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As Thailand gears up for another election campaign with voters going to the polls in the spring to nominate the country's Senate, gunmen are expected to be as busy as professional pollsters.

Thai police have already released a wanted list of known hit men they want stopped from affecting the outcome of the vote.

But human rights groups are concerned the police may use the list to eliminate political opponents while ignoring the source of cash that  supports  political assassinations.

The latest crackdown follows a long history of blood-splattered campaigns referred to as 'the killing season', with candidates often hiring mui phuen, or gunmen, to rub out their competition.

In the latest attempt to stop a campaign killing spree ahead of the April Senate race, Major-General Vinai Thongsong, who heads the police's Crime Suppression Division (CSD), announced a blitz on guns-for-hire.

As head of the recently formed Centre for Suppression of Influential Figures and Gunmen, General Thongsong vowed to capture by year's end at least 27 of the 108 alleged gunmen on its 'most wanted' list.

He has a crack team of Swat commandos on 24-hour standby. To garner public assistance, the police set up a website   displaying the most notorious fugitives, detailing their past  offences, known hang-outs and personal habits.

Buntree Musaka, a former army sergeant who allegedly murdered five people, including two women, in a contract killing, sits at the top of the list. Further down, the number six suspect, Jittakorn Thammetha, might be difficult to miss at a bar as he is known to fire his favourite M-16 and AK-47 machine guns overhead when he's drunk.

Would-be bounty hunters can download the mug shots, and reap rewards of US$1,000 to US$2,500 for information leading to their capture.

The original list contained 120 names, but 12 men have already surrendered to police, fearing extra-judicial sentencing that may include a police bullet. Suspect lists and urgent deadlines are nothing new in Thailand, and that is what troubles the Asian Human Rights Council.

'If you say there are 100 people or so on this list then there is certainly a much larger number than that in Thailand who could be identified as killing people in exchange for money, so by what criteria are people on this list being included and others excluded?'  asked Nick Cheesman, who  represents the Hong Kong-based human rights watchdog.

Mr Cheesman said he feared that the latest government-sponsored cleanup would result in the deaths of innocent victims, in  the same way as the government's three-month war on 'dark forces' in the spring of 2003.

Purportedly a crackdown on the nation's drug trade, that campaign saw more than 4,000 suspected narcotics traffickers  killed or  go missing after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government distributed highly questionable blacklists that contained the names of alleged dealers.

International human right groups accused Thailand of using extra-judicial hit squads to execute most of the targeted suspects along with a string of innocent bystanders, including children. Most of the cases remain unsolved and Mr Cheesman holds out little hope that the government will bring to justice those responsible for giving the orders.

'When police are accused of extra-judicial killing, even in the event that there is any kind of inquiry, it's only going to happen at the level at which the police officers who were directly responsible for the killing  are involved,' he said.  In Thailand  policemen and soldiers often 'moonlight' as hired guns.

But  General Thongsong insisted his hit list included only serious criminals, which was why he remained adamant that police must stop them, through arrests or otherwise.

'One of my biggest cases involved the 'Godfather of Chonburi',' the veteran cop recalled, referring to the self-proclaimed 'half-businessman, half-gangster' Somchai Kunpleume, who rules the crime-ridden eastern seaboard province bordering Cambodia.

'Gunmen took an order from 'Kamnan Poh' [Thai for godfather] to murder a local chief of a sub-district,' General Thongsong said.

The gunmen's subsequent confessions led to the arrest and conviction of Kunpleume for paying them three million baht ($598,000)  to eliminate his business rival Prayoon Sitichote.

Despite being handed a 25-year prison sentence, the 68-year-old business tycoon, regarded by many as one of the country's most powerful crime figures, remains free on 10 million baht  bail while the Supreme Court considers his appeal. Meanwhile, his son Sondhaya continues to represent the province as a member of Thailand's  parliament.

Kunpleume's case is a prime example of the special treatment granted to 'influential' businessmen who use hired guns with strong connections to the country's clandestine web of military and police officials.

Since its inception, the Royal Thai Police has been linked with the military to dispense law and order in Thailand, which has been a constitutional monarchy for much of the 20th century.

According to the acclaimed book Corruption and Democracy in Thailand by Pasuk  Phongpaichit and Sungsidh Piriyarangsan, now  professors at the top-ranking  Chulalongkorn University, the police force was elevated during the 1950s and 1960s to a point where it was called the 'Fourth Army'. General Phao Sriyanon, the most notorious police director at this time, created a squad of special aides known as Aswin Waen Phet (Knights of the Diamond Ring) who acted as his personal hit men, the book  says.

The two security forces share a deep-rooted loyalty as servants of the kingdom and protectors of the monarchy, but a lack of disciplinary action against 'rogue' officers - which continues to the current day - has given some security officials an air of impunity and encouraged them to become assassins for their political bosses or wealthy businessmen - jao pho (regional  godfathers).

'This is the case especially with the soldiers who obey their boss. They do not care about the law of the country. The boss tries to find a large amount of money and they feed it to these people,' said Chulalongkorn University law professor Viraphong Boonyobhas,  who specialises in white-collar crime.

In order to stop political murder for hire, Professor Boonyobhas said Thailand must reform its archaic money laundering laws to cut off the finances that pay for gunmen.

'You cannot separate serious crime and white-collar crime because a large amount of money is the end goal for these criminals,' he said.

Thailand's human rights commissioner Surasee Kosolnavin, a prosecutor for 25 years,  said that as Thailand continued to strive for the materialistic goods of the western world, many were seeking the easy  route to fame and fortune.  'Thailand  has changed too much  with globalisation - the people want to make money quickly. Money is the new religion,' he said.

While  General Thongsong acknowledged the profit motive in Thailand's thriving murder-for-hire business, he was less concerned about  links to the bagmen.

As a younger captain, 49-year-old General Thongsong killed a gunman in a shootout near Bangkok. 'The gunmen do the job solely for the money. After they make the hit, they run from the police,' he said, grasping the cluster of gold Buddhist amulets draped around his neck as he retold the story of the botched arrest.

'They make the money the easy way and continue in their chosen  occupation.'

For General Thongsong, it is as simple as that.



Democracy under the gun