Thai PM orders probe of Thaksin's war on drugs

BANGKOK, Nov 14 (Reuters) Thailand's post-coup government has ordered an investigation into ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's war on drugs in which more than 2,500 people were killed, officials said today.

The probe into the two-year crackdown, widely popular among rural voters but which outraged human rights groups, was ordered by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, installed by the military after Thaksin was ousted in a September 19 coup, they said.

The Justice Ministry would conduct the investigation into deaths Thaksin's government said were largely the result of drug dealers killing each other but which rights groups said were extra-judicial killings by police.

The ministry's top civil servant called on relatives of the victims to come forward with evidence.

''We have been requested to start the probe, but how far we can go depends on our potential,'' Jaran Pukdithanakul told reporters.

''I now call on families of those victims to come to us with evidence,'' he said.

Thaksin, now living in exile in London, launched a war on drugs in 2003 and won a second landslide election victory two years later largely on the back of wide support in the countryside.

Thailand, once a major supplier of heroin from the Golden Triangle where it meets Myanmar and Laos, was awash with methamphetamine made across the border in the former Burma at the time.

Thaksin's war on drugs cut supply and pushed up prices for a while, but business returned to normal, anti-drug agencies say.

Other investigations have started into allegations of corruption during Thaksin's years of power.

REUTERS MS HT1530