Rights group urged govt to reconsider drug war

"The government's rash drug war announcement has not been accompanied by appropriate mechanisms in place to guard against history repeating itself," said TTAG in reference to Thailand's controversial and bloody 2003 drug war that ended in the questionable death of nearly 3000 people in three months time.

TTAG urged the government to prosecuting perpetrators of past drug war-related crimes, and to hold public consultations to discuss the impact, including human, social, political, and health costs, of the Thai drug war approach and develop policies and laws that uphold human rights, not undermine them.

"Wholesale repression of the type experienced in 2003 will again result in thousands of inappropriate arrests, deaths, and the disruption of HIV prevention and other services," TTAG said in a statement released Thursday.

Concern over another round of drug war launched by the Thaksin Administration surfaced just days after the new government took power. Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung said last week said he plan to launch another round of all out war on drugs.

"Narcotics must be lessened in 90 days, although they can't be wiped out," said Chalerm, a former police captain whose son was acquitted of charges of killing a policeman in a bar for lack of evidence.

Chalerm said he would spend time on the Thai-Burmese border, the point of entry for illicit drugs produced in the Burma that has been flooding Thai streets over the past decades.

Officials said drug armies continue to operate independently on the Burmese section of the Golden Triangle.

Efforts by the Thaksin government to get the Rangoon to clamp down on the drug lords failed as Burmese junta refused to pick a fight with the drug armies as it would ended the Burmese junta's decades-old cease-fire agreements with them.

The 2003 war on drugs launched by ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was generally welcome by the public but it drew a great deal of criticism from the rights group and foreign governments, including the United States and members of the Congress.

The government of Surayud Chulanont called the drug war a "crime against humanity", but failed to link Thaksin to extra judicial killings.

Thaksin's controversial war succeeded in pushing the street price of the illicit drugs up for a while but did virtually nothing in terms of solving the domestic problem.

TTAG called on the new Thai government to "work with civil society organizations including people who use drugs to develop a humane approach to the country's drug problem.

TTAG said continued rates of HIV infection among drug users in Thailand, and reports of abuses by law enforcement, demonstrate how much is at stake.

"Rather than being subjected to indiscriminate suppression, people who use drugs must be supported to be actively and meaningfully involved in leading harm reduction work in Thailand.  Efforts to force tens of thousands into prison or drug treatment are ineffective and immoral," TTAG said.

In November last year TTAG and Human Rights Watch co-authored a report, "Deadly Denial: Barriers to HIV/Aids Treatment for People who Use Drugs in Thailand". The report highlighted the failure of the government's part to live up to its promise that drug users, including those living with HIV/Aids, would be treated as patients rather then criminals.

For more information, please visit: www.hrw.org and www.ttag.info