BANGKOK, Aug 3 (AFP) - The United Nations special rapporteur on health rights expressed his concern Tuesday that Thailand's violent anti-drug strategy drove users underground and threatened to spread HIV/AIDS.
Paul Hunt said the Thai government's controversial war on drugs, which left more than 2,000 people dead, had "inadvertently" forced users into hiding and meant they could not get proper treatment and counselling.
Thailand was criticised over the harsh tactics that peaked in early 2003, with claims of extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests, but the campaign had the overwhelming support of a public concerned over an epidemic of youth drug addiction.
"I am concerned that the anti-narcotics campaign, coupled with limited access to harm reduction services, has inadvertently created the conditions for a more extensive spread of the virus in Thailand," said Hunt in a statement.
In a letter to the government, Hunt pointed to data showing the number of injecting drug users seeking treatment had dropped sharply in the last year.
At the same time, HIV rates within the group remained "unacceptably high" at 50 percent, he said.
Hunt said he was also concerned over the "alarming number" of people with HIV/AIDS reportedly subject to discrimination in the healthcare system.
"If true, such human rights violations will deter people from seeking health services," he said.
Hunt praised Thailand's commitment to ensuring everyone who needed anti-retroviral treatment got it and its promise to treat injecting drug users as patients rather than criminals.
The Thai government said the drug war allegations were "unfair and unfounded," saying the campaign was targeted at drug dealers and "masterminds".
"We don't consider drug addicts as criminals, we encourage them to seek rehabilitation," said foreign ministry spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow.
"The campaign is not driving drug addicts underground."
The government's drugs campaign started in February 2003 with some 2,275 extrajudicial killings in the first three months, according to the US-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra blamed the deaths largely on killings between feuding gangs. He officially declared the campaign over in December.
HRW said in a report released at last month's world AIDS conference in Bangkok that there were still up to a quarter of a million intravenous heroin users in Thailand.
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