The force unleashed by Thailand’s Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, in his crusade to rid Thailand of drugs and “drug users”, “from every inch of Thai Soil” has drawn fierce criticism from stunned human rights groups around the world.

I was caught up in this drug war in it’s height of April 2003 when I was arrested. The year before my arrest Thaksin Shinawatra also introduced a new law in Thailand, where 20 grams or over of class A drugs carried a “minimum” term of imprisonment of 25 years.

Thousands were killed in the first months of this war on drugs, tens of thousands arrested users and dealers alike!

It created a situation where the human rights record of Thailand, though much improved before Thaksin’s reign, was sacrificed along with Thai freedom of the press, as criticisms of policy and questions into extra-judicial killings are being thwarted from the outset.

Thailand’s reputation as a democratic country in tatters.

In June that year, user activists, human rights campaigners and those concerned with civil rights launched a world wide “Day of Action”, holding protests and vigils outside Thai Embassies in cities across the globe: from Cardiff, New York, Washington and Nepal, from Moscow to Melbourne and Bangkok.

The UK’s drug agency, Lifeline in unison with UKRHA (the UK harm reduction alliance) sponsored two members from the TDN (Thai Drug users network)to attend the demonstration in London and speak to the UK drugs community about the terror that has been instilled in drug users across Thailand and the blood being spilt in another, tragically misguided war on drugs and drug users.

Undoubtedly, Thailand has significant drugs problems: however murders, seizures and arrests initiated from the crackdown have tended to be from the lower end of the distribution chain leaving most of the real powers behind the drug trade free, despite Government efforts to target high-ranking officials and traffickers.

Thaksin Shinawatra applied his corporate management principles giving targets for arrests and seizures with the police rewarded with a “Bounty” per pill or drug found, and a percentage of the assets seized. Failure to reach these targets was not an option and officials faced with dismissal or demotion if they do not meet their regional quotas. As a result, meeting targets became more important than the rule of Law.

During the Vietnam War, the Thai Government recruited and armed irregular forces and vigilante groups and many of these professional gunmen still remain in Thailand today.

These gangs are often hired to settle family disputes and business feuds and are used during elections with canvassers routinely being found dead. Disturbingly, the killings then in the anti-drug campaign have the same appearance as these professional hits.

Many victims had been on secret but official “Black Lists” and when the crackdown happened the Government told dealers that they should “Surrender” or “Die”, the killings started right on cue. Of the thousands dead only 74 were confirmed killed by police. The then Thai Foreign Minister had called the killings of drug users and dealers a “Side effect” of the current war on drugs.

While Thaksin himself stated:” If they resist, there is nothing we can do, they will have to die prematurely if necessary”.

Pornthip Rojaasunan, acting director of the forensic science Institute said the justice system could be jeopardised by a lack of explanation into these extra judicial killings. “It should be made clear whether these killings were made in self defence or not” she said. Although the law requires the presence of at least one doctor at the scene of an unnatural death, few were willing to intervene in such cases, worried how the police would react. “All we can do is report on the location of the bullet and other wounds on the body; we can’t say who did what and how the bullet hit the person, as is intended by Law”.

Though no doctor will say so publicly, police have discouraged them from being open, as the Law requires.

Forum Asia, a regional human rights group, says it interviewed Forensic experts who said they found suspects had drugs planted on them after their death, that some victims were handcuffed when killed or shot in a group and that in 3 cases bullets had been removed before coroners had examined the bodies.

Despite the Thai Government stating that it is not policy to encourage extra judicial killings, Amnesty International called the crackdown “a de facto shoot-to-kill policy” that pressurizes police officers to produce results or lose their jobs.

Although the crackdown was initially planned fro three months, Thaksin was so pleased with the results he extended it until December 2003 when he intended to deliver a drug-free Thailand to the King in time for his birthday on the 5th of December. Now the price of Methamphetamine has increased by 500%, the demand for drugs has remained the same.

Tragically, this has meant that in some of Thailand’s poorest areas, users, including many young people are switching to cheap solvents and glues, potentially causing more damage to the brain than methamphetamines. Heroin use, which had remained stable for some years, has started to increase. Massive distortion surrounds the drug issue in Thailand to such an extend that such extra judicial killings are accepted by most Thais as a necessary part of cleansing the country of drugs.

Increases in poverty and crime has meant drug users have become the scapegoats, blamed for the decline in society and the deterioration of communities and as people look to their government for answers, ignorance about the drug issue has allowed the slash and burn approach to flourish.

Thailand’s war on drugs is bloody in it’s intensity and lawless in it’s methods and it’s Thai drug users who are ending up dead or imprisoned for outrageously long terms of imprisonment for small personal amounts of drugs (As my case 33 ½ years for 25 grams).ousted in a bloodless coup in September 2006. the military government that peaceably ousted Thailands then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has accused him of , among other things, major corruption, selling off national assets for personal gain, curtailing the freedom of the press and using the cover of a war on drugs to suppress elements of the population. Thaksin Shinawatra’s time in office from 2001 – 2006 was characterized by numerous extra-judicial executions, “disappearances”, illegal abductions, arbitrary detentions, torture and other mistreatment of persons in detention. (I will vouch for that), and attacks on media freedoms.

So where did Thaksin run to when the military government put an end to Thaksins reign of terror and murder?

England! Can you believe it! England welcomed him with open arms and shields him under it’s protective wing.

I am a UK citizen born and raised in Leicester, my son Oak is a UK citizen, yet my wife and Oak’s mother is denied a  settlement visa for England and this monster is welcomed with open arms, “something seriously wrong here”.

Last month Thaksin bought Manchester City football club for £162 million-mere pocket change compared with the roughly $2 billion in funds Thai authorities have frozen from his family bank accounts. The military Junta now controlling Thailand condemned his acquisition of the team-Thai courts have slapped Thaksin who made his fortune in the telecom business, with corruption and abuse-of-power, charges stemming from his time in office.

On Tuesday the Thai supreme court issued a warrant for Thaksin’s arrest for failing to show up in court to face the graft charges. International human-rights monitors such as New York City-based Human Rights watch have also chimed in, accusing Thaksin of presiding over a range of abuses, including extra-judicial killings, during his tenure as Prime Minister.

Thaksin hasn’t allowed negative publicity to curb his enthusiasm for his new role as proud owner of a well established team in a League watched by a world wide TV audience of 570 million.

Thaksin has signalled his ambitions by hiring former England coach Sven-Göran Eriksson to run the team, handing the Swede a war chest of almost $80 million to acquire players.

Thaksin known under many names, his commonly known nickname in his own country: Ai Na Liam or Mr. Square Face.

This might seem harmless enough it should worry Manchester City Fans as it’s the Thai word for square shaped also means “Con Man”.

A Human Rights Watch letter sent this summer to the Premier League. In it, they asked the League to reassess whether or not former Thai Prime Minister is really “Fit” and “proper person” to take charge of the club.

Thaksin, who owns a home in London, is also working hard to turn on the charm in his country of exile he threw a street party in Manchester for Thousands of revelers.

Money talks and the poor walk even in England it sees!

That the UK Government can welcome TOXIN and refuse my wife really infuriates me.