Former Senator Krai-sak Chonhavan yesterday demanded the Justice Ministry have its Department of Special Investigation (DSI) look into alleged extrajudicial killings.

He wanted to know if state officials had been involved in the killing of people suspected of crimes, especially drug peddling during the Thaksin administration.

Kraisak made his call after submitting evidence to the ministry's investigation into alleged human-rights violations. He said the government had to pay more attention to alleged extrajudicial killings.

He claimed many criminal suspects had been murdered during the Thaksin Shinawatra-administration and he was suspicious about the involvement of government officers.

He said the death of former Narathiwat senator Fakruddin Boto was suspicious and may have involved government officials. The DSI should have investigated.

"The time is up for the DSI to say if it has evidence in the cases of killings to silence suspects in criminal cases," he said.

Meanwhile, a source said Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont had asked Office of the Narcotics Control Board secretary-general Kitti Limchaikit to probe the deaths of as many as 2,500 alleged drug dealers during the Thaksin government's "war on drugs".

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said later the reopening of cases of drug-related killings could not be done for every allegation. "It will not be easy to do. We can reopen some cases but we can do nothing in many others," he added.

The investigation aimed to discover if all the killings involved drug dealers and if officials had been involved. Extrajudicial killings became a hot topic during the war on drugs. Police claimed the victims were killed by drug dealers to prevent them from giving information to police.

Last year the United Nations sought clarification from the government about the deaths.

Its High Commissioner for Human Rights said a report submitted by Thailand was incomplete and posed 26 questions seeking current information on measures taken by the then government to protect the rights of suspects killed by law-enforcement personnel acting in an official capacity. It wanted to know what investigations were underway into the large number of killings during the "war on drugs" and the results of formal inquiries.

Piyanuch Thamnukasetchai

The Nation