DOZENS SHOT TO MARK UN'S ANTI-DRUG DAY OLYMPIC BID 'CLEAN-UP'

BEIJING - While other countries marked the United Nations' International
Anti-Drugs Day yesterday by burning hauls of contraband or issuing stern
warnings to addicts, China continued its record-setting pace of executions,
putting to death 62 people.

Some of the executions took place before thousands of onlookers in public
stadiums, accompanied by pyrotechnics as tons of seized drugs were sent up
in flames.

A Beijing-based diplomat who has compiled statistics on executions from
official press reports estimates more than 1,100 people have been put to
death so far in the campaign.

Yesterday's tally included 20 alleged drug traffickers sentenced to death
during a rally in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan.

Using remote-control detonators, government officials ignited two tonnes of
confiscated heroin placed in large metal pans and doused with gasoline.
State television carried the spectacle live on its noon news broadcast.

The executions were carried out immediately afterward at a separate location.

"I think the trial is impressive," said Ren Hang, a 17-year-old student who
took part in an organized class trip to a public trial in Shanghai. "The
most effective way to crack down on drugs is massive education campaigns,
like public trials, so people know to stay away from drugs."

The latest mass executions come amid the Strike Hard campaign, a
countrywide anti-crime crackdown. Some observers suggest it is part of a
general clean-up as Beijing goes all out in its bid to win the 2008 Olympics.

In addition:

- - Eight people were executed on the southern island of Hainan soon after
they were condemned to death for drug trafficking.

- - Three men were sentenced to death in a sports stadium just outside
Shanghai, in front of a 500-member audience. They were immediately led to
an execution ground.

- - Two drug traffickers in Shenyang, northeast China, met a similar fate
after their sentences had been announced.

After local media carried reports of the executions, the UN said a treaty
Beijing ratified to suppress drug trafficking does not provide for the
death penalty.

Beijing defends the executions. By staging the trials at mass rallies, the
authorities hope to maximize the educational value of such events.

At a recent execution in Nanning, near the border with Vietnam, the
audience included young policemen, doctors, medical students and 610
12-year-old schoolchildren with red Young Pioneer scarves neatly tied round
their necks.

While many young people at the event supported capital punishment, a
middle-aged storekeeper who watched the trucks carrying the condemned to
the execution ground was not so sure.

"I was sent to one of these events when I was a teenager," a woman
identified only as Mrs. Lei told The Daily Telegraph. "It's a scary thing
to see -- those men are going to die in a short time."

China has detained 15,000 suspected drug dealers and seized 1.9 tonnes of
heroin, one tonne of opium, and 1.8 tonnes of "ice," in the first five
months of the year, state media reported.

The number of registered drug addicts in China has risen from 681,000 in
1999 to 860,000 in 2000.

China executes more people than the rest of the world combined, but does
not publish detailed statistics about its executions, as the data are
considered a state secret.

In Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok, Thaksin Shinawatra, the Thai Prime
Minister, presided over the country's biggest drug-burning ceremony to date
yesterday, in which 4.3 tonnes of narcotics were torched as part of its war
on drugs.

Thailand has also started staging weekly public executions of those
convicted of drug offences.