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Published on December 23, 2007

The Kanit na Kakhon panel yesterday pinned the blame on former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra for killings during the 2003 war on drugs.

The former chief prosecutor drew this conclusion at yesterday's session vetting his panel report.

The findings will be submitted to the government next month.

"On January 14, 2003 Thaksin chaired a meeting of provincial governors, police chiefs and heads of agencies and instructed them to wage all-out war on illicit drugs, classified as a national security threat which must be resolved without mercy, and any casualties were deemed necessary," the report said in one of its findings.

Key developments include:

lThe unveiling of a drug-suppression policy to Parliament on February 26, 2001;

lA target set by the Thaksin administration to cut drug trafficking by 25 per cent;

lThaksin's directive for "iron-fist" measures to uproot drug traffickers;

lTwo-week preparations for launching the fight against drugs from February to April 2003;

lThe formation of a National Centre for Drug Suppression to draw up a blacklist of traffickers;

lEncouraging authorities to shorten the blacklist by extrajudicial killings;

and

lA statement on the record by Thaksin in a March 23, 2003 meeting that traffickers could go to two places only, jail or a funeral

The report outlined 2,656 cases of drug-related killings involving 2,921 deaths during the three-month campaign.

Of the death toll, 1,520 victims were reported as drug-related deaths, but the probe found brawls, robberies and domestic

arguments had been responsible.

Mystery still surrounds 339 cases. Of the 1,176 cases involving 1,329 deaths that police classified as silence killings, 1,164 remain unsolved.