THAILAND. MANY IN FAVOUR OF DEATH PENALTY, SURVEY SHOWS

about 45 per cent of respondents to a Dhurakij Pundit University poll in Thailand said they supported capital punishment for drug traffickers and almost 8 per cent condoned the extrajudicial killing of drug dealers. The countrywide survey of 1,154 people in October 2005 covered eight topics ranging from drugs, rape and violence. An overwhelming 71 per cent said they wanted rapists who killed their victim to be executed and 7 per cent said, as a proper punishment, they ought to be summarily killed. On the issue of student protests, 11.5 per cent of respondents said they supported capital punishment for those who often caused trouble, injury and even death in public areas of Bangkok. As many as 42 per cent approved of executions for migrant workers who killed their employer and 13.6 per cent of people felt that mothers who abandoned their babies should be executed. Puangthong Pawakaraphan, a political science lecturer at Chulalongkorn University and one of the pollsters, said the results were alarming because across the board, 84 per cent of respondents chose the most extreme of punishments. In total, 47 per cent supported capital punishment, 20 per cent gave the green light to extrajudicial killings and 17 per cent were in favour of life imprisonment.