The photos are at the end of the page. See also www.akha.org and the YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/akhazauh
United States drug-war aid to Thailand from 2001 to 2003. Chart from Thailand's 2003 drug-war annual report: http://en.oncb.go.th/file/publications.html
Thailand's brutal 2003 death-squad drug war. Photos of dead, tortured, wounded, scars, families, etc.. URL for this photo gallery is http://gallery.marihemp.com/akha - There are also many links below to press and media articles; human rights organization reports and filings, etc.. For a good compilation of info, links, and photos see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_McDaniel
The gallery editor wrote up this intro with the links. The photos and photo captions are from Matthew_McDaniel of the Akha Heritage Foundation. Photos are farther down. Click the images to enlarge them, and to open up the various photo albums. For more photos, links, info, etc. please see: http://www.akha.org/content/drugwar/drugwardeathpics.html
"US-Thailand's 'License To Kill'. 2274 Extra-Judicial Killings In 90 Days". The Akha Journal of the Golden Triangle. By Matthew McDaniel. Vol. 1. No. 2. October 2003. Relevant section of journal 2: http://www.akha.org/upload/journal/akhajournal2p6.pdf - Cover and first part of journal 2: http://www.akha.org/upload/journal/akhajournal2p1.pdf - Link list for all parts of the journals.
* "Probe into Thai Drug War Killings Getting Underway". Drug War Chronicle, August 10, 2007.
*July 7, 2004 New York Times article. "LETTER FROM ASIA; She Tilts Against Power, but Don't Call Her Quixotic." By Jane Perlez. Article quote: "Among those either killed, or missing and presumed dead, were campaigners against logging, dams and wastewater projects." Another article quote: "She reminded those audiences, she said, that more than 2,000 people suspected of breaking drug laws were killed during a three-month 'war on drugs' by the Thaksin government last year [2003], a move that prompted the State Department to criticize Thailand's 'worsened' human rights record." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/07/international/asia/lett.html?ex=1246939200
Human Rights Watch. Thailand: Anti-Drug Campaign Reaches New Low. October 6, 2004. More Than 50 Organizations Sign Letter of Protest. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/10/05/thaila9445.htm
Akha 1503 Case Filed, January 2004, UN Filing UNOHCHR, Geneva - Detailed Case Accounts of the Killings and Torture. 46 cases out of thousands. Filed by Matthew McDaniel. http://www.akha.org/content/un/index.html Google search: http://www.google.com/search?q=Akha+1503+cases+part
Main drug-war index page at Akha.org has list of related links at the bottom of the page: http://www.akha.org/content/drugwar/index.html
Google search shortcut that pulls up links to hundreds of drug war articles on the Akha.org site: http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.akha.org+%22drug+war%22
Search the Akha Weekly Journal Yahoo Group public archive: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AkhaWeeklyJournal/msearch?submit=Search&query= Search the Akha discussion Yahoo Group public archive: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akha/msearch?submit=Search&query=
These search shortcuts will pull up many articles. Add or substitute search terms as needed to get better results. For example; substitute 'thailand' for 'laos' in the searches. For the Akha.org site: http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.akha.org+%22drug+war%22+laos For the DrugNews.org site from 1997 to date: http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=laos&YY1=1997
Yahoo Groups. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Akhaweeklyjournal and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AkhaWeeklyJournal/messages Titled index of Akha list. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akha An Akha discussion list with an archive.
May-2003. U.S.-aided Thailand death squads go on. 1000's dead. Drug war and more. DEA, U.S. police, and U.S. military involvement with Thailand. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cannabisaction/messages/849 Many illustrated messages. http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/2997.html and http://www.pot-tv.net/archive/shows/pottvshowse-2119.html
Hopefully, there will also be more photos here of the Akha and other groups in Laos who died in large numbers due to disease and starvation caused by the drug war, opium eradications, relocations, and lack of alternative means of survival. All of this occurring at the behest of the brutal UN and USA drug war agendas. See this Akha.org index of info on Laos: http://www.akha.org/content/akhainlaos/docs/index.html.
Thaksin initiated a series of controversial policies to counter a boom in Thailand's illegal drugs market, particularly in methamphetamine. Research and statistics had indicated that some 2.5 - 6 million people were habitual drug users, with up to 3 million of still in school. Up to 2002, Thaksin's anti-drug policies consisted of border blocking (most methamphetamine is produced in Myanmar), public education, sports, and promoting peer pressure against drug use - policies that are generally acknowledged to have been ineffective. In response, the Thaksin government launched on February 1, 2003, a suppression campaign that aimed to "rid every inch of the country" of drugs in 3 months. The policy consisted of:
Regarding the last element, Thaksin said, “Because drug traders are ruthless to our children. So being ruthless back to them is not a big thing…. It may be necessary to have casualties… If there are deaths among traders, it’s normal…”. Various agencies drew up “blacklists” of people suspected to be involved in drug trading, while police were told to meet their arrest quota or face being transferred. Given the short time available, due process reportedly often fell by the wayside in meeting those targets. In parallel, dealers were invited to present themselves to the police and swear they had stopped their activities.
Over the next seven weeks, press reports indicate that around 2,500 people were killed.[10][11] The government claimed only around 50 of the deaths were at the hands of the police, and then in self-defense. They included a nine-year-old child. Human rights critics have claimed that a much larger proportion were targets of extrajudicial execution.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] The victims were overwhelmingly poor, and reports said police with worrying consistency recovered two methamphetamine tablets from their bodies, well below the five needed for a charge of possession with intent to supply. The National Commission on Human Rights made an official objection. The government went out of its way to publicize the implementation of the policy, with daily statistics of arrests, seizures, and deaths published, and entire provinces swearing abstinence in orchestrated ceremonies. Following growing international criticism including expressions of concern from the UN rapporteur on human rights, the "ruthless" element of the policy was reduced and the killings stopped. Meanwhile, only a minute portion of "kingpins" were arrested or targeted for arrest.
Despite some public revulsion, Thaksin's popularity increased.[21] In September 2004, George W. Bush announced in his Annual Determination of Major Illicit Drug Producing and Drug-Transit Countries to remove Thailand from the list of major drug-transit or major drug-producing countries.[6]
The policy was effective in substantially increasing the price of methamphetamine and thus reducing the intake of habitual and recreational users, with retail drug prices skyrocketing 2-3 times as a result. The longer-term effectiveness of the crackdown, however, is less clear. An ABAC opinion poll conducted two years after the campaign revealed that 62.2 percent of respondents believed that drug abuse had increased from 2004 to 2005. The same survey also showed that people had lost confidence in the Thaksin's anti-drug policies, with 67.8 percent answering that they no longer trust the government to solve the drug problem.[22]
The Nation (an English-language newspaper in Thailand) reported on November 27, 2007:
"Of 2,500 deaths in the government's war on drugs in 2003, a fact-finding panel has found that more than half was not involved in drug at all. At a brainstorming session, a representative from the Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) Tuesday disclosed that as many as 1,400 people were killed and labelled as drug suspects despite the fact that they had no link to drugs."
The article also reported:
"Senior public prosecutor Kunlapon Ponlawan said it was not difficult to investigate extra-judicial killings carried out by police officers as the trigger-pullers usually confessed."[23][24]
The January 24, 2008 edition of The Economist reported:
Yet a panel set up last year by the outgoing junta recently concluded the opposite: over half of those killed in 2003 had no links to the drugs trade. The panel blamed the violence on a government “shoot-to-kill” policy based on flawed blacklists. But far from leading to the prosecutions of those involved, its findings have been buried. The outgoing interim prime minister, Surayud Chulanont, took office vowing to right Mr Thaksin's wrongs. Yet this week he said there was insufficient evidence to take legal action over the killings. It is easy to see why the tide has turned. Sunai Phasuk, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, a lobbying group, says that the panel's original report named the politicians who egged on the gunmen. But after the PPP won last month's elections, those names were omitted.[25]
The New York Times reported on April 8, 2003:
Since the death of 9-year-old Chakraphan, there have been frequent reports in the Thai press of summary executions and their innocent victims. There was the 16-month-old girl who was shot dead along with her mother, Raiwan Khwanthongyen. There was the pregnant woman, Daranee Tasanawadee, who was killed in front of her two young sons. There was the 8-year-old boy, Jirasak Unthong, who was the only witness to the killing of his parents as they headed home from a temple fair. There was Suwit Baison, 23, a cameraman for a local television station, who fell to his knees in tears in front of Mr. Thaksin and begged for an investigation into the killing of his parents. His stepfather had once been arrested for smoking marijuana, Mr. Suwit said. When the police offered to drop the charge if he would admit to using methamphetamines, he opted instead to pay the $100 fine for marijuana use. Both parents were shot dead as they returned home from the police station on a motorbike. Mr. Suwit said 10 other people in his neighborhood had also been killed after surrendering to the police.[12]
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