Word: jay
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Eight-year-old Jay Unthong's mother was the first casualty in Thailand's war on drugs. She died just after midnight on Feb. 1, moments after the launch of a three-month government campaign to rid the country of narcotics. Jay's parents were small-time dealers in their village of Ban Rai, in western Ratchaburi province. His mother, Yupin, was reportedly on a police blacklist. Her husband, Boonchuay, spent 18 months in jail for possession of amphetamine pills, known in Thai as ya ba, or crazy medicine. On Jan. 31, the family spent the evening playing fairground games...
...Barely 200 meters from the Buddhist temple, two black-garbed men in ski masks pulled up alongside on another motorcycle. The one riding pillion shot Jay's mother dead. Boonchuay tried to speed away, but the gunman kept firing until Boonchuay's motorcycle careened onto the pavement. Bleeding on the road, he shouted at his son to run. The boy scrambled over a fence. As he cowered in the darkness, he saw the gunman put a bullet in his father's head...
...Jay has barely spoken since. "He's torn up inside," says Phanom, his uncle. Tough measures are needed to battle drugs, Phanom agrees. "But killing people in the streets is just too cruel...
...made 13,232 arrests, seized nearly 10 million pills and accepted the surrender of 36,277 suspected drug pushers. Across the country, dealers, users and, sometimes, innocents are being gunned down, either by underworld associates, neighborhood enemies or, as human-rights groups allege, by cops taking extralegal measures. Since Jay's parents were slain, 1,138 more people have been killed?an average of almost...
...even supporters of the campaign express some unease. Somboon Gunpasri sells fruit along the road where Jay's parents were murdered. "They were such small fish," he sighs. Still, Somboon says, he's not worried because he doesn't use drugs and has no enemies. "If you do," he warns, "you better be afraid...