CHINA DEFENDS DEATH PENALTY FOR TRAFFICKERS

BEJING (AP) -- A top Chinese anti-drug official on Wednesday defended his
country's frequent use of the death penalty against drug traffickers amid
stepped-up efforts to control growing narcotics use.

The comments by an official of the National Narcotics Control Commission
follow appeals by human rights groups for China, which executes hundreds of
traffickers a year, to abandon the death penalty.

China had more than one million users of illegal drugs last year, up five
per cent from 2002, said Yang Fengrui, the commission's deputy secretary
general.

The government hopes to rehabilitate drug users so they can "return to
society" but has no qualms about "severe punishment" for criminals, Yang
said at a news conference.

"The Chinese masses applaud giving the death penalty to drug traffickers,"
he said. "Drug trafficking has severe social consequences. It's equal to
killing people."

Yang said he had no exact figures on the numbers of drug traffickers
executed each year.

Amnesty appealed to China last month to abandon the death penalty for drug
cases. It said there was no evidence that death was a more effective
deterrent than other punishments.

China accounted for more than two-thirds of the world's reported executions
last year, putting to death at least 726 people, according to the human
rights group Amnesty International. It wasn't clear how many of those were
drug cases.

Last month, Chinese authorities executed at least 28 people on drug charges
to mark International Anti-Drug Day.

Among China's drug users, 60 per cent are laid-off workers and farmers who
have lost their land, Yang said.

Unemployment is rising in China as the government forces state industries
to become profitable.

About 85 per cent of China's drug users are men, Yang said.