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Published on November 28, 2007

At a brainstorming session, the representative from the Office of Narcotics Control Board yesterday disclosed that some 1,400 people were killed and labelled as drug suspects though they had no link to drugs.

"The government's drug policy was unclear. Operation staff hence did everything to achieve the goal of reducing the number of drug traffickers," the representative said. "The death toll was highest in February when the policy was first implemented. The number of deaths came down in the next two months."

The session, held at the Chao Phya Park Hotel, drew more than 50 judicial officials and academics.

The fact-finding panel worked under the government-appointed committee, which was tasked with analysing the Thaksin Shinawatra-led government's drug policy and its implementation that destroyed some people's lives, property and reputation.

During the war on drugs, police attributed many of the murders to silence killings by fellow drug traffickers. However, the families of the victims were demanding justice, saying the victims were not involved in the drug trade.

Senior public prosecutor Kunlapon Ponlawan said it was not difficult to investigate extrajudicial killings by police officers as the "trigger-pullers" usually confessed.

"But it's difficult to investigate silence-killing cases because of weak evidence. There's no witness," he said.

Department of Special Investigation senior official Piyawat Kingket said yesterday that in one case, a wife saw police officers taking her husband away but she could do nothing about it.

"Her husband has not returned till now and he has been classified as a missing person," he said.

 Chulalongkorn University lecturer Jutharat Ua-amnoey said that in order to prevent officials from wrongly implementing drug policies, government mechanisms should be improved to prevent officials from following illegitimate policies.

"We should also clearly stipulate the ethical requirements and responsibility of judicial officials," she said, adding a department should be established to specifically handle drug cases.

The Nation