71 EXECUTED IN CHINA ON ANTI-DRUG DAY

BEIJING (AP) -- Firing squads put at least 71 people to death for drug
trafficking Friday in China's annual barrage of executions to mark U.N.
anti-drug day, state media reported.

In all, at least 98 people have been executed or sentenced to death
nationwide in recent days ahead of today's International Day Against Drug
Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, according to state media reports.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights opposes the death penalty and
has called for an end to executions worldwide.

Twenty-eight traffickers were executed Friday in the southern provincial
capital of Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, after their sentences were announced
at public rallies attended by nearly 7,000 people, the state-run Xinhua News
Agency said.

They included Qu Yongcai, who manufactured 2,085 pounds of the amphetamine
"ice." Four others, Chen Shoubo, Dai Tianshi, Chen Guangtong and Chen
Mingfa, were executed for selling 14 pounds of heroin, Xinhua said.

It did not name the others who were executed or give details.

Courts in northern Shaanxi province also executed 12 people Friday for
selling and transporting drugs, Xinhua said. Another 14 traffickers were
executed in southeastern Fujian province, Xinhua reported.

Shanghai, meanwhile, put to death nine traffickers and destroyed about 660
pounds of drugs seized last year.

Eight people also were executed by gunshot Friday for selling, transporting
or manufacturing drugs in southern Hunan province, Xinhua said.