90-DAY WAR ON DRUGS

BANGKOK - THAILAND'S premier vowed on 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.

Mr Somchai Wongsawat 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', Mr Somchai told justice and police officials.

'Implementing extra-judicial killings to solve the drugs problem is absolutely
banned,' he added.

Mr 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. Mr Somchai, however,
said that Mr 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. Mr Thaksin, who is living
in exile in Britain, previously defended the deaths as 'bad guys
killing bad guys'.

Mr 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. Mr 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. -- AFP