Bangkok-based diplomats asked Thailand to verify the...

Bangkok-based diplomats asked Thailand to verify the number of deaths caused by the government's crackdown on narcotics, since they found the over 1,000 killings in one month alarming. "We were told previously that the number of drug-related killings was on average 5,000 per annum, but we are surprised that more than 1,000 people were killed in just one month," said an Asian diplomat on condition of anonymity. Veerasak Futrakul, the ministry's deputy permanent secretary, told the diplomats that the anti-drug campaign was being conducted within a legal framework but added that approximately 50 police officers had been accused of involvement in extrajudicial executions.