PM `GUILTY OF EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL'

Opposition, Activists Take Thaksin To Task

Opposition politicians and human rights activists yesterday accused the
government of using extra-legal means to kill drug suspects while playing
to the public's emotion by citing the welfare of children to justify it.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Democrat party deputy leader, said Thaksin
Shinawatra was twisting the issue by branding anyone who did not agree with
his policy to ``kill off'' drug suspects as ignoring the needs of Thai
children.

``Today we can all see if Mr Thaksin is a democratic man or not. His fierce
attacks of critics have him using words that are more and more
unreasonable. He runs the country using his personal satisfaction as a
yardstick rather than what is right and lawful,'' Mr Abhisit said.

The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) said the
government's requirement that law enforcement officials remove at least 25%
of suspects from provincial blacklists by the lend of February had in
effect forced police and local officials to sidestep judicial procedure and
due process of law.

``Evidence suggests that the police have planted evidence to carry out
arrests and killings of alleged suspects. In some cases, forensic experts
found that suspects had drugs planted on them after death, and they were
handcuffed when killed or shot in a group.

``In three cases at least, bullets had been removed before coroner examined
the bodies,'' Forum-Asia said on a statement.

``Forum-Asia is alarmed by Prime Minister Thaksin's comment that murder is
not an unusual fate for wicked people and the public should not be alarmed
by their death. This statement might be interpreted as endorsement for the
use of violence in ongoing drug suppression campaigns.''

Mr Abhisit said shooting drug suspects on a whim was not the way to solve
the problem and would only please drug bosses and state officials who
conspired with them to sell drugs.

``Since the government says that those who oppose its policy are in cahoots
with drug traffickers, by the same logic those who carry out `pre-emptive
killings' (of suspects) are also on the same side as the big traffickers,''
Mr Abhisit said.

Chuan Leekpai, the Democrat leader, said his party also condemned drug
traffickers and wanted to deal with them decisively. However, the
government can not give signals to the authorities to simply kill them off
because a democratic country must adhere to the law.

``Legal principle would have it that allowing 10 guilty people go free is
better than punishing one innocent person. But when I said this the prime
minister accused me of affecting an international attitude,'' Mr Chuan said.

Jurin Laksanavisit, the chief opposition whip, said he had no confidence in
the committees that the government had set up to keep tabs on the alleged
``shoot-to-kill'' policy.

``Most of those on the committee are civil servants and have no power to
balance the policy of the government since they must listen to it. The
prime minister must abolish the shoot-to-kill policy,'' Mr Jurin said.

Somchai Homlaor, of Forum-Asia, said the failure to investigate
extra-judicial killings and drug-related murders in the first month of Mr
Thaksin's war on drugs showed that rule of law was deteriorating and a
culture of impunity was taking hold among authorities.