Like most wars, the society problem often labelled as the "war on drugs" is a matter of many small battles. This war has had many ups and downs since the government of Gen Sarit Thanarat banned opium in 1959. It should not be surprising that drug trafficking and usage are increasing once again.

The powerful profits of the drug gangs, combined with corruption and inattention, make it certain that the drugs trade remains a threat. What is important for the well-being of the country is that authorities stay alert, and stop fighting this war with yesterday's battle tactics. The fact of resurgent drug trafficking now seems beyond debate. This will surprise some people, who thought that the murderous and intimidating campaign of the former government might be the decisive, winning battle. Under ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, police and anti-drug forces teamed up in a campaign to wipe out petty drug-dealing. A chief tactic was the extra-judicial murder. Neither the overall death toll nor the number of totally innocent people killed is known. The best guess is that somewhere around 1,200 people died.

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The Department of Special Investigation has evidence linking police to four extra-judicial killings during deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's war on drugs in 2003. Ex-premier Thaksin could face charges of incitement.

DSI director-general Sunai Manomai-udom said on Monday that all four cases were transferred from the police to the DSI which began its investigation in December 2006 following complaints lodged by victims' families.

The four cases were the death of a nine-year-old boy, alias Nong Fluke, on Feb 23, 2003 and the subsequent disappearance of his mother; the killings of Nikhom Ounkaew and his wife Khanraya, in Nakhon Ratchasima's Khon Buri district on March 28, 2003; the deaths of Pongthep and Ampaiwan Rukhongprasert in Tak's Mae Sot district on May 18, 2003; and the killing of educator Samarn Thongdee in Tak's Muang district in April 2003.

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Ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has denied allegations against his personally having given orders to government authorities to kill drug suspects during his government's "war on drugs" campaign, his legal adviser said Saturday.

Lawyer Noppadol Pattama, legal adviser to Mr Thaksin's family, told journalists that he had telephoned the deposed prime minister in Beijing recently and was told that Mr Thaksin as well as his government had never given orders on any killings of drug-related suspects during the campaign.

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Surayud Likely to Chair It; Activists Delighted

Human rights activists yesterday hailed the prospect of Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont chairing a meeting next week on extra-judicial killings during the war on drugs under the Thaksin Shinawatra government. Former senator Kraisak Choonhavan said no other prime minister had shown an interest in dealing with breaches of human rights. But he stressed that the task required no less than changing the mindset of state officials who had been "programmed" to kill.

"This is worthier than an apology. It shows he is serious," Mr Kraisak said.

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Few things can keep Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont from chairing the meeting on extra-judicial killings at the Department of Special Investigation on Friday. His show of interest in the issue has raised the hopes of relatives of the victims of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's war on drugs, and human rights defenders across the country.

The meeting of the DSI's committee on special cases, which Gen Surayud chairs in his capacity as prime minister, is due to decide which of the extra-judicial killings it should take on.

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Ban Mae Maeh School director Saneh Jai-ut can never bring himself to speak the truth when his students ask him expectantly: "Have you had any word from my parents?"

Most of the 136 boarding-school students here come from families torn apart during the Thaksin Shinawatra government's war on drugs.

Some of the children are yet to learn the painful fact that their parents are either in jail for drug offences or were killed in the crackdown.

"The best thing I can say is, 'Yes, your parents ask

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New investigations are set to begin into the death of more than 2,500 people in the war on drugs launched by the Thaksin government. They are to determine how many of those killed were really drug dealers. Former senator Kraisak Choonhavan has also called on the Justice Ministry to look into suspected human rights violations in the restive South. He met the permanent secretary for justice and asked him to order the Department of Special Investigation to look into these cases.

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Thaksin Shinawatra's declaration of his war on drugs in 2003 would not have resulted in 2,500 cases of mostly unsolved deaths had he used more common sense and a meticulously thought-out plan.

As a result, a large number of those killed during the first few months of the campaign have been claimed to be innocent and hard-working Thais, including elderly people, pregnant women and even small children.

During his leadership, Mr Thaksin has been accused of using his emotions before using his reasoning power on several important issues. It was also rumoured that Mr Thaksin had a personal motive in this particular matter in dispute: one of his close relatives got hooked on amphetamines and thus he was furious at the prevalence of the drug in the country, hence the campaign that resulted in thousands of unseemly deaths.

The 2003 war on drugs was just one example of Mr Thaksin's lack of leadership quality and characteristics.

Chavalit Van

Chiang Mai

[end]

The Lawyers Council of Thailand and the National Human Rights Commission will submit to the Justice Ministry details of 40 apparently innocent victims believed to have been killed by police during the war on drugs. Somchai Homla-or, chairman of the council's human rights committee, said the two agencies found that in at least 40 of 2,500 cases innocent people had been gunned down by police in extra-judicial killings during the war on drugs launched by ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

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The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Lawyers Council of Thailand are pressing the government to ratify the convention on the International Criminal Court so deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra could be tried for crimes against humanity over his controversial anti-drugs campaign. The council and former lawmakers accused the Thaksin administration of having blood on its hands for waging its so-called war on drugs which killed more than 2,000 people, most of them drug traders and traffickers. The government must bring Mr Thaksin to justice or the Sept 19 military coup which swept it to power would amount to nothing but a public deception, they said.

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Bloody Campaign Was A Crime Against Humanity, Rights Commissioner Says

Ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra and his government should be held to account for the systematic killings of more than 2,500 people during the notorious "war on drugs", National Human Rights Commission chairman Somchai Homla-or said yesterday.

"Thaksin and his government committed crimes against humanity," Somchai said at a seminar.

The seminar focused on the violation of human rights in the many cases that the Thaksin-led government labelled as "silence killings", in which small-scale drug dealers were allegedly

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Justice Ministry officials are now collecting evidence related to the extra-judicial killings of some 2,500 people during the Thaksin government's war on drugs campaign, said a senior official of the ministry today.

Jarun Pukditanakul, Permanent Secretary for Justice, told journalists that concerned officials were now collecting evidence after complaints were lodged and said that he expected that the re-examination process should be completed soon.

Asked whether the decision to re-examine possible human rights violations was adopted after a request by Kraisak Choonhavan, a former Nakhon Ratchasima senator, Mr. Jarun said that Mr. Kraisak only submitted evidence on a former senator who was shot dead in the South.

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Kraisak Wants DSI to Hold New Inquiries

Kraisak Choonhavan, a former Nakhon Ratchasima senator, has urged the Justice Ministry to re-examine the human rights violations which occurred during the rule of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

He said the interim government should attach importance to the cases because the United Nations had submitted 26 questions on them to Thai authorities last year.

"More than 2,000 people died in the extra-judicial killings during the war on drugs launched by the Thaksin government in 2003. It was believed that state officials were also involved in many of the deaths," said Mr Kraisak after an hour-long meeting with Justice Permanent Secretary Jarun Pukditanakul.

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In the 'war on drugs' in Thailand in 2003, around 3,000 people died with no proper judicial accounting. The National Human Rights Commission has assembled convincing evidence that several victims had no involvement in drug trading. The mechanics of the campaign were lethally simple. Provincial governors and police chiefs were told to eliminate drug trading. Blacklists of names were compiled and success was measured against numerical targets.

It has been a bad few weeks for national leaders who might have their own people's blood on their hands. Saddam Hussein was condemned to death for atrocities at Dujail. President Arroyo of the Philippines was charged in an international court with human rights violations. The case against Arroyo, which details torture, abductions, 186 forced disappearances, and 778 killings was spearheaded by a senator and supported by relatives of several victims. The Permanent People's Tribunal in The Hague is a self-constituted court which has no power to enforce punishments, but considerable moral authority because it is run by eminent international jurists.

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Five years ago, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan fled along with its Arab terrorist allies in the US invasion that followed the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Since then, the country has failed to establish a decent, functioning government. Despite much aid and strong support from the United Nations and the world, Afghanistan is in desperate trouble. The viable economy consists almost entirely of opium production and drug trafficking. Terrorism, particularly suicide bombers, threatens life everywhere. The Taliban army, routed but not disintegrated in 2001, has regrouped and remains a deadly military threat. There are open fears in Afghanistan that the Taliban rebels pose an actual threat to central power. The commander of Nato forces, British Gen David Richards, believes the Kabul government and international supporters have as little as six months before the Taliban begin to make major gains. The extremists have survived by mounting tough military resistance in the Afghan mountains. But, says Gen Richards and his Nato staff, the Afghan people are beginning to miss the social order and security of the Taliban days more than they appreciate their current freedom. The Afghanistan government, the United Nations and Nato must solve three major problems if they are to prevent failure.

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Last week, the (now) deposed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra went to the U.S., to give a speech at the U.N. and have his picture taken with his friends in Washington. But folks back home in Thailand weren't exactly "down" with the PM's activities over the past few years. Activities like egging on Thai police to summarily execute thousands of Thai drug "offenders." Harsh, foul concentration camps awaited those blacklisted individuals who turned themselves in, but often they were simply executed anyway, gunned down on the street by masked motorcycle assailants (police).

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BANGKOK -- Inside the teeming Khlong Toei slum in the shadow of this city's modern skyscrapers, 60-year-old street vendor Chalaem Tiensiri is still proudly displaying campaign stickers from deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's party on the walls of her shack. Asked about the bloodless military coup last week that abruptly ousted Thaksin from power, she looked down at her empty hands and quietly cried.

Echoing the feelings of many on the warren-like streets of Khlong Toei, Chalaem said the poor in Thailand were largely ignored before Thaksin was elected in a landslide in 2001. A billionaire tycoon who became the hero of the underclass, Thaksin ushered in universal health care that allowed Chalaem's cancer-stricken daughter to receive chemotherapy for less than $1 per treatment. His war on drugs, she said, drove the methamphetamine dealers from the neighborhood's tough streets. Local leaders from Thaksin's party provided free milk for her young grandson and brought the struggling widow gifts of rice several times a year.

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The Next Civilian Government Must Follow Through On Cdrm's Initiative To Rid National Force Of Corruption

The Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy (CDRM) yesterday issued an order to replace the Police Commission, the governing body of police officers, and put into motion much-needed reforms to de-politicise the Royal Thai Police. This proposed revamping of the national police force is long overdue. For too long, the police have been manipulated and used by corrupt politicians to harass opponents and protect themselves against prosecution for their wrongdoings. This occurred to such an extent that widespread corruption among members of the police force has contributed to weakening the rule of law in the country rather than enforcing it.

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The Thai government burned some 3.5 tonnes of seized narcotics worth nearly 11 billion baht (about $285 million) Monday morning to mark Thailand's observance of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking,

Public Health Minister Pinij Jarusombat presided over a ceremony to destroy the seized drugs, the 34th of its kind over the past years, at the Bang Pa-in Industrial Estate in this central province of Ayutthaya Province.

No problem: The drugs burned in an internationally standardised, environmentally friendly system, called pyrolytic incineration to ensure the environment was protected as well as the drug abusers the drugs never reached.

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Thaksin's claimed surge in drug in drug use is not borne out by statistics from the top anti-narcotics agency

When caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced last week that he would resume active duty following a 45-day vacation, he suggested the country needed him at the helm to deal effectively with a plethora of problems that had cropped up in his absence. One of the key problems cited to justify his return to the political centre stage was the supposed higher incidence of drug addiction among young people.

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