NEW BID FOR PROBE ON 40 DRUG WAR VICTIMS

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.

"The previous government said the 2,500 dead people were small-time
drug sellers killed by big-time drug sellers. But after investigation,
it was found that at least 40 of them were not involved in drugs," he
said, adding the list had been submitted to the previous government
but it paid no attention.

Mr Somchai yesterday took relatives of four victims of extra-judicial
killings to meet justice permanent secretary Jaran Pukditanakul, in a
bid to seek fairness in the civil and criminal cases.

He said he wanted the Department of Special Investigation to take on
all 40 cases and believed that if there was a serious investigation it
would bring the culprits to justice and could lead to the mastermind
who ordered police to reduce the number of those on drugs blacklists.

"The testimony of witnesses and circumstantial evidence has shown
that these killings were committed by police following the war on
drugs policy.

"Some officials accepted that they felt uncomfortable with the
previous government's policy but if they refused to do it, they could
have faced disciplinary punishment," he said.

Mr Jaran expressed confidence that there was evidence pointing to the
mastermind in the extra-judicial killings