Thailand's human rights credentials declined in 2003,...

Thailand's human rights credentials declined in 2003, the United States said in a blunt criticism over the kingdom's deadly war on drugs. "The government's human rights record worsened with regard to extra-judicial killings and arbitrary arrests," Washington said in the Thailand chapter of its annual report on worldwide human rights abuses. "There was a significant increase in killings of criminal suspects," it said. The State Department's findings cited reports that more than 2,000 alleged drug suspects were killed during confrontations with police during a three-month war on drugs from February to April. "Some members of the security forces committed serious human rights abuses," it said. "The government failed to investigate and prosecute vigorously those who committed such abuses, contributing to a climate of impunity." When asked why Thailand's use of the death penalty and its hundreds of convicts on death row were not given mention in the report, Washington's ambassador to Thailand Darryl Johnson said the US "does not consider the death penalty per se to be contrary to human rights."