THAILAND: New Probe into ‘Drug War’ Killings Takes a Stab at Impunity

• by Marwaan Macan-Markar (bangkok)
• Wednesday, May 27, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Kalasin, a province in the rural northeast, will feature in this fresh probe by the department of special investigations (DSI). Kalasin’s existing policy of 'x- raying every community' to keep it narcotics free had inspired the Thaksin administration to mount its nation-wide ‘war on drugs,’ beginning in early 2003.

The neighbouring province of Roi Et, which, like Kalasin, is home to this Southeast Asian nation’s poor, farming communities, is also due to come under scrutiny. The northwestern province of Tak, close to the Thai-Burma border, may also face fresh probes, says a source familiar with these investigations.

'It has taken more than five years for the DSI to wrap up its investigation into the death of 17-year-old Kiattisak Thitboonkrong, who was found hanged from the ceiling of a hut in Roi-Eat’s Chang Han district in July 2004,' the Bangkok Post reported.

'[A DSI] officer said there were several loose ends in Kiattisak’s death, not to mention an autopsy report which showed he was beaten unconscious before he was found hanged,' the English-language daily revealed. 'The teenager - arrested in theft and drug charges - had been bailed out by a person who was not his relative and he never returned home.'

The paper also listed 20 other names of 'young people in Kalasin, which many believe were extra-judicial executions.' According to the DSI, 15 of them were shot - conveying a grisly picture of what had happened between 2003 and 2005.

Lawan Rattanapreechchan was among those who lost relatives during that bloody crackdown on Thailand’s narcotics network. The 46-year-old’s sister and her sister’s husband were gunned down in May 2003 near a security checkpoint in a town in Tak.

The DSI’s decision to file charges against six police officers for the death of Kiattisak brings to an end the absence of justice that had taken root since the drug suppression campaign of the Thaksin administration ended. Not a single member of the police - who many human rights groups charged were involved in the killings - was prosecuted.

'This sends a strong signal to the police that they have to comply with the rule of law,' says Somchai Homlaor, president of the Campaign Committee for Human Rights, a coalition of local rights lobbies. 'It is also a strong signal to Thai society to fight impunity, because the culture of impunity is strong among the Thai police, politicians and bureaucrats.'

'Many families who lost relatives during the ‘war on drugs’ have been afraid to speak out,' he added during an interview. 'This should give them strength.'

In 2003, alone, over 2,500 people were killed in the ‘war on drugs’ that was unleashed by the Thaksin administration to combat growing concern about the high number of Thais - some as young as 15 years - being hooked on methamphetamines. A U.N. study at the time estimated that between 500 million to 700 million ‘speed pills’ produced in the narcotic labs in neighbouring Burma were smuggled across the border into Thailand annually.

But Thaksin, who was ousted from power by the military in a September 2006 coup, dismissed charges of extra-judicial killings. Ignored were the directives given by him and others in his administration to show little mercy - which human rights group said, at the time, was a 'license to kill.'

'The [drug dealers] will be put behind bars or even vanish without a trace. Who cares,' were the chilling words of Wan Mohamad Noor Matha, interior minister.

'The government’s strategy is to smoke out pushers, who will be eliminated by their own kind,' Thaksin said.

The current investigations come at a time when Thaksin - currently living in exile - has been campaigning to project himself as a leader of a democratic movement. That stems from him spearheading two governments that were voted into power with impressive majorities in 2001 and 2005.

The ousted premier energised his campaign after the current coalition government, led by the Democrat Party, came to power in December last year under a cloud of controversy. A pro-Thaksin government, which was elected to power in December 2007, was forced to quit following a questionable court verdict in December 2008. The Democrat-led coalition stepped into the void with the help of the powerful military.

Yet Thaksin’s claims to being an icon of democracy were always dogged by his bloody legacy. Besides the ‘war on drugs’ there were other abuses, such as the 78 unarmed Malay-Muslim protesters who were killed in military custody in the country’s troubled southern provinces in October 2004, and the 20 human rights defenders killed during the five-and-a-half years of the Thaksin administration.

Analysts however doubt if the new investigations by the DSI into the deaths during the ‘war on drugs’ will damage Thaksin, even though 'he personally originated the campaign and said things to incite violence.'

'I don’t think it will affect him; it is a pity,' says Chris Baker, a British academic who has written extensively on Thai politics. 'It is very difficult to go after him, because the evidence is very circumstantial.'

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service