Political conflict shifts to Hague court

The Democrat Party has called on those adversely affected by the war on drugs policy implemented during the Thaksin Shinawatra administration to file a class-action lawsuit against the fugitive former premier at the court.

Democrat Party spokesman Chavanond Intarakomalyasut said party-list MP Kasit Piromya on Friday filed a complaint at the ICC in the Netherlands over the war on drugs, which allegedly led to the “silencing” killings of thousands of drug suspects.

Chavanond said those who believed they were damaged parties and had not received justice in connection with the policy should come forward to join the class-action lawsuit against Thaksin.

Thaksin’s anti-drugs campaign, launched in February 2003, resulted in around 2,500 extra-judicial deaths, which led to concern among human-rights advocates. After Thaksin was ousted in September 2006, the junta that took power ordered an investigation into the war on drugs. The probe concluded that as many as 1,400 of the 2,500 people killed had no link to narcotics.

The spokesman dismissed a complaint filed by Thida Thavornseth, chairperson of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) at the ICC alleging the country’s justice system has failed to function and failed to deal with cases involving political crises in the country.

Chavanond said Thaksin was the person pulling the strings behind the political turmoil. He also denied that Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva had evaded checks as alleged, saying he appointed the Independent Fact Finding Committee to investigate the political riots in 2010.

The Yingluck government, however, has been trying to issue amnesty bills to whitewash those involved so that they would not have to face investigation, the spokesman claimed.

Meanwhile, Noppadon Pattama, Thaksin’s legal adviser, dismissed the Democrats’ move as merely an assignment from the Opposition Party to keep Kasit busy, adding that the Pheu Thai Party did not feel threatened by the move.

“We want to know which case will reach the court first – our case against ex-PM Abhisit Vejjajiva or this case,” he said.

Noppadon defended Thaksin, saying he had never ordered anyone to kill anyone during his tenure.

He said there were many fact-finding committees set up to probe the alleged 2,500 “silencing” killings during the implementation of the war on drugs policy, and they all decided that no government ordered killings of drug suspects.

Red-shirt lawyer Robert Amsterdam filed a notice with the ICC in February last year about a “potential crime-against-humanity case” – allegedly committed by the Abhisit government.

The application requests that an ICC prosecutor launch a preliminary investigation into the death of 91 people, mainly red-shirt demonstrators, who it alleges were “intentionally killed” by the government in April and May last year.

Amsterdam has alleged that the government set the stage for a deadly crackdown by using security officers camouflaged as the mysterious “men in black” to stage fatal attacks on Army troops sent to suppress the demonstrators on April 10. This was done so the Army could justify deadly retaliation, he has claimed, adding that no “men in black” were arrested.

Amsterdam also claimed the Army hired arsonists to set fire to buildings at Ratchaprasong Intersection on May 19 to justify the brutal crackdown. Amsterdam said he filed the case because “Thailand has demonstrated a complete absence of the rule of law.”