Thailand to probe Thaksin's deadly anti-drug war

BANGKOK, Aug 2 (Reuters) Thailand's post-coup government has re-opened an investigation into ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's war on drugs in which more than 2,500 people were killed, a senior Justice Ministry official said today.

The probe into the two-year crackdown, which was popular among rural voters but outraged human rights groups, would be led by a small independent body chaired by former attorney-general Kanit na Nakorn, ministry official Jaran Pukdithanakul said.

''Thousands of lives have been tossed away like fish or vegetables, therefore we must find the person responsible,'' he told reporters. ''We must have an answer for society how these 2,500 people died.'' The committee would probe deaths that Thaksin's government said were largely the result of drug dealers killing each other but which rights groups said were extrajudicial police killings.

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 support in the countryside.

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

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

REUTERS PD HT1800