HUMAN RIGHTS TAKE THE BACK SEAT

The Government Continues To Flout The Civil Rights Of The People

The most unsettling thing about the controversial drug raid earlier
this week, during which police officers fired some 200 bullets into a
house of apparently defenceless people, is that it could have been one
rare "lucky" incident in the Thaksin government's war on drugs. For
all its horrific implications, at least nobody died, although the
amount of firepower involved suggests it could have easily have been a
major tragedy. Newspapers reported the raid as if it was the first
incident of its kind, a result of low-ranking officers' jumpy
imprudence, but we are left with a chilling question: Is it?

The death toll in the government's war on drugs is around 3,000. We
can either buy the authorities' claims that all of them were proven
criminals, or we can wonder whether the Thai police, who would open
fire on a large house without hesitation, have managed to treat
suspected villagers running scared in isolated woods or huddled in
their huts with any sort of respect for their rights.

Should we assume that the officers who raided the house in Ayutthaya's
Bang Sai district panicked when one or two shots were fired by those
inside, in the middle of the night? Or should we suspect that the hail
of bullets from the law-enforcement officers is something far beyond
an error of judgement?

Some may sit back and consider this a small blip in the government's
"sincere" and "serious" efforts to combat narcotics. Others may see an
unchanged mentality at the highest level that, despite warnings from
local activists, the international community and His Majesty the King,
still trivialises civil rights and liberty.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's reaction was deplorable yet
nonetheless expected. It was, again, about overzealous officers making
an "honest mistake". The search was conducted with a search warrant,
he said, adding that he had heard that there had been resistance to
arrest.

The state's excuse would surely grow louder if the suspects the police
were after were later proved to be major drug dealers. The crime would
be used to justify the raid and blur the human-rights issue it has
stirred up.

Police said they had fired because the occupants shot at them first
following an announcement that a search of the property would be
conducted. But the occupants insisted they had not heard an
announcement and fired several rounds from a pistol thinking the
people outside were burglars.

After 20 minutes of gunfire, police raided the house but banned
reporters from going inside. A bullet-ridden refrigerator was taken
away by the officers. No drugs or narcotics-making equipment were found.

Already statements from the authorities and Thaksin have suggested
that the police were going after the right man. This, however, only
serves to compound the government's confused idea of justice,
particularly when our leader asks for receipts and sympathy whenever
it comes to scandals involving his businesses or anyone close to him.