52 EXECUTED IN CHINA FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING, MURDER

BEIJING, June 24: Amid a nationwide crackdown on illicit drugs,
authorities in several Chinese cities have executed 52 people for drug
trafficking, murder and other serious crimes, state-run media reported
Saturday, reports AP. Seven people were executed in Beijing on Thursday
and Friday following an order by the Supreme People's Court upholding
their convictions for trafficking in heroin, the Beijing Daily and
other newspapers reported.The executions were announced by Wang Ming,
vice-president of the court, who said the severe penalties were
consistent with international standards for such crimes.Wang said that
between January 1999 and May 2000 police had arrested more than 6,000
people for suspected drug offences.

Of that number, 945 were given jail sentences or the death penalty,
the report quoted him as saying.The reports did not give the method of
execution, which in China is usually by gunshot.

State-run newspapers carried numerous reports of drug seizures,
arrests and executions.In Chengdu, in the south-western province of
Sichuan, 11 people were executed by gunshots Friday following an
anti-drug rally, the Legal Daily reported.

The newspaper said another eight people were executed for drug
offences in Urumqi, the capital of the north-western region of
Xinjiang, which is along a major drug trafficking corridor.In Guiyang,
in southern Guizhou province, nine people were executed, also by
gunshots, for trafficking in heroin, the Legal Daily said.In the
southern city of Guangzhou, three people were executed by gunshot
Friday for drug trafficking, the local newspaper Yangcheng Evening
News reported.

They were among a seven-person gang caught trying to smuggle overseas
heroin produced at underground factories in Guangdong, it said.