Thailand's Drug Strategy: Mass Murder Thousands of Drug Suspects
Via DrugWarRant, Thailand's new prime minister has pledged to continue his nation's shameful quest to maintain the most brutally evil drug policy in the world:
"My government will decisively implement a policy against drug trafficking. Government officials must implement this policy 24 hours a day, but I will not set a target for how many people should die," said Samak Sundaravej, the new prime minister.The interior minister Chalerm Yubamrung, said: "When we implement a policy that may bring 3,000 to 4,000 bodies, we will do it," [Telegraph]
They've tried it before, but it didn't work, so they're trying it again:
During a three-month killing spree in 2003 as intense as a full-scale armed conflict, thousands named on police "black lists" were shot dead, allegedly on government orders.Yet the government's narcotics control board concluded that more than half the victims had no involvement in drugs. One couple from north-eastern Thailand were shot dead after coming into unexplained wealth and being added to a black list. They were, in fact, lottery winners.
What can even be said about this? It is just a perfect exhibit of the fact that drug prohibition will still fail even when taken to the greatest heights of inhumanity and totalitarianism.
It is the temptation of any drug warrior to seek the gradual removal of any and all safeguards that impede progress towards purging and destroying the enemy. In America, we raid houses based on unreliable informant testimony, we confiscate property without establishing guilt, we tamper with juries, conceal exculpatory evidence, intimidate witnesses, overvalue seized contraband at trial, and we interpret and/or adjust our laws as needed to ensure that the people we accuse of drug crimes are convicted and punished quickly and severely.
The consequence of all this, ultimately, is that innocent people can't defend themselves from the drug war any better than the guilty. It is for this reason that you'll never hear American drug warriors rise to condemn human rights abuses fueled by foreign drug wars. Our political leaders thoroughly lack the moral standing to preach about the due process of drug prohibition.
Rather than becoming placated by the observation that our own drug war could be far worse, let us ask ourselves what sorts of vicious atrocities await should we ever dare to take our eyes off American drug warriors for even a moment.
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redditHaving just returned from my
Comment posted by Anonymous on Tue, 02/26/2008 - 11:24amHaving just returned from my 10th visit to Thailand in 7 years, I can say that things there are not much different now than they were in 2000. Yaba ,meth, is the target. Most of it comes from Myanmar, Burma. The young people that I speak with tell me that this sort of "clean up" has happened every so often. In other words it is to be expected if not accepted. When there are too many dealers some are "culled out". That way Thailand can remain a friend of the USA and keep the BIGBOYS , the black market, happy. We do the same thing here in the USA, but handle it a little differently. If someone like Rudy Gulliani were to be elected President, I'm sure we would handle things much like the Thai's.
Of course our government should be speaking out of this
Comment posted by Anonymous on Tue, 02/26/2008 - 2:53pmbut the decider in chief probably supports it. Previous comment makes sense. This murderous rampage will be just for fun, while the big dealers remain untouchable, buying protection with big money. I appreciate the attention Scott has paid to this about to begin bloodbath.
oh if only
Comment posted by Anonymous on Tue, 02/26/2008 - 6:41pmIf they could get away with it, our government would blood-thirstily adopt this policy. Talk about tough on crime. I know many people personally that would not even have an inkling of a problem with this sort of policy. The fact that its happening anywhere scares the hell out of me.
I don't understand why that
Comment posted by Anonymous on Wed, 02/27/2008 - 12:22pmI don't understand why that would be the prime choice of action when its pretty obvious people can tend to get a bit rebelious when faces with such harsh crimes. A criminal record might not mean much there, but I'd rather see prison terms being handed out vs killing sprees.
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Our War
Comment posted by Anonymous on Tue, 02/26/2008 - 2:12amThis county invented the drug war, we support it, we give other countries big bucks to fight the drug war in their country. Who cares if innocent people are killed as long as the war continues. Law Enforcement has grown fat off the profits and will continue the war until the people finally put an end to it. The fact that cops can violate so many of our civil rights, is proof that this is becoming a Big Brother country. Your civil rights are fast becoming a thing of the past! Bin Laden was right.