minor. Garcia was in the Bangkok courtroom Wednesday along with his mother and attorney.
When arrested, White had been living since June 2002 in a luxury housing development in Jomtien Beach, Thailand, near the resort town of Pattaya.
White's extradition hearing could last as long as five months, with the final session scheduled Oct. 10. The prosecution is to call its first witness July 4, and wrap up its case in only a few half-day sessions. The defense is scheduled to begin Aug. 22.
Standing a head above everyone else in the courtroom, White wore maroon shorts and a matching short-sleeved shirt. He showed no ill signs of his three months in prison, where he shares a cell with about 20 other men and sleeps on a blanket over concrete.
White's spirits have risen lately after an initial onset of depression, his attorney Chaichumporn said, and he has made friends with other foreigners in the jail. He is able to order food from Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken for delivery to the jail. Aside from high blood pressure, for which he takes medicine and receives weekly visits from the jail doctor, White is in good health, according to Chaichumporn.
©2003 San Francisco Chronicle Press
Chronicle staff writer Stephanie Salter contributed to this report
Thursday, May 15, 2003
Bangkok -- Handcuffed, barefoot and wearing a white face mask to protect against the SARS virus, San Francisco financier Thomas Frank White appeared in Thailand criminal court Wednesday for the first of eight scheduled hearings to determine whether he will be extradited to Mexico to face charges of alleged child sex abuse, child prostitution and providing drugs to minors.
White, 68, a multimillionaire who made his fortune in San Francisco in investment securities and discount online stock brokering, has been held in Bangkok's Remand Prison since Feb. 13, two days after he was arrested at the request of the Mexican government.
Mexico issued warrants for White's apprehension in 2001 for crimes he allegedly committed against eight boys, ages 10-16, at his villa near Puerto Vallarta.
Through his attorneys, White has denied wrongdoing and termed the charges "entirely baseless" and "not credible."
According to Thai Special Prosecutor Piyathida Jermhunsa, extradition hinges on the prosecution showing evidence that White committed acts in Mexico serious enough to earn at least a one-year sentence there as well as in Thailand. The three-judge panel also must unanimously find that there is no political motivation behind the extradition and that Mexico would do the same for Thailand were the roles reversed.
White faces a daunting challenge in trying to avoid extradition. Both the Thai prosecution and defense attorneys said they could not remember a case where extradition was not granted.
"Nobody ever gets out of extradition," said White's secondary counsel, Kunacha Chaichumporn. "It's just a matter of time."
White's lead attorney, Kittyporn Arunrat, did not attend Wednesday's hearing because of duties in an unrelated case, which caused a postponement of the proceedings until July 4.
White is also named as the defendant in a California civil suit filed by Daniel Garcia, 20, of Modesto. He accuses White of sexually molesting him when Garcia was a minor. Garcia was in the Bangkok courtroom Wednesday along with his mother and attorney.
When arrested, White had been living since June 2002 in a luxury housing development in Jomtien Beach, Thailand, near the resort town of Pattaya.
White's extradition hearing could last as long as five months, with the final session scheduled Oct. 10. The prosecution is to call its first witness July 4, and wrap up its case in only a few half-day sessions. The defense is scheduled to begin Aug. 22.
Standing a head above everyone else in the courtroom, White wore maroon shorts and a matching short-sleeved shirt. He showed no ill signs of his three months in prison, where he shares a cell with about 20 other men and sleeps on a blanket over concrete.
White's spirits have risen lately after an initial onset of depression, his attorney Chaichumporn said, and he has made friends with other foreigners in the jail. He is able to order food from Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken for delivery to the jail. Aside from high blood pressure, for which he takes medicine and receives weekly visits from the jail doctor, White is in good health, according to Chaichumporn.
©2003 San Francisco Chronicle Press