Bangkok Post - July 14, 2004
Kanjana Spindler**

But what about our penchant for state-sponsored violence? Do we care if that receives the spotlight of international attention?

Hopefully, the esteemed minister of public health will find it useful to pass along to her boss her copy of a little publication that joined the avalanche of printed material prepared by various agencies for the conference. Yes, I know people close to the prime minister are not in the habit of telling him bad news because bad news is officially banned in this country. But this particular publication makes interesting reading because it takes us back to February last year when the prime minister launched his "violent and murderous" war on drugs.

Published by Human Rights Watch, the largest human rights organisation based in the United States which follows human rights developments in over 70 countries, "Thailand: Not enough graves - The war on drugs, HIV/Aids, and violations of human rights" makes chilling reading. It might even disturb Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra if he reads it because it will remind him that the rest of the world has not forgotten those thousands of extrajudicial murders and that, in the context of our continuing struggle to contain the HIV/Aids epidemic, the war on drugs was entirely counter-productive. Here are a few excerpts from the report summary:

"A violent state-sponsored 'war on drugs' is jeopardising Thailand's long struggle to become one of Southeast Asia's leading rights-respecting democracies. Officially launched in February, 2003, the government crackdown has resulted in the unexpected killing of more than 2,000 persons, the arbitrary arrest or blacklisting of several thousand more, and the endorsement of extreme violence by government officials at the highest level. In the process, Thailand's fight against HIV/Aids, for which it has received international praise, has been severely undermined by a climate of fear that has driven injection drug users, in particular, underground.

"... The result of the initial three-month phase of this campaign was some 2,275 extrajudicial killings, which the government blamed largely on gangs involved in the drug trade; arbitrary inclusion of drug suspects on poorly prepared government 'blacklists' or 'watchlists'; intimidation of human rights defenders; violence, arbitrary arrest, and other breaches of due process by Thai police; and coerced or mandatory drug treatment.

"... Despite a widespread perception that injected heroin is no longer a drug of choice in Thailand, injection drug users number anywhere from 100,000 to 250,000 in the country, according to available estimates. The sharing of blood-contaminated syringes is a remarkably efficient way to spread HIV and other blood-borne viruses. An estimated 40 percent of injection drug users in Thailand are living with HIV/Aids , the same figure as in 1988 when an explosive HIV epidemic first appeared among heroin users in Bangkok. Drug users are projected to account for 30 percent of new HIV infections in Thailand by 2005, a higher percentage than any other group.

"... The clearest outcome of the war on drugs was not to curb Thailand's illegal drug trade, but simply to make it more dangerous. Most drug users interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported continuing to use heroin or methamphetamines during the drug war, albeit at a higher cost and less frequently... While Thailand's human rights record may yet improve, those who lost their lives as a result of the war on drugs - whether from a bullet or a shared syringe - will never recover."

The headline above is part of a larger quote in the report from a recovering heroin user: "Why do you have to kill people?... It's better to help drug users find ways to change their behaviour instead of killing them... There are not enough graves to bury us all."

** Kanjana Spindler is Assistant Editor, Editorial Pages, Bangkok Post.

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