Amnesty International said in a report issued in London...

Amnesty International said in a report issued in London that extrajudicial killings and the torture and ill-treatment of prisoners and ethnic minorities continued throughout Thailand in 2002. The Amnesty report, which documented human-rights abuses in 151 countries and territories from January to December 2002, said that holding prisoners of conscience and capital punishment were also seen in Thailand in that year. In a special update on selected violations from January to April 2003, the report mentioned the Thaksin administration's war on drugs, which it said had resulted in a "de facto shoot-to-kill policy" that led to 600 killings. Overcrowding of prisons and the shackling of death row prisoners continued, although the Corrections Department had taken steps to reform the prison system, the report said.