Thai PM vows "rigorous" war on drugs despite outcry

By Nopporn Wong-Anan

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej promised on Friday to launch another war on drugs despite protests from human rights groups which denounced the deaths of at least 2,500 people in an earlier campaign.

"We will pursue a suppression campaign rigorously. There will be consequences," Samak told reporters who asked if he would revive the anti-drug campaign started in 2003 by ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Samak, who campaigned in a December election as a proxy for Thaksin, said one of the consequences would be killings among drug dealers and putting the blame on police, but the government would not be deterred by such allegations.

Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung told parliament late on Wednesday he would adopt Thaksin's approach in his anti-drug campaign even if "thousands of people have to die".

"When we implement a policy that may bring 3,000 to 4,000 bodies, we will do it," said Chalerm, a former police captain.

The National Human Rights Commission urged the government this week to avoid errors the Thaksin administration made during the three-month campaign after a cabinet minister said he would pursue Thaksin's policy.

It was referring to allegations that police were told to produce lists of suspects to be targeted and some turned out to be innocent of involvement in a drug trade focused on methamphetamine in wide use.

Human rights groups accused police of extra-judicial killings of suspects although Thaksin's government said most of the deaths resulted from inter-gang warfare.

"WHY WORRY ABOUT DEAD DEALERS?"

The war on drugs by Thaksin, who has lived in exile abroad since being ousted in a bloodless 2006 coup, was popular in villages which provided the backbone of his two landslide election wins.

A military-appointed government, set up after the generals ousted Thaksin, called the campaign a "crime against humanity", but failed to link Thaksin to extrajudicial killings.

But Samak said on Friday he did not doubt police reports that only 59 of the 2,500 deaths were at the hands of police.

"Why are you journalists so concerned about the deaths of those drug dealers? Should the government pass regulations saying police can't shoot drug dealers," Samak said at a news conference.

"Should the law say police are allowed to fire only after being shot at by fleeing drug dealers," he said.

Samak denied innocent people were killed. "If they were innocent, why were they killed?"