WAR ON DRUGS --THE VICTIMS

Rights Commission Details Five Killings

National Human Rights Commission member Vasant Phanich yesterday detailed
at a press conference five killings the commission believes were carried
out by police during this year's war on drugs. The commission says the five
are among 26 it has investigated.

Case 1: Killed In Coffin Shop

A man was shot point-blank in the head and arm at 6pm on February 11 at a
coffin shop in Trang province's central market. Shot in front of many
witnesses, two kilometres from home and just 300 metres from the police
station, he died later at hospital.

The killing was reported as being related to drug trafficking, but the
commission learned that no drugs were found on the man's body or at the scene.

Police detectives did not bother to check evidence or even collect the
spent cartridges, which were eventually picked up and turned in to police
by bystanders.

Despite the number of eyewitnesses, the investigation has made absolutely
no progress. The commission said police had blacklisted the victim and his
family as drug traffickers and searched their home six times before the
shooting, but found no drugs or anything illegal and did not have enough
evidence to prosecute the man on drug charges.

Case 2: Shot In Front Of Wife

Three bullets to the head and body left another man dead at 1pm on February
27 next to a central market in a southern province.

He was shot in front of his wife and other family members while he was
fixing his motorcycle.

The killing reportedly sprang from conflicts over drug trafficking, but the
commission learned that no drugs were found on the deceased or at the scene.

Again, the shooting took place in a crowded area.

District officials and police confirmed that the man had been blacklisted
as a trafficker, but authorities were unable to gather enough evidence to
prosecute.

Police investigations into that killing and three others in the same area -
all said to be related to drugs - went nowhere. Assets seized in this case
were later released to the family by the Anti-Money Laundering Office.

Case 3: Gunned Down At Home

A shirtless man was shot five times in the neck and body at 6pm on April 9
while sitting at his desk in the front room of his residential compound.
Several neighbours were inside his house and witnessed the killing. Police
said the murder was the result of drug conflicts and the victim had earlier
been blacklisted.

Detectives and doctors sent to the scene removed his trousers and sent the
body to a hospital for an autopsy and X-rays to seek ballistic traces.

The body was transferred to the hospital's morgue, where his underwear was
removed and folded before being dumped into a garbage bin.

The whole process was witnessed by relatives and several hospital officials.

Police asked the relatives to leave the room, then summoned them back to
tell them that they found more than 100 methamphetamine pills in a small
plastic bag the same size as medicine packets used in hospitals.

They accused the relatives of trying to destroy evidence and claimed they
were the ones who removed the trousers and underwear.

Doctors who took part in the autopsy testified, however, that police
officers had taken off the trousers, while the underwear was removed by the
hospital official who cleaned the body. The victim's relatives only
assisted him, they said, adding that nothing had been found inside the
underwear.

The X-rays, covering all parts of his body, found no trace of a drug packet.

Police have made no progress in investigating this or several other
killings in the same district.

Police searched the house of the dead man but found nothing illegal.

They made a list of the man's property and asked the Anti-Money Laundering
Office to conduct a probe of the assets.

Case 4: Shot While Driving

On February 19, a man driving home from a district office was shot twice -
once in the right shin and the other in the right side of the neck - just
500 metres from the district office. He was rushed to a nearby hospital
while his car was towed to the district police station.

Police and an assistant district chief searched the car and claimed they
found speed pills hidden in a hat inside the car. The search was carried
out without the dead man's relatives present, even though police knew his
family well.

Newspapers reported that he was killed because of drug conflicts.

The commission found that the man and his family had been included on the
police blacklist of suspected drug traffickers. Police had earlier searched
the man's car several times but always came up empty-handed.

When the government declared the war on drugs, senior district officials
asked the man to leave his job with a local administrative organisation,
but he refused.

The man said he used to take drugs but had been clean for a long time. He
signed a document stating that he was a former drug user. A week before his
death, district officials admitted that they lacked evidence to prosecute
the man for trafficking.

The killing took place the day the man was summoned to meet district
officials. He was shot after leaving the district office. His relatives and
district officials said the man had never been seen with the hat containing
the drugs.

Police said no progress had been made in their investigation, or in two
similar killings in the same district.

Case 5: Husband, Wife Dead

A man and wife were killed in their car in a northeastern province at
4:30am on March 28 after buying goods to sell at their rural home. After
shooting the couple dead, the gunman kicked their neighbour, who was
accompanying them, and chased him from the car. Newspapers reported that
the couple were killed because of conflicts in drug trafficking.

With no relatives present, police searched the car and found 17 ya ba pills
hidden behind the driver's seat.

Later that day, they searched the victims' house and seized assets.

The commission found that the couple had been blacklisted, but then told
police that they had become suddenly rich from winning first prize in the
government lottery. The police did not believe them.

They later travelled to Bangkok to obtain a certificate from the Government
Lottery Office proving that they had won Bt6 million in 2000.

The police refused to believe them and argued that they used money from
drug trafficking to buy the winning lottery ticket from the real winner.

The two had extended their remote home without telling neighbours that they
had won the lottery for fear of being robbed.

Transaction records showed that the victims' account was only credited once
with the lottery winnings, and since then they had withdrawn money from the
account until only Bt2 million was left.

The commission also found that police searched the couple's house on March
14 but found nothing illegal. Police have made no progress in the
investigation into the killings