POLICE ADMIT TO 57 DRUG WAR KILLINGS FROM THE 1,320 KILLED

Police Chief Gen Sant Sarutanont says 1,320 people were killed in the
government's drug crackdown, in what he said were final figures.

Of these, 57 were killed by police.

Another 887 people killed belonged to drug networks. They were
murdered after refusing to hand over money to ring leaders or failing
to honour a drug deal.

The rest had other forms of drug connection.

Pol Gen Sant said 23 drug suspects in custody had confessed to having
been hunted down by gangs. They said gangs were after them because
they pocketed drug money.

The extra-judicial killings were justifiable because suspects had a
history of dealing in drugs. In another eight cases, a post-mortem had
yet to be carried out. Thirty-three cases were being tried in court.

Earlier, the court decided in one case that the police had acted
justifiably in killing a suspect.

The police chief said the investigation into the extra-judicial
killings were treated like any other case.

"No policeman wanted to kill anyone unless it was absolutely
necessary," he said.

Police had nothing to gain from the killings and risked subjecting
themselves to criticism and possible legal action.

Police would keep the public updated on progress of investigation into
cases where killers were still at large.

Pol Gen Sant admitted the number of murders had surged in the
three-month period of the anti-drug campaign.

But it was not unusually high. Normally, 450-500 murders are committed
each month.

Police were ready to counter critics' claims of human rights
violations stemming from the extra-judicial killings. Rights advocates
and victims' families said police murdered drug suspects and made it
look as though drug gangs were responsible to heighten their
achievement.

The families were welcome to lodge complaints.

Pol Gen Sant said some foreign-based NGOs were raising eyebrows
because they were worried people's rights had been breached.

Only a handful were critical of the drug eradication policy