1ST EXECUTIONS IN 5 YEARS SPARK SCANT OUTCRY ON DRUG-RIVEN ISLAND

PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD -- Trinidad hanged three convicted murderers Friday,
ending a five-year hiatus in using the death penalty and possibly leading
the way for dozens of other executions in the Caribbean.

Reputed drug lord Dole Chadee "gave no trouble and went to the gallows" at
dawn, Prisons Commissioner Cipriani Baptiste said. Joey Ramiah and
Ramkhalawan Singh followed; three more are to hang Saturday and three others
on Monday.

Chadee and his "gang of eight" were convicted of killing Hamilton Baboolal
and three family members in a 1994 drug dispute.

Port-of-Spain's Roman Catholic churches tolled death knells to protest the
executions. But only one protester stood vigil outside the Port-of-Spain
Prison--a testimony to the popularity of the death penalty in a region riven
with drug trafficking.

English-speaking Caribbean nations, with a population of 5 million, have
about 250 people on Death Row--more than 100 in Trinidad alone. The total is
one of the highest death sentence rates in the world, Amnesty International
has said.

After years without executions in the region, the Bahamas hanged two men
last year and St. Kitts and Nevis hanged one man. Throughout the Caribbean,
there is a growing clamor for capital punishment to deter violent crime
associated with drug-smuggling.