No policy pushed by Thaksin Shina-watra, the Thai prime minister toppled in a coup in 2006, provoked as much controversy-or won as many votes-as a bloody 2003 campaign against illegal drugs. Faced with soaring methamphet-amine abuse, Mr Thaksin ordered the police to draw up blacklists of suspected traffickers and "to act decisively and without mercy". The result was a shooting spree in which over 2,500 people died in three months. The police blamed gang violence; human-rights groups accused the government of condoning extra-judicial killings by the security forces.
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