Thai Drug War
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 4:05 PM

The stepped-up war on drugs in Thailand may have been declared
a victory by the government, but there's still that matter of the
vast number of victims. The king of Thailand has called for an
investigation, and the police are responding. Here's the initial
part of a story in today's The Straits Times (Singapore):
"The Royal Thai Police said yesterday that it had launched an
investigation into the more than 2,500 killings that took place
in the early stages of the government's controversial 10-month
'war on drugs'.

The probe was triggered by King Bhumibol Adulyadej's annual
birthday speech broadcast live over radio, it added."

Perhaps the king's birthday speech will be of some help this
year. It was last year's speech that led to the drug crackdown
in the first place, alas.

Whether the prime minister is on board for a thorough
investigation is questionable: "At a ceremony on Thursday
during which he [the prime minister] declared the war on drugs
had been successful, he said he was not sorry to see 'enemies
of the nation' dead or jailed."

For that matter, despite the claim that the crackdown has been
a huge success, the prime minister also indicated that he was
not abandoning the intensified anti-drug efforts.

Vice Squad noted the amazing "success" of the Thai drug war
a few days ago.

Labels: Asia, drugs, Thailand