The UN Backs Thailand's Shoot To Kill Drug Policy

A senior United Nations official this week lent his support to Thailand's increasingly controversial crackdown on drugs, despite accusations that authorities have sent out death squads on shoot-to-kill missions.

"Thailand has always been a leader in the fight against drugs during the past 30 years, and the current effort is another good example," Sandro Calvani, the head of the East Asia and Pacific office of the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNDCP) told the Asia Times.

"The Thai campaign makes sense."

Mr Calvani's comments came a day before new media reports revealed that at least 596 people had died 'unexplained deaths', connected to the crackdown which police dismissed as infighting between drug gangs. However, an editorial published in last weekend's Bangkok Post was unimpressed with official assurances that police weren't breaking the law.

"Such assurances ring hollow, given the poor record of the police, where scapegoats abound and unexplained deaths of prisoners in detention cells are all too frequent," they said.

If Mr Thaksin (Thailand's notoriously harsh PM) is not careful we will be taken back to those dark days when suspects are presumed guilty until proven innocent."

Over 40 people a day are still being killed in the drugs eradication drive, the South China Times reported this Week (20 February).

All western visitors should be ultra-cautious throughout Thailand particularly if attending clubs or outdoor parties, since reports last week suggested police raids on such places, which include on-the-spot urine testing, are on the increase.
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