CHINA KILLS 1,781 IN 'EXECUTION FRENZY' - AMNESTY

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has executed at least 1,781 people since it
launched a nationwide campaign against crime in April, the human rights
group Amnesty International said in a statement on Friday.

Those executed were among at least 2,960 people condemned in the "Strike
Hard" campaign, which started as a drive against organized crime but has
expanded to target crimes ranging from embezzlement to pimping and ethnic
separatist activity, it said.

"The campaign is nothing short of an execution frenzy -- a huge waste of
human life," the London-based group said.

Many of the condemned prisoners were brought to public sentencing rallies
in front of huge crowds or paraded through the streets on the way to the
firing squad, it said.

The tally, based on state media reports, "is only the barest minimum figure
because we know that cases are only selectively reported and what national
statistics there are a still a state secret," said Catherine Baber of
Amnesty's Hong Kong office.

Information on executions tends to be especially hard to obtain in regions
such as Buddhist Tibet and Muslim Xinjiang, minority areas where Chinese
policies come under intense international scrutiny, rights activists say.

Amnesty, a leading opponent of capital punishment, said police and
prosecutors were given orders to achieve "quick approval, quick arrest,
quick trial and quick results" and lawyers were told to work with the
police and prosecution.

"Curtailed procedures plus great pressure on police and judicial
authorities mean that the potential for miscarriages of justice, arbitrary
sentencing and the execution of innocent people is immense," it said.

WORLD'S LEADING EXECUTIONER

Provincial official media have reported almost daily batches of executions
since the drive began with a campaign against organized crime late last
year and accelerated in April, claiming convicted killers, robbers and
corrupt officials.

There was a huge spike of executions of drug traffickers for International
Anti-Drugs Day on June 26, accounting for most of the death sentences and
executions in June, Baber said.

The "Strike Hard" campaign, which began in April and will run for two
years, has seen the death penalty used to punish ethnic separatism and
"illegal religious activities" in the predominantly Muslim region of
Xinjiang, Amnesty said.

It said China was by far the planet's busiest executioner in 1999 with an
official tally of 1,263 people put to death -- more than the rest of the
world combined. But the group said that was only a fraction of the actual
total.

Diplomats said the torrid pace of executions put the 2001 tally on track to
match the 4,367 people executed under the previous nationwide Strike Hard
campaign, in 1996.

China insists it is not ready to do away with capital punishment and
rejects outside pressure to stop executing criminals.

Calls within China for the abolition of capital punishment are rare among a
public concerned about increasing crime spawned by widening income
disparities with two decades of market economic reforms putting millions
out of work.