When he took his oath of office as prime minister in February 2001, Pol Lt Col Thaksin Shinawatra swore to uphold the Thai constitution of 1997.

Article 33 of that constitution stated very clearly that in criminal cases, the accused are to be considered innocent and cannot be treated as guilty until proven so in a final court verdict.

Yet two years later, from Feb 1 to April 30, 2003, Thaksin launched his government's populist war on drugs which resulted in the extrajudicial executions of more than 2,500 people in the country branded as drug dealers. With very few exceptions, these killings were never properly investigated and remain unresolved to this day.

Thaksin claimed that most of the killings were carried out by big drug dealers in order to prevent small dealers from informing on them.

Our current prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, has stated that he agrees with Thaksin. Everyone else in the country seems to know that the killings were the work of Thai police.

Whether or not the killings were explicitly ordered by Thaksin or by other members of his government is for a court to decide. However there is an allegation that officials were told that they would be punished if they did not meet their targets in getting results, and that deaths of drug dealers were considered acceptable results.

Certainly Thaksin did give some rather ambiguous instructions to officials as shown by these quotes reported in the Thai press (my translations):

"For dealers, you must use an iron fist. Be resolute and without mercy. Pol Gen Pao Sriyanond once said that under the sun there is nothing that the Thai police cannot accomplish." (Pol Gen Pao was a feared police chief in the 1950s during another era of extrajudicial killings.)

"During your three months of hard work it would be normal if some drug dealers were to die."

"Maybe after being shot dead, their assets need to be seized as well. I think we need to be as merciless as they are."

"There are only two homes for drug traders: prison or the mortuary."

Before and during the crackdown, blacklists of suspected drug dealers in each district of the country were prepared from official sources and from information provided by community leaders. In a Catch 22 situation, suspects were ordered to report to officials and to take part in reform activities such as taking vows to end their drug trading.

Complying with these orders would be tantamount to admission of guilt, while not doing so would indicate refusal to co-operate with the authorities. As it turned out, it didn't really matter which choice was taken, as both suspects who co-operated with officials and those who declared their innocence and refused to report to officials were killed.

Evidence given to a commission of inquiry set up by the Surayud government indicates that nearly half of those killed were probably innocent of drug-related crimes. In its report, the commission has indicated that the killings could constitute a crime against humanity.

I have read through a number of reports of investigations by the National Human Rights Commission into individual cases of people killed during the war on drugs, and I am shocked by the sheer arbitrary and brutal nature of the killings. Those who died were people without power or influence such as an illiterate woman shopkeeper who signed a police statement in the wrong belief that it was a statement declaring her innocence when it was actually an admission of guilt. Many of those killed came from ethnic minority groups living in the hill areas who are easy targets for victimisation.

In the end, the war on drugs was simply a populist killing spree of small fry. No big drug dealers were ever affected, and after a while the drug business returned to normal.

What is so sad about the state of Thai Society is that the drug war policy was, and still is, extremely popular (except, of course, among the families of the victims). It shows that our society doesn't care about the rule of law, or about basic human rights.

It's sad that those who planned, ordered, and committed these crimes are unlikely to ever be tried in a court of justice. Thailand has not ratified the Treaty of Rome, and so they cannot be brought to trial before the International Criminal Court.

It is shocking that the present government led by Mr Samak has vowed to revive the war on drugs. Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung has stated that if need be, 3,000-4,000 people may have to die. "If they break the law, they have no right to claim any human rights."

Let's all speak out together against the proposed criminal acts of our new government.

Jon Ungphakorn is a former elected senator for Bangkok and a Thai NGO activist. Comments are welcome at: [email protected]