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Drugs showdown in the works bound to prompt memories of decisive 2003 crackdown by Thaksin


webfact

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Last week the permanent secretary at the Ministry of the Interior Mr Suthipong Chulacharoen and the National Police Commissioner General Damrongsak Kittiprapat gave a press conference after a high-level meeting where a forthcoming drug crackdown was discussed 

 

by Joseph O' Connor

 

The current campaign as well as being a response to Nong Bua Lamphu also comes after demands from other provinces around the country including Krabi where drug-related violence and killings have undermined local security and confidence in the rule of law as the country reaches a limit in its tolerance with huge quantities of methamphetamine linked drugs flowing into the kingdom from beyond Thailand’s borders in the Golden Triangle.

 

On January 28th 2003, then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra signed order 30-31/2546 setting up a co-ordination centre headed by then Deputy Prime Minister General Chawalit Yongchaiyudh which waged a ferocious three-month ‘war on drugs’ in a campaign during which tens of thousands were detained while thousands are thought to have lost their lives. It was an act that helped burnish the former PM’s popularity and reputation for getting things done by tackling problems head-on but one which also marred his period in office with difficult questions being asked to this day about human rights violations and abuses.


Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan ocha has told the National Police Commissioner General Damrongsak Kittiprapat that suppressing drugs was a key ‘national issue’ as security agencies and the Ministry of Public Health, in a campaign coordinated by the Ministry of the Interior, prepare to launch a national crackdown on drugs which, among other things, will see addicts taken into care on an area by area basis.

 

The planned campaign, for which October 31st is the deadline for local intelligence, is bound to resurrect memories of the 2003 three-month onslaught pushed by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that year in which thousands were detained and killed while hundreds of government officials and police officers were arrested and prosecuted for colluding with drug gangs. The current campaign is being seen as a response to the massacre of 36 people including 24 children on October 7th by a crazed former police officer with a history of drug problems.

 

Full story: https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/10/17/drugs-crackdown-planned-memories-of-thaksin-2003/

 

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-- © Copyright Thai Examiner 2022-10-17
 

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19 hours ago, webfact said:

The current campaign as well as being a response to Nong Bua Lamphu also comes after demands from other provinces around the country including Krabi where drug-related violence and killings have undermined local security and confidence in the rule of law as the country reaches a limit in its tolerance with huge quantities of methamphetamine linked drugs flowing into the kingdom from beyond Thailand’s borders in the Golden Triangle.

It will only end when they start jailing the kingpins, bent officials and influential people.

nailing only the drivers does nothing.

Plus transparency on what happens to the "confiscated drugs" needs some attention.

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