November 6, 2008
BANGKOK (AFP) – PM Somchai Wongsawat vowed Thursday to step up an anti-narcotics campaign, and defended ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra against accusations that his drugs war was mired in extra-judicial killings.
Somchai said he was launching a 90-day campaign aimed at reducing drug use and trafficking in an extension of a crackdown initially started by his brother-in-law Thaksin, who was ousted in a coup in 2006.
"In the next 90 days the government will reduce the number of drug users and will intercept drugs from entering Thailand, but there will be no extra-judicial killings," Somchai told justice and police officials.
"Implementing extra-judicial killings to solve the drugs problem is absolutely banned," he added.
Thaksin launched his war on drugs in 2003, and human rights groups have said that at least 2,500 people were killed in extra-judicial killings during the campaign.
Somchai, however, said that Thaksin was not responsible for the deaths.
"In fact, those people had committed wrongdoing. It was not extra-judicial killing by police. They were killed by drugs dealers," he said, repeating the government line at the time.
Thaksin, who is living in exile in Britain, previously defended the deaths as "bad guys killing bad guys."
Somchai conceded that the government will not be able to completely wipe out drugs from the kingdom within the 90-day period, but said he wanted to try and make a dent in rising drug use among teenagers.
Thaksin's allies in the People Power Party won elections last December, and months later vowed to revive the war on drugs, which despite the bloodshed was popular among conservative rural voters.
