Thai PM: Drug barrons want me dead
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Thaksin says the drugs trade is the number one threat to Thai society.
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BANGKOK, Thailand (Reuters) -- Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra says his life is in danger because drug kingpins, enraged by a crackdown on drugs traffickers, have put a bounty on his head.
"Reports have come from our intelligence units that a group of international mafia bosses want to kill me," Thaksin told reporters Wednesday. "This is not a mere threat, they are real."
Hundreds of traffickers have been killed since Thaksin launched a three-month drugs crackdown on February 1.
The campaign has prompted criticism from international human rights groups and a top U.N. rights investigator that excessive force may have been used.
Thai newspapers quoted unnamed security sources on Wednesday as saying drug kingpins living along the Thai-Myanmar border had offered a bounty of 80 million baht ($1.89 million) to assassinate Thaksin.
Thaksin declined to confirm the bounty amount but said his personal security had been tightened. He said he now travelled in an armoured van rather than his usual luxury sedan and sniffer dogs had checked the room before this week's cabinet meeting.
Police said at the weekend the homicide toll had risen to 1,498 since the drugs campaign began, compared with the typical number of about 500 killings a month.
Police said they had shot dead 31 people in self-defence during raids. They blamed the other deaths on inter-gang rivalry.
Anti-drugs officials said Thailand is flooded with about a billion methamphetamine pills annually. The drug is made in secret factories in the Golden Triangle region, where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet. The region is also a major source of opium and its refined form, heroin.
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Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
