Prisoners paraded on Chinese TV before execution
By China correspondent Stephen McDonnell Australian Broadcasting Commission.
Four South-East Asian men have been paraded on live television in China before being put to death for murder.
All four men were pictured tied and chained at the ankles, before being taken away to be executed by lethal injection in the south-western Chinese city of Kunming.
One of the men, Burmese drug boss Naw Kham, was interviewed on China Central Television as one of his final acts, expressing sorrow for his crimes.
The four men, along with two other accused, admitted intentional homicide, drug trafficking, kidnapping and hijacking at their trial last year, state news agency Xinhua said, over a raid on two Chinese riverboats in the Mekong River in October 2011.
Xinhua described Naw Kham as "the boss of the largest armed drug trafficking gang" on the Mekong, which flows through China, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The 2011 incident sparked outrage in China, where photographs of the gagged and blindfolded victims circulated online, and the progress of the case has been given prominent coverage in state media.
In the live broadcast Kham, 43, smiled slightly before grimacing as a restraining rope was tied around him in the prison in Kunming, in the southern province of Yunnan.
He then emerged into bright sunlight and a bank of television cameras, before being put into a van and driven away.
CCTV then cut to interviews with police officials outside the prison before returning to a studio discussion on the case.
Before the conclusion of the program, which ran for almost two hours, a statement on the Yunnan provincial security bureau's website said all four had been executed by lethal injection.
Interviewed by CCTV earlier this week, Kham said: "I miss my mother... I hope my children will not follow my example. I wish them a good future and hope they will study hard."
Shown a picture of the families of the dead, he said: "I have sent money to the relatives of the victims. Their pains are just like mine, I have children, I want to be with them when I get old."
Prominent human rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan said the broadcast violated China's criminal procedure law.
"This provision says that criminals facing the death penalty cannot be put on public display," he said.
Mr Liu added the broadcast also violated a law by the Supreme People's Court that a "person's dignity should never be insulted".
Chinese television used to show such scenes regularly but largely stopped almost two decades ago, though they still crop up occasionally on provincial channels.
ABC/wires
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, law-crime-and-justice, drug-offences, china
Comments
Such is life among serious traffickers
While in a one bedroom flat in Brisbane slime bags like Manktelow and Durham fantasize that they are in the same business when they haven't got the smarts to find an address let alone a budget. They have to steal off pensioners....big time!
Always got their mind on the next taste. What a future? One can only laugh at the source of this innane plot and wonder what sad little village in remote southern China they belong in to receive their lethal injection.
The Chinese have a sense of the sublime and I feel certain they would have been dispatched by a 'shot' to the back of the neck. 'Human Rights' only apply to humans not the living dead.
Perhaps herein lies their fascination with cheap tv and movie shows about vampires. They need to have something to look down on even if it is a concoction from some b-grade writer in Beverley Hillls. No True Grit, no True Blood, just a groovy name for a wine cooler.
All a 'Matter of Form'
The movement of contraband, largely drugs, from the north of Myanmar to the south of China puts wealth within the grasp of police, army, officialdom and judiciary who are prepared to facillitate a well controlled trade with as few waves as possible.
When Naw Kham's pirate cohorts slaughtered the Chinese crew and took their transport vessel on the Mekong River he made serious waves. Such inciscretions should only be contemplated when you can either produce the support of a General from the PLA or at least ensure the trial takes place in a Thai Court. At 43 going on 44 he did well for a Shan peasant despite a hint of carelessness.
Perhaps the arrangements for cross border trade of contraband is a matter for the Military and Public Officials from the two countries involved and those they provide protection. The insurgent armies who used to rely on cross border trade to fund their military budget have signed Cease-Fire Agreements with the Burmese Government so these days Peoples Militias set up by the Burmese Army have stepped in to fill the gap.
'Background: Life of Naw Kham' from PRC State Media
Naw Kham was the leader of a large-scale armed drug trafficking group. Naw Kham was born on November 8, 1969. The ethnic Shan is originally from Lashio in Myanmar. He speaks the Myanmar and Thai languages. He is called a godfather.
Xian Yanming, VP of Yunnan PSD, Vice Director of Special Working Group, said, "Naw Kham used to be a subordinate of the Khun Sa armed force, a local ethnic armed force in Myanmar. In 1996 when the Khun Sa force surrendered to the Myanmar government, Naw Kham gradually took over the remaining forces, and stationed in the Mekong River Delta area. There, he commited crimes including kidnapping, killing, robbery, drug producing, and racketeerring."
After Naw Kham took over the remaining Khun Sa forces, he also connected himself with local ethnic armed forces. There were more than 100 members in his group, divided into many small armed groups, each of 15 to 30 members. They were equiped with weapons, such as AK submachine guns, pistols, machine guns, and grenades. His force stationed on the banks of the gold triangle area. There were many attempts to bring him down.
Hu Zujun, Narcotics Control Bureau, Yunnan Provincial Public Security Department, said, "The guy was equiped with very modern weapons, exceeding what we had expected. Over the years, Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand have carried out crackdowns on him, but all failed, and he was not even hurt a little bit. He has his ways. As we know, he is cunning."
Through coercion and bribery to local police, he gradually expanded his forces and scope of activities, mainly on the banks of the Mekong River near Mengxi Island. Chinese boats were often the targets.
Xian Yanming said, "Evidence shows that since 2008, 28 crimes were commited by his group against Chinese vessels and staff. 16 people were killed and 3 injured. Besides the killings last October, in 2008, the group intercepted and shot a motor boat from a public security bureau in Yunnan Province, that was carrying out a mission of international cooperation. In that case, 3 policemen were killed and one staff injured."
The Yunnan Provincial Public Security Department immediately began an investigation. It traced back the route of the vessel that was attacked, coming to the conclusion that it was carried out by the Naw Kham group with some lawless Thai policemen. The Naw Kham group posed great hazards to the security along the Mekong River.
Editor:Wang Xiaomei |Source: CCTV.com
(The two parts in bold italics indicate a touch of sloppiness in the reporting. When Khun Sa surrendered many of his troops did not. At its peak the Mong Tai Army(MTA) fielded over 20,000 troops whereas Naw Kham commanded a force of "over a hundred", some thousands short of the MTA as a whole) Sayarsan