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The prestigious Bangkok Post, in its main editorial yesterday, urged Thai authorities to show the world that Thailand has real resolve to suppress the illicit arms trade and will not tolerate police or military officers who moonlight as merchants of death. Headlined 'It makes no sense to flirt with karma' the Post editorial said that Thailand is "awash with weapons" from war-torn Indochina, especially Cambodia, and leakages from our own military stockpiles.

"This makes the country an ideal base for arms traders. Weapons smuggled from Thailand to Sri Lanka in the past have reportedly been sourced from as far afield as the Czech Republic and North Korea," the Post editorialist wrote.

The Editorial: "Karma is a most inconvenient thing. All the bad deeds you have ever committed have a way of returning to haunt you at the most inopportune time. It's a lot like the law of physics: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Karma doesn't work quite as fast though, and therein lies the problem. People forget that it applies to them. Governments imagine they could never be subject to its forces. But what goes around, does come around.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, Thailand pretty much neglected the heroin problem. We thought it was a problem for western societies, we did little to address it and the country ended up a trafficking centre.

Then when heroin producers switched to methamphetamines, drugs became one of our biggest problems. This week's seizure of weapons destined for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka suggests we are in danger of making the same mistake with arms smuggling. Many countries, including Sri Lanka, have long warned that Thailand is a centre for international arms smuggling. Successive Thai governments have rejected the idea, although admitting the country is a "transit point".

This is a fine distinction. Thailand is awash with weapons from war-torn Indochina, especially Cambodia, and leakages from our own military stockpiles. This makes the country an ideal base for arms traders. Weapons smuggled from Thailand to Sri Lanka in the past have reportedly been sourced from as far afield as the Czech Republic and North Korea.

Thai police and military officers have been found involved too often in the trade. Six of 14 arrest warrants issued this week in connection with the LTTE case were for policemen and two were for air force officers.

The arrests followed the May capture of three LTTE rebels in Ranong as they were about to send 10 Glock and three HK Mark 23 pistols to their hideout in the Andaman Sea. Sri Lanka is not the only destination for weapons. Indonesia has long complained that arms smuggled from Thailand were finding their way into the hands of rebels in Aceh province.

Ethnic groups and drug lords in Burma have also long counted on everything from assault rifles to rocket propelled grenades and landmines, smuggled from Cambodia through Thailand, to arm their troops. This has become a network open to ready use by terrorists for their deadly business. Western intelligence charge that Thailand has become home to a number of Muslim radicals: Jemaah Islamiyah, al-Qaeda and even Hizbollah and Hamas.

Israeli television this week reported that Thai police had foiled an al-Qaeda plot to attack the El Al airline at Don Muang airport.

The New York Times also reported that Hambali, JI's chief operations planner arrested in Ayutthaya last month and handed to the United States, had admitted to plots to bomb hotels and embassies in Thailand. Even the backpacker haven of Khao San road was reported by a news agency to have been targeted by Hambali.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has played down these reports. The army, however, has asked Cambodia to crack down on arms smuggling from its territory for fear that surface-to-air missiles and RPGs available there could be used to attack aircraft before, after or during the Apec meeting in Bangkok next month. Mr. Thaksin, too, should be opened with the public about such initiatives. He should play up the fact that Thailand has succeeded in preventing attacks.

He should show the world that Thailand has real resolve to suppress the illicit arms trade and will not tolerate police or military officers who moonlight as merchants of death.

Only then will our karma begin to change for the better."

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