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Southeast Asia: New Thai Government to Begin Investigating 2,500 Murders Committed During Thaksin's Drug War

With former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra deposed this fall by a military coup, the victims of his bloody effort to stamp out drug use in 2003 may at last see some justice. According to Thai human rights and legal groups, as many as 2,500 people were summarily executed as drug users or traffickers by Thai police enforcing Thaksin's vow to wipe out drugs in Thailand.

https://stopthedrugwar.org/files/thailandembassyprotest.jpg
2003 protest at Thai embassy, DRCNet's David Guard in foreground
New Prime Minister Gen. Surayud Chulanont has vowed to reopen at least 40 cases of murders where families formally complained to the Thai Lawyers Council and the National Human Rights Commission. If these early cases produce results, it is expected that more of the families of those killed will come forward to make formal complaints. The previous government eventually identified some 2,598 murders where friends or family members blamed drug-fighting police, but no one has ever been prosecuted, let alone convicted, for those crimes.

The effort to bring Thaksin and his flunkies to justice is being spearheaded by former Senator Kraisak Choonhavan, a long-time human rights campaigner. Kraisak has called for the prosecution of Thaksin and other high officials in lieu of going after foot soldiers. Kraisak's campaign has been joined by the Thai Lawyers Council's co-chairman for human rights, Somchai Homla, who called for serious investigations of human rights violations during Thaksin's drug war.

Gen. Surayud has apparently learned some lessons from Thaksin's bloody attack on drug users. Last week, he warned police and anti-drug authorities to scrupulously uphold the law in conducting anti-drug campaigns. ''Our work must stick to human rights and the rule of law. We will not do anything illegal. As state officials we have to make this matter clear first,'' he said in a speech to some 300 senior police and anti-drug officials.

But Gen. Surayud is, like his predecessor, still conducting anti-drug campaigns. At least he has promised to use peaceful methods and ordered an evaluation of the latest campaign after six months. Hopefully human rights campaigners will not have to soon level their protests against him.

War on drugs returns to bite Thaksin (Bangkok Post)

Localização: 
United States
URL: 
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=114443

Families of drugs war victims urged to speak up

Localização: 
Thailand
Publication/Source: 
Bangkok Post
URL: 
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/15Nov2006_news17.php

Officials to re-examine 'drug war' killings

Localização: 
Thailand
Publication/Source: 
Bangkok Post
URL: 
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=114214

Drug Truth Network Update: Cultural Baggage + Century of Lies + 4:20 Drug War NEWS + DTN "Unvarnished TRUTH" Released

Drug Truth Network Update: Cultural Baggage + Century of Lies + 4:20 Drug War NEWS + DTN "Unvarnished TRUTH" Released Half Hour Programs, Live Fridays... at 90.1 FM in Houston & on the web at www.kpft.org. Cultural Baggage for 11/03/06 Michael Josephs of Witness for Peace, Kris Crane of Students for Sensible Drug Policy + Terry Nelson of LEAP MP3 MP3 Link: http://www.drugtruth.net/cbaudio06/FDBCB_110306.mp3 Century of Lies for 11/03/06 Debate in Colorado, SAFER vs DEA + Drug War Facts, Poppygate & Black Perspective MP3 MP3 Link: http://www.drugtruth.net/cbaudio06/COL_110306.mp3 4:20 Drug War NEWS 11/06/06 to 11/12/06 now online (3:00 ea.): Monday 11/06/06 Mason Tvert of Safer Debates Jeffrey Sweetin of DEA Pt 1 of 2 Tuesday 11/07/06 Mason Tvert of Safer Debates Jeffrey Sweetin of DEA Pt 2 of 2 Wednesday 11/08/06 Michael Josephs of Witness for Peace Thursday 11/09/06 Terry Nelson of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Friday 11/10/06 Poppygate+Reefer Madness LIVES. Saturday 11/11/06 Drug War Facts Sunday 11/12/06 Black Perspective on the Drug War NEXT Friday: - Cultural Baggage 8 PM ET, 7 PM CT, 6 PM MT & 5 PM PT. TBD - Century of Lies 2 PM ET, 1 PM CT, Noon MT & 11 AM PT. TBD Please become part of the solution, visit our website: www.endprohibition.org for links to the best of reform. UNVARNISHED TRUTH DVD available Now, for FREE! Features high quality video & interviews with: John Sinclair, Mason Tvert, Phil Smith, Vivian McPeak, Norm Stamper, Carla Cole, David Guard, Eddy Lepp, "Un Gallo", Elvy Musika, Steve Kubby, Allen St. Pierre, Sandy Burbank, Randy Rhodes, Ethan Nadelmann, Peter Steinbrueck, Angel Raich and hosted by Dean Becker. Does your college have a TV station or do you have access to Access TV? If so, lets talk. Does your radio station need a $90 pledge incentive for free? Our first edition, subtitled "Counter Culture or Positive Culture" is available now. Please contact [email protected]. (A 15 minute segment of this 57 minute video is available online at: http://www.drugtruth.net/dtnvideo.htm ) TRAVEL Schedule for DTN: I am traveling to Bolivia this week to capture audio and video for the Drug Truth Network. We will post multiple week's programming for our 9 programs later this week. Dean Becker 281-752-9198 www.drugtruth.net
Localização: 
United States

Bolivia Drug Fight Faulted: The White House Cited Concerns About Contributions to the Illegal Drug Trade By Bolivia

Localização: 
Washington, DC
United States
Publication/Source: 
Associated Press
URL: 
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/15552243.htm

On the Thai Coup Attempt

The mass media today are full of reports about the slow-motion military coup attempt taking place in Thailand. While I'm not a big fan of military coups, I have to point out that this one couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Long-time Chronicle readers may recall Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra as the man who unleashed a "war on drugs" in 2003 where some 2,000 people summarily executed. That's human rights speak for gunned down in the streets without a trial or even an arrest. Here's a link to just one of the stories we did on Shinawatra's massacre of drug users and sellers. There is much more if you want to dig through our archives. I don't claim to be up to speed on the intricacies of Thai politics. But Shinawatra, a Berlusconi-style figure in Thai politics, a fabulously wealthy media magnate who sought to impose his twisted morality on the country he governed, needs to be sitting in the defendant's dock, not the presidential palace.
Localização: 
Thailand

A Look Inside Brazil's Drug "Commands"

Brazil, Latin America's largest and most populous nation gets surprisingly little press in the US. The mass media paid some attention back in May, when the country's "commands"--the criminal gangs formed in Brazil's prisons that control the drug trade and act as a de facto government in some of the favelas (ghettos) surrounding Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro--rose up in open rebellion against the Brazilian state. But since then, the silence in the US press has been deafening. Fortunately, not everyone in the English-speaking press is asleep at the wheel, and I want to use this opportunity to recommend an article from Britain's Observer magazine. Called Blood Simple, the piece by Tom Phillips is an interesting capsule history of the commands and a frightening look at the war between the state and the gangs. Here are the opening paragraphs, just to whet your appetite: "Blood simple Four months ago, the hostility between Sao Paulo's police and gangs erupted into violence - the result was open warfare. Tom Phillips reports from a city caught in a spiral of terror Sunday September 17, 2006 The Observer The taxi driver squints uncomfortably. 'It's like fire there,' he warns ominously, as I pass him the address on the eastern limits of Sao Paulo. We cut through block after block of grimy, graffiti-clad housing. Ahead, ragged shantytowns cling to the hilltops; behind us a trail of abandonment stretches back towards the city centre, in the form of empty warehouses and cracked windows. As we begin the descent towards our final destination, the driver looks nervously into his rear-view mirror. A police car's flashing siren ushers us to a standstill. Under the gaze of their Taurus revolvers we are hauled out of the vehicle, told to place our hands on the car roof and given an invasive frisk down. When we are finally sent on our way, after a 10-minute interrogation, the driver is apologetic. 'I had to pull over,' he mumbles. 'If you don't, they open fire.' Welcome to the periferia of Sao Paulo; the impoverished outskirts of one of the world's largest cities, where hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to the megalopolis in search of gold-paved streets have been abandoned to their own dismal fate." There is much, much more about what is going on in one of the worl'd largest cities. Check it out.
Localização: 
Sao Paulo, SP
Brazil

Latin America: In Southern Colombia, It's Aid Out, Soldiers In

The US Agency for International Development (AID) has given up on an alternative development campaign designed to help farmers in southern Colombia switch to legal crops, the Houston Chronicle reported. The newspaper cited a Colombian government memorandum, and the report was implicitly confirmed by an unnamed US Embassy source in Bogota.

https://stopthedrugwar.org/files/eradication.jpg
eradication
According to the Colombian government document, US AID suspended the development program in southern Caqueta state, long a stronghold of the leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), because the area was too dangerous for its workers and it lacked economic potential. With development assistance making up less than 10% of the $800 million the US is spending to wage the drug war in Colombia this year, US AID will channel funding to more secure areas.

"You can't be everywhere simultaneously, and you have to make choices," the unnamed embassy official told the Chronicle. "Resources have to be focused where they can be used most effectively."

With the US and Colombian governments having given up on developing the region, the departure of the US AID project clears the way as the Colombian military begins its largest ever campaign in the south. The US has spent more than $4 billion since 2000 to help the Colombian government obtain and maintain control in such areas, but now the economic advisers are leaving and the soldiers are coming.

US analysts and Colombian politicians contacted by the Houston Chronicle called the move a bad idea. "This is not a good way to win hearts and minds," said Sanho Tree, a Colombia expert at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington. "We're driving people away from the government and into the hands of our declared enemies: the guerrillas and the drug traffickers," he told the Chronicle.

"This decision runs contrary to the whole concept of Plan Colombia," said Luis Fernando Almario, a congressman from Caqueta.

Adam Isacson, a Colombia expert at the Center for International Policy in Washington, told the Chronicle that writing off the war-torn south would be a grave error. Drawing parallels to the war in Iraq, he likened the current approach to saying: "Forget about the Sunni Triangle."

Washington Office on Latin America Book Launch Reception

The Washington Office on Latin America is pleased to invite you to a reception to celebrate the publication of Washington Office on Latin America: Thirty Years of Advocacy for Human Rights, Democracy and Social Justice by Coletta A. Youngers Tuesday, September 19, 2006 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm WOLA’s office 1630 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite 200 Washington, DC 20009 You have been an important part of our history. WOLA is celebrating its 30 years of history with friends, staff and board members with the launch of our most recent publication Washington Office on Latin America: Thirty Years of Advocacy for Human Rights, Democracy and Social Justice. We would like to share this special evening with you. Come celebrate WOLA’s history and mingle with our current staff and board to discuss WOLA’s present and to discover WOLA’s future. Please RSVP by Monday, September 18th to Ana Paula Duarte: [email protected]
Data: 
Tue, 09/19/2006 - 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Localização: 
1630 Connecticut St. NW Suite 200
Washington, DC
United States

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