Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej yesterday defended the government's policy to get tough with drug dealers, while Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung said it would "be natural" if more than 2,700 people were killed during the crackdown.

"Should we do nothing because we are afraid that someone is going to criticise us for silence killings that may occur?" Samak said, when asked about the revival of the government's "war on drugs" and the possibility of many more killings.

The war on drugs launched by the Thaksin Shinawatra-led government saw more than 2,800 allegedly drug-related deaths. Police claimed that those murdered were drug traffickers targeted by fellow traffickers to prevent them from speaking up.

However, several reports later showed that many victims were not linked to the drug trade at all.

"Why are you worried about the fate of drug traffickers?" Samak said, insisting his government was going to launch a serious crackdown.

Chalerm, the first government figure to push for the revival of the tough policy on drugs, reiterated his stand yesterday.

"It's a good policy," he said.

Speaking to Interior Mini-stry executives, provincial governors and district chiefs, Chalerm said it would be natural if more than 2,700 people were killed during the upcoming crackdown.

"I am not saying you should summon drug suspects and shoot them down," he said, "I am just telling you to closely monitor drug suspects and cooperate closely with police".

Justice Minister Sompong Amornwiwat said he would not interfere with Chalerm's plan to seriously crack down on drug traffickers. However, he said he would oppose any excessive use of force.

In a related development, Sompong said he was going to propose to Samak that the authorities should be able to investigate the assets of drug suspects' extended families.

"Seven generations would be appropriate," he said, "Such an investigation would allow us to see money circulating in the illicit drug trade."

Meanwhile, police yesterday reported two large hauls of methamphetamine tablets.

In one case, 198,000 tablets were seized from four foreigners at a house in Chiang Rai. In the other, police confiscated 100,000 tablets after two drug traffickers were shot dead.

The dealers opened fire after they discovered they were delivering the illicit drugs to undercover policemen. The police shot back, killing the two men.

Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung's declaration that he will get tough with drug dealers has raised fears of a repeat of the large number of extrajudicial killings during the "War on Drugs" initiated by the Thaksin Shinawatra government.

Social activist Gothom Areeya yesterday said it was a curse to have an interior minister who had disregard for human life and human rights.

"All murders are illegal, whether it is a case of criminals killing one another or police killing them," he added.

Democrat party-list MP and former senator Kraisak Chonhavan called on Chalerm to "read carefully" the report of an independent panel set up by the previous government to look into the drug-related killings.

The panel found that more than 800 victims of more than 2,800 allegedly drug-related murders during Thaksin's campaign had nothing to do with drug dealing, and that the police made little progress in solving 80 cases pursued by victims' relatives.

A National Human Rights Commission report said the number of innocent victims could be as high as 1,100, he added.

Kraisak said a revival of the get-tough policy would likely result in the use of violence. "I wouldn't want the minister to make a statement in such a manner, which is like giving the green light to police to use violence on drug dealers. This may prompt an urge to set up a 'kill record' to comply with the get-tough policy."

Phairoj Pholphet, head of the Promotion of the People's Freedom Association, said Chalerm's statement sends the wrong signal that policemen were authorised to use violence against drug suspects at will.

Samak government's rhetoric reminiscent of Thaksin's bloody campaign and its rights abuses. Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung are not famous for their blunt manner of speech for nothing. The crudity of their tone and aggressive demeanour are probably two personal traits that endear them to many simple folks in this country. But the interior minister's announcement, backed by Samak, that the government would launch a war on drugs similar to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's 2003 campaign is a cause for worry. After all, more than 2,500 suspected drug traffickers were killed in just three months during Thaksin's campaign. Strong suspicions were raised about gross human-rights violations, and the government was roundly condemned by civil-rights advocates and the international community.

Thaksin claimed that most of the deaths were the result of drug-pushers killing one another in order to avoid being implicated in the illicit drug trade, and that only in a small number of cases were suspects killed by police while resisting arrest.

But the former prime minister was believed to have given tacit approval for widespread extrajudicial killings by police when he instructed law-enforcement officials to "eliminate drugs from society" through the use of "extreme measures".

What was disturbing was that the majority of the Thai public approved of Thaksin's drug war and his popularity ratings soared.

Now Chalerm is sending out a similar message, saying that he would not mind if a few thousand drug suspects were eliminated by their comrades in crime. Asked to comment on the interior minister's planned crackdown on drugs, Samak upped the ante by saying he couldn't care less if 5,000 drug pushers were killed by their own kind.

The prime minister said that no one should be sorry to see suspected drug traffickers die in large numbers. Of course, neither Chalerm nor Samak said they would order police to shoot to kill drug suspects on sight.

But such crass statements from government leaders who claim to wield the public mandate won through a democratic election go against the very principle of the supremacy of the rule of law. That principle states that all suspected criminals must be presumed innocent until proven otherwise and that every one of them has a right to the due process of the law.

Even if it were true that the cancerous spread of illicit drugs, particularly methamphetamines, in Thailand has reached epidemic proportions, and that attempts at combating the drug scourge have not produced results that are anywhere near satisfactory, there can be no justification for law-enforcement officials taking the law into their own hands and killing off suspected drug dealers.

It is too simplistic for the government to be fixated on a get-tough policy against drug traffickers without also implementing preventive measures through innovative public education campaigns aimed at reducing the demand for drugs, especially amphetamines, which have become the lifestyle drug of choice for many young people.

Known drug abusers should be encouraged to undergo rehabilitation programmes to help them kick the habit.

A whole gamut of anti-drug measures should be brought to bear against those involved in the illicit trade: strict law enforcement should be complemented by asset forfeiture against big- and small-time drug dealers.

It is sad to see our top political leaders stoop so low and show such utter disrespect for the rule of law and human rights in this country just a short time after a functioning democracy has been restored.

Equal protection and due process are among the most important hallmarks of the rule of law, which makes democratic rule possible. Let's not forget that Thaksin's dirty war on drug traffickers, which tainted the country's human-rights record and compromised the conscience of the nation, also marked the beginning of the end of democracy, which ended up losing its true meaning.

No democracy can survive abuses such as state-sponsored terror against its citizens.

Source: The Nation