THE DRUG WAR AND THE COUP IN THAILAND

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).

This week in Thailand, the newly formed ruling Council for Democratic
Reform under Constitutional Monarchy (CDR) ordered that the existing
Police oversight commission be replaced, and also took measures to
"de-politicise the Royal Thai Police." The ousted Shinawatra "was
known to have used police and other law enforcement officials to
commit crimes," reported the Thai Nation newspaper, "including human
rights violations linked to the controversial war on drugs, in which
some 2,000 suspected drug traffickers were killed under dubious
circumstances." (For the whole report see
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n1268/a06.html )

In a frank admission, Thailand's Nation newspaper goes on to reveal
that "Police officers regard themselves as an extension of the state
responsible for keeping peace and order rather than acting as public servants."

Toppled Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was able to use Thai
police forces to summarily execute thousands of his Thai countrymen
for "drugs," and execute them in an extra-legal (read: illegal), and
cowardly manner. It would be ironic if Shinawatra's ouster by
military coup will mean those killed by Shinawatra's police thugs in
extra-legal executions will finally get the justice they deserve.