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RIGHTS-THAILAND: Thaksin May Yet Pay for Bloody ‘War-on-Drugs’

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Aug 16 2007 (IPS) - While arrest warrants are being readied for self-exiled, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on corruption charges, human rights advocates are keener to see him booked for a murderous campaign he led against drug peddlers four years ago.

On Tuesday, Thailand’s Supreme Court approved warrants issued by prosecution to arrest Shinawatra and his wife Pojaman on charges of corruption in controversial land deals in Bangkok. A millionaire in his own right, Thaksin who lives in Britain was in the news recently for his purchase of the prestigious Manchester City premier league football club.

A statement issued by a spokesman for Thaksin attributed political motives on the part of the military government that ousted him from power last September, and suggested that moves to have him arrested or extradited have to do with the ‘’referendum on the constitution taking place later this week’’.

As per the court order, Thaksin and Pojaman have until Sep. 25 to surrender to police, after which date proceedings could be initiated to have them extradited from Britain. On Thursday, Thaksin and his wife were placed on an immigration blacklist that makes them liable to immediate arrest on entry into Thailand.

Thaksin faces several corruption charges and, if convicted, he may no longer be ‘’fit and proper’’ to own Manchester City and the English Premier League may well withdraw certification to that effect that it has granted him.

Among those opposing the mandatory certification for new owners of first-division football clubs in Britain is the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW). In a recent letter written to Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, HRW drew attention to Thaksin’s brutal ‘war on drugs’.

In 2003 Thaksin gave the green light to the police and other authorities to show no mercy in cracking down on the narcotics trade in the country, in particular the networks supplying methamphetamines. In its letter, HRW recalled lines Thaksin had delivered to justify the blood-bath. ‘’Because drug traders are ruthless to our children, so being ruthless back to them is not a bad thing,’’ Thaksin had said. ‘’It may be necessary to have casualties…If there are deaths among traders, it’s normal,’’ he had added.

The consequences of those words became disturbingly clear early on in the anti-drug drive. During the first three months of that ‘war,’ which began in February that year, over 2,275 people were killed. Other deaths followed as the campaign was extended till the end of 2003.

Among those who lost a relative was Malai Khamjarsai. Her sister and brother-in-law were shot to death on the evening of May 19, 2003, at a security checkpoint near the city of Mae Sot, close to the Thai-Burma border. ‘’Both of them were innocent; they were clean; they only earned money through their transport business,’’ the 40-year-old Malai told IPS this week. ‘’The police and the government did little to investigate at that time.’’

The deaths also resulted in Malai having to care for the two children orphaned due to the deaths of her sister Umpaipan Roopongpraserd, who was 33 years at the time, and her husband, Pongtep who was 44. ‘’They are both boys, 12 and 16 years,’’ she says. ‘’We are still wanting to know why their mother and father were killed.’’

One person who may help is Kanit Na Nakorn, a respected former Thai attorney general, who has been appointed by the post-coup military government to head a committee tasked with uncovering the grisly details related to the ‘war on drugs.’ The delay in such an official inquiry over four years after the murder spree is due to the cold response by the Thaksin administration to stall any investigations into the thousands of extra-judicial killings.

‘’These murders were committed by the police; the policemen were the killers. Yet the government of Thaksin did not bother to conduct any inquiries,’’ Somchai Homlaor, a human rights lawyer, told IPS. ‘’Even complaints by the National Human Rights Commission were ignored. The commissioners submitted many reports on the ‘war on drugs’ to the Thaksin government and also to the United Nations.’’

What troubles Sunai Phasuk, the Thai researcher for HRW, is the line of argument Thaksin and his supporters are presently using to deflect the charges about his role during the bloody crackdown. ‘’Thaksin is asking for fair treatment and that he be considered innocent until proved guilty,’’ says Sunai. ‘’But when he was in power, he never gave his victims a similar chance to prove themselves in court. He ordered them to be killed.’’

The inquiry headed by the former Thai attorney general will help to shed light on another reality, too, Sunai explained during an interview. ‘’There is a need to change the perception in England about who the majority of those killed were. The majority was innocent people, not drug traffickers.’’