วันอังคารที่ 6 พฤศจิกายน พ.ศ. 2550

Summary Executions

http://www.pantip.com/cafe/rajdumnern/topic/P5994078/P5994078.html
**********เล่าด้วยภาพ 6-11-50 ตัดคอกลางกรุงรัตนโกสินทร์ ให้สาเเก่โทษที่ฉีกรัฐธรรมนูญของประชาชน***********
ขอออกตัวก่อนนะครับ ว่าคนที่ไม่เห็นด้วยกับผู้ชุมนุมครั้ง
นี้ ถ้าจะมาเสียดสีประชดประชัน เอามันส์เอาสนุกกับการ
นั่งกระเเทกคีย์บอร์ดหน้าจอ ไม่ออกความเห็นก็ไม่มีใครว่า
นะครับ หลายกระทู้ที่ผมตั้งไป คุณบอกผมว่าถ้าไม่เปิด
กว้างในทางความคิด ให้ผมไปศึกษาประชาธิปไตยใหม่

ผมไม่มีคำตอบให้นะครับ เเค่อยากจะบอกว่า

"ถ้าสนับสนุนระบอบเผด็จการทหารอย่างที่เป็นอยู่ อย่ามาบอกใครว่าประชาธิปไตยคืออะไรเลย"

เพราะผมคือคนที่ไปด้วยอุดมการณ์ไม่ได้รับจ้างใคร ไม่
ยากจน ไม่ร่ำรวยอะไร ไม่ได้มาทำเเค่นั่งเเขวะคนอื่นใน
จอ หรือเป็นนักเลงหน้าแป้นคีย์บอร์ด?

ผมโพสให้คนที่อยากเห็นและไม่มีโอกาสได้มาดูด้วยตาตัว
เอง ก็เท่านั้นเเหล่ะ


****ผู้ดูเเลผมสกรีนใบหน้าบุคคลกับคำพูดเเละข้อความล่อเเลมในภาพให้เเล้ว
กรุณาอย่าลบเลยนะครับ****

แก้ไขเมื่อ 07 พ.ย. 50 01:47:47


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:39:30 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 1

ผมขอเบลอหน้านักโทษนายนี้สักนิดนะครับ เพราะปาเป้าภาพล้อยังโดนกัน

ผมละกลัวใจผู้กล้าพวกนี้จริงๆ เฮ้อ....... พี่บังเอ้ย


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:41:18 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 2

ได้รับการดูเเลจาก ตร.สน.ดุสิตตามเคยครับ


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:42:01 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 3

วิทยุนปก.ก็มารายงานตามปกติครับ


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:42:51 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 4

เจตนาอยู่บนเสื้อเเล้วครับ ไม่ต้องอธิบายมาก


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:43:23 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 5

ในความจริงเเล้ว มือของคนที่ฉีกรัฐธรรมนูญของประชาชน ไม่คู่ควรกับดอก

บัวเสียด้วยซ้ำไป


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:44:26 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 6

หลงระเริงว่าตนมีเเต่คนรักคนชอบ ยิ้มเเห้งๆพูดอยู่ได้ทุกวี่ทุกวัน

"สำคัญตนผิดไปแล้ว......"


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:45:28 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 7

นั่งรอคำพิพากษา อย่างสงบ
แก้ไขเมื่อ 07 พ.ย. 50 02:14:19


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:46:04 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 8

ใต้ธงไตรงค์ผืนนี้ทุกคนมีสิทธิเท่าเทียมกัน


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:46:35 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 9

ร้องเพลงปลุกใจกันไป การชุมนุมเเบบนี้น่ากลัวตรงไหน?

อัยการศึกเลยต้องคงไว้....


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:48:42 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 10

23 ธันวา ปากกาจะไล่ปืน..!!


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:49:12 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 11

คุณชินวัตร แหมโลโก้เวปบนปกเสื้อสวยทีเดียวครับ อิอิ


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:50:09 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 12

ลงดาบรอ เพราะโทษครั้งนี้หนักหนายิ่งนัก


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:50:37 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 13

ลงยันต์โดย อาจารย์พ้อกเกตคนวันเสาร์


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:51:10 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 14

แถลงการโดยกลุ่มสตรีเพื่อประชาธิปไตย


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:51:41 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 15

ในความเป็นจริงตรวนนี้ไม่เคยมัดพวกท่านได้เลย มีเเต่ล่ามประชาชนไว้

กดหัวไว้ เพื่แประโยชน์ของตนเองเเละพวกพ้วง


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:52:37 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 16

อ่านคำพิพากษา ซึ่งพอถามจำเลยเเล้วเงียบเลยอนุมานเอาว่าคงยอมรับเเล้ว


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:53:30 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 17

ความรู้สึกในใจ


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:53:56 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 18

เริ่มต้นเดินทางไปลานประหารที่ซึ่งผู้ทรงเกียรติทั้งหลายทำงานอยู่


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:54:39 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 19

ม้าศึกนำทาง ดูดีไม่ใช่น้อย


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:55:09 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 20

ขึงขังดีครับ เพชฆาต
แก้ไขเมื่อ 07 พ.ย. 50 02:15:40


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:55:40 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 21

นี่คุณสมยศเเกนนำกลุ่ม 24 มิถุนา เพื่อประชาธิปไตย

ท่าเดิน เหมือน พี่หลิวยังไงไม่รู้
แก้ไขเมื่อ 07 พ.ย. 50 02:15:58


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:56:41 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 22

พานายเก่าผ่านหน้าบ้าน


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:57:11 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 23

สังเกตุเห็นคำว่า เพื่อประชาชนที่ป้ายมั้ยครับ

ตัวใหญ่พอสมควรนะ เเต่พี่เค้าดันมองไม่เห็น

มองไม่เห็นไม่พอ มองข้ามหัวประชาชนซะด้วย
แก้ไขเมื่อ 07 พ.ย. 50 02:16:32


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:58:19 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 24

เดินกันเที่ยงวันเลยครับ เเต่ก็ไม่ย่อท้อต่อเเดดที่เเผดเผา

หลัง 19 กย.เราทรมาณมามากกว่านี้เยอะ


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 01:59:25 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 26

อดสูครับที่ได้เห็นรถคันโตเหล่านั้น


เอาลุงนวมทองคืนมาได้มั้ย.......

วันที่รถของลุงไปสร้างรอยถลอกเล็กน้อยที่รถนั่น ลุงได้สร้างเเผลเป็นให้

คนที่รักประชาธิปไตยได้ระลึกถึงอยู่เสมอที่ได้เห็น

จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 02:01:18 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 27

สวัสดีครับจมื่น เข้ากะดึกประจำเลยนะครับ อิอิ


ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตยอีก 1 ต้น


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 02:02:16 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 28

เรามีเเต่จะมุ่งหน้าต่อสู้กันไป เคียงบ่าเคียงไหล่กันไป


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 02:02:54 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 29

แสดงให้เห็นว่าเราไม่เคยยอมเเพ้


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 02:03:21 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 30

จะเชือดเเล้วครับ


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 02:03:45 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 31

ความจริงต้องเอาใบตองมารองไม่ให้เลือดนี้หลั่งลงผืนเเผ่นดิน


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 02:04:33 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 32

ขาดกระเด็น..


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 02:05:01 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 33

เสียบประจานไว้ครับให้ได้รู้ว่าคนเเบบนี้ควรเจออะไร


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 02:05:52 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 34

ประชาชนคงรักคุณมาก


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 02:06:22 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 35

TITV ถ่ายเเต่ไม่เเน่ใจว่ามีข่าวมั้ย

เเต่มีนักข่าวช่องนึง ช่องกลางสิบ โดนคนโห่ไล่

ถ่ายเเล้วไม่ออกถ่ายไปทำไม ผมได้เเต่ยกมือห้ามด้วยความสงสาร

เเต่ปากขยับว่า "เอาเลยๆ" พร้อมกระพริบตา 1 ข้าง


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 02:08:45 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 36

ทีมงานครับ


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 02:09:11 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 38

ภาพสุดท้ายดูน่าหวาดเสียวครับ มุมของคุณ mr.wake สะกิดมาให้ถ่าย

ถึงเป็นของปลอมผมว่าน่ากลัวครับ ไม่รู้เจ้าตัวจะรู้สึกอย่างไร?

ภาพทั้งหมดติดตามได้ที่ http://www.thaifreenews.com/ สมัครสมาชิ

กเเล้วดูได้ที่เวปบอร์ดเลยครับ เพราะไม่แน่ใจว่าจะผ่านการเซนเซอร์มาก

น้อยเท่าใด


ขอบคุณที่เข้ามาดูครับ ผมเชื่อว่าคนที่เข้ามาคงรักประชาธิปไตยที่เป็นของ

ประชาชนโดยเเท้จริงทุกท่าน ขอบคุณหัวใจเเห่งอุดมการณ์ประชาธิปไตย

ทุกที่ครับ


จากคุณ : ต้นกล้าประชาธิปไตย - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 02:13:21 A:124.120.118.123 X: ]


ความคิดเห็นที่ 41
23 ธันวาคม 2550 นำปากกาไปด้วยกันนะครับ
ไม่ใช่เลือก m 16 นะครับ ไปไล่
แก้ไขเมื่อ 07 พ.ย. 50 02:26:27


จากคุณ : หนุ่มใหญ่ปะแป้ง - [ 7 พ.ย. 50 02:21:40 A:58.8.99.156 X: ]



Chinese Approaches to Executions
http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/prisons/countries_different_approaches.htm
This page last updated Monday, 09 July 2007

Countries Take Different Approaches to Executions
Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty.
- Henry Ford


Executions by the hundreds: Officers take a female convict to the executioner immediately after a sentencing rally in Beijing in April

by Martin Fackler


Beijing - The 10 convicted drug traffickers were marched one by one into the stadium, wrists and ankles in shackles. Under a bright August sun, armed guards lined them up, heads bowed, in front of 3,000 onlookers.


A city official read the sentence: death.


The 10 listened expressionless, though one managed a grin when a reporter pointed a camera. Then the guards marched them out of the stadium and onto a pair of trucks. Wailing relatives ran after the trucks, which sped off to an execution ground on the city's outskirts. The executions were not public, but China usually puts people to death by pistol shot to the chest or back of the head. Such rallies are common in China, though this one in August 1996 in the southern city of Shenzhen was unusual because a foreign reporter, from The Associated Press, witnessed it.


China was one of 28 nations that executed people last year as punishment for crime, according to Amnesty International. The human rights group, which opposes the death penalty, says four countries have given it up since 1991. Methods vary, from hanging and firing squad to beheading by sword in Saudi Arabia.


Amnesty counted 1,457 executions last year, but says the real number is likely much higher. It says at least 1,000 were executed in China. The United States executed 85 people last year, 80 by lethal injection. This year's count will include Timothy McVeigh, scheduled to die Monday by injection for bombing a federal building in Oklahoma in 1995, killing 168 people. Four other countries use lethal injection: Guatemala, the Philippines, Taiwan and China, which began experimenting with injections in 1997.


Guatemala broadcast the execution of Amilcar Cetino Perez and Tomas Cerrate Hernandez on live television last June. The pair were sentenced to death for the 1997 kidnapping and murder of an elderly heir to a liquor distillery fortune. The television showed Cetino's hand quivering and then falling still. Execution is also a public spectacle in Saudi Arabia, where strict Islamic law mandates the death penalty for murder, rape, drug trafficking, sodomy and armed robbery.
On 24 April 2000, Himat Saeed Haroon, a Sudanese convicted of ax-murdering another man in his sleep, was led handcuffed and barefoot into a public square before the main mosque in the capital, Riyadh. His eyes were covered with cotton pads and his head wrapped with black cloth. Sedated, Haroon was made to kneel on a blue plastic sheet on the asphalt. An Interior Ministry official read his name and crime to a gathering crowd. A soldier handed a long, curved sword to the executioner. He jabbed the tip into Haroon's back, forcing reflexes to raise the neck. A single swing severed the head. Later, out of respect for the dead, the head was sown back onto the body for burial.


Amnesty International says Saudi Arabia carried out at least 123 executions last year, making it second only to China - which has almost 100 times more people. Most were beheaded. Bodies of those convicted of particularly gruesome crimes are crucified following decapitation, Amnesty says.


Iran executed 75 people last year, by firing squads inside prisons or in public by hanging the condemned from a construction crane. The hangings draw large crowds, including friends and relatives of the condemned and the victim. Sometimes the crowds call out for mercy or justice. Iran's version of Islamic law gives the family of a murder victim the right to demand death, or grant mercy in the form of a prison term. In one famous case at the beginning of last year, 17-year-old Morteza Amini Moqaddam, hands cuffed, tears streaking his face, was already in the noose and seconds from death when the victim's father told authorities to call it off. He had been moved by pleas from the boy's family and many of the 4,000 onlookers.


Afghanistan takes capital punishment a step further, allowing the victim's father or brother to machine-gun the condemned person in a sports stadium. Afghan women convicted of adultery are stoned to death. Men found guilty of sodomy are crushed under a wall that is made to collapse. Scholars say these punishments reflect ancient tribal traditions rather than Islamic law.
In Congo, death comes by firing squad. Last year, as many as 100 civilians may have been executed by a special military court originally set up to try soldiers, Amnesty International says. Those convicted by the court can ask Congo's president for clemency. But people have been executed within 30 minutes of being sentenced, Amnesty says.


Most African countries have abolished the death penalty in recent years on humanitarian grounds. An exception is Botswana, which hanged a South African woman on 31 March. Mariette Bosch, 49, was convicted of murdering her best friend out of love for the friend's husband, whom she married 14 months after the June 1996 slaying. Public fears that she would escape the death penalty because she was white heightened pressure on the nation's president to go ahead with the execution.


Japan wraps its gallows in extreme secrecy, refusing to reveal execution dates - even to families of the condemned - until after sentences are carried out. Japan hanged three people last year, all convicted murderers who died on the same November morning after years on death row.
Russia has not carried out an execution since 1996. Two years ago, then President Boris Yeltsin granted clemency to all 716 inmates on death row.


France mothballed the guillotine when it abolished the death penalty in 1981.
Source: Associated Press 8 June 2001; photo credit Agence France-Presse from USA Today Wednesday 20 June 2001



Chinese Death Vans
by Geoff Manaugh

Mobile execution chambers are now on the road in China. As a replacement for the firing squad, this is nomadic power, bringing the state - and lethal injections - to your doorstep.

"Makers of death vans," USA Today reports, "say they save money for poor localities that would otherwise have to pay to construct execution facilities in prisons or court buildings. The vans ensure that prisoners sentenced to death can be executed locally, closer to communities where they broke the law." It's the infrastructure of punishment detached from the limitations of geography.

On the other hand, "China's critics contend that the transition from firing squads to injections in death vans facilitates an illegal trade in prisoners' organs. Injections leave the whole body intact and require participation of doctors. Organs can 'be extracted in a speedier and more effective way than if the prisoner is shot,' says Mark Allison, East Asia researcher at Amnesty International in Hong Kong. 'We have gathered strong evidence suggesting the involvement of (Chinese) police, courts and hospitals in the organ trade.'"

To guarantee that each execution is "carried out legally," they are all "recorded on video and audio that is played live to local law enforcement authorities" - state-induced death as a form of avant-garde cinema.

As USA Today continues, punishment by death is not uncommon: "Sixty-eight different crimes - more than half non-violent offenses such as tax evasion and drug smuggling - are punishable by death in China. That means the death vans are likely to keep rolling."
Perhaps leading to someone's future Phd: Urban Design and the Death Sentence. Or a TV show: "Pimp My Death Van".

Source: bldgblog.blogspot.com 20 June 2006

Van Specifications

Cost: $37,500 - $75,000 depending on vehicle sizeLength: 20 - 26 feetTop speed: 65 - 80 mph (one wonders why the top speed matters...)Sections:

Execution chamber: in the back, with blacked-out windows; seats beside the stretcher for a court doctor and guards; steriliser for injection equipment; wash basin

Observation area: in the middle, with a glass window separating it from execution area; can accommodate six people; official-in-charge oversees the execution through monitors connected to the prisoner and gives instruction via walkie-talkie

Driver area

Production to date: at least 40 vehicles, made by Jinguan and two other companies in Jiangsu and Shandong provinces

Source: usatoday.com 14 June 2006

Based on Amnesty International figures and population data, the per capita execution rate in China is about 7 times more than that of the US. Also, it may be that China is under-reporting, if anything. Amnesty lists the top 4 countries in terms of total executions as: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, US. But if you compute capita, it's: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran and China (the US drops to 7th place).


Beauty Products from the Skin of Executed Chinese Prisoners
by Ian Cobain and Adam Luck

A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe. Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is "traditional" and nothing to "make such a big fuss about". With European regulations to control cosmetic treatments such as collagen not expected for several years, doctors and politicians say the discovery highlights the dangers faced by the increasing number of Britons seeking to improve their looks. Apart from the ethical concerns, there is also the potential risk of infection.

MPs on the Commons select health committee are to examine the regulatory system and may launch an investigation and question ministers about the need for immediate new controls. "I am sure that the committee will want to look at this," said Kevin Barron, its Labour chairman. "This is something everyone in society will be very concerned about." Plastic surgeons are also concerned about the delay in introducing regulations to control the cosmetic treatments industry. Norman Waterhouse, a former president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, said: "I am surprised that we are taking the lead from the European commission, because this is bound to delay action on this important area which is increasingly a matter for concern. It seems like a bit of a cop out to me."

It is unclear whether any of the "æsthetic fillers" such as collagen available in the UK or on the internet are supplied by the company, which cannot be identified for legal reasons. It is also unclear whether collagen made from prisoners' skin is in the research stage or is in production. However, the company has exported collagen products to the UK in the past. An agent told customers it had also exported to the US and European countries, and that it was trying to develop fillers using tissue from aborted fœtuses. When formally approached, the agent denied the company was using skin harvested from executed prisoners. However, he had already admitted it was doing precisely this during a number of conversations with a researcher posing as a Hong Kong businessman. (The Press Complaints Commission's code of practice permits subterfuge if there is no other means of investigating a matter of public interest.) The agent told the researcher: "A lot of the research is still carried out in the traditional manner using skin from the executed prisoner and aborted fœtus." This material, he said, was being bought from biotech companies based in the northern province of Heilongjiang, and was being developed elsewhere in China. He suggested that the use of skin and other tissues harvested from executed prisoners was not uncommon. "In China it is considered very normal and I was very shocked that western countries can make such a big fuss about this," he said. Speaking from his office in northern China, he added: "The government has put some pressure on all the medical facilities to keep this type of work in low profile." The agent said his company exported to the west via Hong Kong. "We are still in the early days of selling these products, and clients from abroad are quite surprised that China can manufacture the same human collagen for less than 5% of what it costs in the west." Skin from prisoners used to be even less expensive, he said. "Nowadays there is a certain fee that has to be paid to the court."

The agent's admission comes after an inquiry into the cosmetic surgery industry in Britain, commissioned by the Department of Health, pointed to the need for new regulations controlling collagen treatments. Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, has highlighted the inquiry's concerns about the use of cadavers for cosmetic treatments. "Cosmetic procedures are a rapidly growing area of private health care," he said. "We must ensure we properly protect patients' safety by improving the training and regulation." The Department of Health has agreed to the inquiry's recommendations, but is waiting for the European commission to draw up proposals for laws governing cosmetic products. It could be several years before this legislation takes force. Meanwhile, cosmetic treatments, including those with with æsthetic fillers, are growing rapidly in popularity, with around 150,000 injections or implants administered each year in the UK. Lip enhancement treatments are one of the most popular, costing an average of £170.

Some fillers are made from cattle or pig tissue, and others from humans. The Department of Health believes that there may be a risk of transmission of blood-borne viruses and even vCJD from collagen containing human tissue. Although there is as yet no evidence that this has happened, the inquiry found that some collagen injections had triggered inflammatory reactions causing permanent discomfort, scarring and disfigurement. In their report, the inquiry team said that if there was a risk, "action should be taken to protect patient safety through regulation". While new regulations are to be drawn up, the department is currently powerless to regulate most human-tissue fillers intended for injection or implant, as they occupy a legal grey area. Most products are not governed by regulations controlling medical products, as they are not classified as medicines. They also escape cosmetics regulations, which only apply to substances used on the surface of the skin and not those injected beneath it. The Healthcare Commission is planning new regulations for cosmetic surgery clinics next year, but these will not control the substances used by plastic surgeons.

A number of plastic surgeons have said that they have been hearing rumours about the use of tissue harvested from executed prisoners for several years. Peter Butler, a consultant plastic surgeon and government adviser, said there had been rumours that Chinese surgeons had performed hand transplants using hands from executed prisoners. One transplant centre was believed to be adjacent to an execution ground. "I can see the utility of it, as they have access and no ethical objection," he said. "The main concern would be infective risk." Andrew Lee of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who has visited China to examine transplant techniques, said he had heard similar rumours.

Manufacturers of æsthetic fillers said they had seen Chinese collagen products on sale at trade fairs, but had not seen any labelled Chinese-made in the UK. Dan Cohen, whose US-based company, Inamed, produces collagen products, said: "We have come across Chinese products in the market place. But most products from China are being sold 'off-label' or are being imported illegally."

In China, authorities deny that prisoners' body parts are harvested without their consent. However, there is some evidence to suggest it may be happening. In June 2001, Wang Guoqi, a Chinese former military physician, told US congressmen he had worked at execution grounds helping surgeons to harvest the organs of more than 100 executed prisoners, without prior consent. The surgeons used converted vans parked near the execution grounds to begin dissecting the bodies, he told the house international relations committee's human rights panel. Skin was said to be highly valued for the treatment of burn victims, and Dr Wang said that in 1995 he skinned a shot convict's body while the man's heart was still beating. Dr Wang, who was seeking asylum in the US, also alleged that corneas and other body tissue were removed for transplant, and said his hospital, the Tianjin paramilitary police general brigade hospital, sold body parts for profit. Human rights activists in China have repeatedly claimed that organs have been harvested from the corpses of executed prisoners and sold to surgeons offering transplants to fee-paying foreigners. Dr Wang's allegations infuriated the Chinese authorities, and in a rare move officials publicly denounced him as a liar. The government said organs were transplanted from executed prisoners only if they and their family gave consent.

Although the exact number of people facing the death penalty in China is an official secret, Amnesty International believes around 3,400 were executed last year, with a further 6,000 on death row.

What is it?

Collagen is a major structural protein found in abundance in skin, bones, tendons and other connective tissue. Matted sheets of collagen give skin its toughness and by winding into molecular "cables", it adds strength to tendons.

What is it used for?

Collagen injections are used in cosmetic surgery to plump up lips and flatten out wrinkles. After botox, collagen injections are the second-most popular cosmetic operations in Britain. Collagen does not have a permanent effect and several injections are often needed.
What else is it good for?

Collagen was being put to good use as far back as the stone age. Neolithic cave dwellers around the Dead Sea are believed to have used it as a primitive form of glue some 8,000 years ago. More recently, researchers have developed a form that can be poured or injected into wounds to seal them.

Where does it come from?

A number of sources. Some companies extract it from cow skin and treat it to minimise the risk of allergic reactions or infection. Others collect it from human donors or extract cells from the patient before growing the necessary amount in a laboratory.

Is it safe?

Collagen can cause allergic reactions if it has not been treated correctly, and there is a theoretical risk of disease being passed on. A small amount of collagen is often injected into the skin a few weeks before treatment to test for possible allergic reactions. Earlier this year, Sir Liam Donaldson warned that collagen injections could spread conditions such as hepatitis and variant CJD, the human form of mad cow disease.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1568467,00.html 13 September 2005 The Guardian

Chinese Army "Harvesting Body Parts"

China's military is harvesting organs from unwilling live prison inmates, mostly Falungong practitioners, for transplants on a large scale - including to foreign recipients- according to a study. The report authors - Canada's former secretary of state for the Asia Pacific region David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas - implicated dozens of hospitals and jails throughout China in July, after a 2-month investigation. Chinese officials have denied those allegations.

Mr Matas and Mr Kilgour's second report includes interviews with organ recipients in 30 countries and Canadian hospital staff who cared for more than 100 patients who had undergone suspicious transplant surgeries in China. "The involvement of the People's Liberation Army in these transplants is widespread," Mr Kilgour said at a press conference.

Like many civilian hospitals in rural China, military hospitals turned to selling organs to make up for government funding cuts in the 1980s, the report said. But military personnel could operate with much more secrecy, it said. "Recipients often tell us that even when they receive transplants at civilian hospitals, those conducting the operation are military personnel," the report said. Hospitals in Canada's biggest cities - Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto - confirmed "a substantial number" of Canadians had travelled to China for dubious organ transplants, Mr Kilgour said.

"We're in the 3 digits - up over 100 (from Canada each year) - and the trend is accelerating," Mr Matas said.

To curb what they call a "disgusting form of evil", the pair asked pharmaceutical firms to stop selling organ anti-rejection drugs to China. They also asked countries to post travel advisories warning about China's alleged organ harvest, asked states to cease offering follow-up care for patients who had dubious organ transplants in China and asked foreign doctors to cut ties with their Chinese counterparts suspected of such practices. The authors said states should enact legislation to ban citizens from traveling to China for organ transplants from unwilling donors, although they admitted that such cases would be difficult to prosecute.

Source: news.com.au from Agence France-Presse correspondents in Ottawa 1 February 2007
They want "...states to cease offering follow-up care for patients who had dubious organ transplants in China", huh? In other words, sentence these recipients to death? Then maybe their organs could be legally harvested and given to someone else? Think this one through, guys...

For more articles on capital punishment, see also these pages found elsewhere in this section on prisons:

Dying Marv - For US$24 (NZ$56), batteries not included, American children, recommended age 13 and over, can experience the horrors of the death chamber in the role of executioner...

Methods of Capital Punishment - How long is the interval of consciousness after the head is severed? In France, in the days of the guillotine, some of the condemned were asked to blink their eyes if they were still conscious after the knife fell. Reportedly, their heads blinked for up to 30 seconds after decapitation...

As Condemned Await Fate - Most are cooperative. Gary Graham was not. Graham's claims of innocence and an unfair trial became an issue in the presidential campaign of then-Governor George W Bush. Corrections officers, working as an "extraction team," hit him with pepper spray, burning his eyes and lowering his defenses. Less than a minute later, a tiedown team secured him to the gurney. Immobilised, Graham seethed and waited to unleash a diatribe as witnesses filed into the two closet-sized viewing rooms...

Death Penalty and Race - Death penalty statistics shine an ugly spotlight on racial justice in the City of Brotherly Love. Philadelphia's death row of 135 men and women is larger than that of 42 states - 90% of Philadelphia's death row are racial or ethnic minorities. During one recent period in the mid 1990s, 40 of 41 defendants sent to death row by Philadelphia juries (97.6%) were black or Latino...

Executioner's Song - Even the most callow executioner winds up bearing a burden that belongs, originally, to those who order the executions in the first place, namely the residents of death penalty states. That's why we hire him. The victims' rights crowd crows that they would gladly pull the lever themselves, and it's true that every job opening in the capital punishment industry brings on a cascade of applications. But the reality of the job, the weight of a society's outsourced vengeance, blood lust and guilt, breaks men in half...

I would also like to recommend the excellent book Newjack, by Ted Conover, which details what it's like to be a prison guard. Some guards manage to hang on to their humanity but none leave the job without being profoundly affected.

For articles on white collar and petty crimes, injustice, capital punishment, race, executioners, freedom of the press, cheating, private prisons, punishment, retribution, prison labour, appeals, instant justice, electronic tags, lepers and second chances click the "Up" button below to take you to the Table of Contents for this Prisons section.


Summary execution of captured Koreans
http://www.gkn-la.net/master_timeline.htm

1907 Summary execution of captured Korean resistance fighters

1907 Japanese occupation troops frequently engage in terror tactics, executing anyone suspected of being involved with the resistance.

1919 By October 1919, Japanese authorities have arrested 18,000 persons on various charges related to the March 1919 demonstrations.

Executions follow swiftly, as the Japanese authorities seek to regain control and authority.

วันอังคารที่ 30 ตุลาคม พ.ศ. 2550

Executions in Iran

http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2004/september/iran_demos_28904.shtml

THE HATE OF THE PEOPLE REACHING EXPLOSION POINT
By Published Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Stoning of a woman in Iran
In a film of Mahnaz Tamizi

http://www.adpi.net/Edam/index.htm

Tehrans Killing Fields

By: Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, Elio Bonazzi and Alireza Saghafi

FrontPageMagazine.com
January 27, 2005

(This picture, smuggled out of Iran, was taken in 1992 in the town of Arak)
Given Irans incessant foreign policy saber-rattlingincluding its continued development of nuclear weapons, support for Islamist terrorist groups, and facilitation of the terrorism in Iraqits easy to lose sight of the horrifying domestic situation within the Islamic Republic. The mullahs have not only destroyed the lives of countless foreigners through their worldwide export of Islamic terror and extremism; theyve also plunged the Iranian people into a violent, hellish abyss of torture, repression, hopelessness, drug addiction and despair.

Conservative estimates by Iranian opposition movements and various human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, put the number of women stoned to death in Iran since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in the neighborhood of fifty. One can only imagine the cases that have gone undetected -- as many Islamic "punishments" are carried out in small and remote villages.

In a particularly gruesome execution in 1992 in the town of Arak
Women sentenced to death by stoning are buried in the ground up to their necks. Iranian law regulates the size of the stones used by the executioner crowd; stones cannot be big enough to kill the sentenced woman too quickly, as the purpose of this barbaric ritual is to inflict as much pain as possible before death. On the other hand, stones cannot be too small, as each blow must be dramatically painful.

Such rules and regulations are quite ephemeral in the Islamic Republic. In a particularly gruesome execution carried out in 1993 in the city of Arak, a woman was to be stoned to death in front of her husband and two young children. After the stoning began, the woman was able to free herself from the hole in the ground, escaping death. According to Shariah laws, in such cases the woman must be let go, as her death sentence was revoked by divine intervention. Ten minutes after the failed stoning, however, the poor woman was chased down, apprehended and summarily executed anyway, by a firing squad.

While stoning captures the imagination of Westerners as the most barbaric act committed under Shariah laws, other forms of sentencing perpetrated by the Islamic Republic are just as horrific. For example, Iran employs several types of body mutilation, from the amputation of hands, arms and legs to

the macabre procedure of plucking out the eyeballs of the sentenced without the use of anesthetics. Several photos exist to document such occurrences, in dossiers kept by human rights organizations.

The international community, in particular European countries, has been quite indifferent to such atrocities. It prefers to engage the Islamic Republic in lucrative business deals, relegating the human rights issue to a mere footnote, a ritualistic and rhetorical passage usually present in high-level discussions with Iranian officials, but never taken seriously or enforced.

In recent years, as general disaffection towards Irans ruling theocratic regime has increased, the number of public executions has also increased significantly. The number of such executionsusually carried out in busy public squares during peak hours, with people sentenced to death hung from craneshas increased from 75 in the year 2000, to 139 in 2001, to 300 in 2002. Official statistics are not available for 2003 and 2004, but it is estimated that the number of such executions is now several hundred per year. Even minors and those who are physically and mentally disabled are regularly executed.

Sometimes a single mullah serves as judge, jury and executioner. Hadji Rezai is the mullah judge of the small city of Neka. When Atefeh Rajabi, a young and psychologically unstable girl, refused to be his "temporary" wife, Rezai framed her with the blessings of the high court in Tehran. Allegations of sexual misconduct were fabricated against her, so that she could be brought to justice according to the scorned Rezai, who personally hung the noose around Atefehs neck. Rezais last words to the dying young girl: This will teach you to disobey!

Several cases such as this have been documented, where dodgy legal procedures and politically motivated mock trials have been used, with pre-written death sentences for dissidents who have been falsely accused of common crimes such as rape. The steady rise of stoning, public executions and flogging is certainly an indication of the seriousness of the situation in Iran. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. A profound malaise affects the Iranian society as a whole, a symptom of which is the rising number of drug addicts, which is growing out of control, especially among the younger population.

When Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in Iran in 1979, he sent a clear message to his fellow compatriots: In order to develop and expand the revolution, more children were needed, first of all to defend the motherland from foreign intervention, and secondly to propagate the Shiite creed in a predominantly Sunni region. Khomeini envisaged a hegemonic role for Iran in the Middle East, and a significant population increase was the first step in that direction. When the Shah was forced to leave his throne, Iran had approximately 37 million citizens. Between 3 and 4 million Iranians left the country after the revolution, and another million young Iranians died in the war against Iraq during the 1980s. The population of Iran today is approximately 70 million, which means that, at least on the surface, Iranians followed Khomeinis directive to the letter, almost doubling their number in spite of Diaspora and war casualties.

Deeper analysis, however, shows that, far from being an Islamist victory, the Iranian demographic explosion is rapidly contributing to the demise of the Islamic Revolution. Rather than being vehicles that carry the Shiite faith and Khomeinis revolutionary message, Iranian youngsters dream of a Western lifestyle and look at the U.S. as a model for democracy, freedom and ability to achieve according to ones potential. In a society where nepotism, family connections and degrading compromise with mullahs at any level are the norm, those values embodied in the American dream have a profound meaning, and are never confused with pure and simple consumerism, as some European detractors have suggested. Put in simple terms, the Islamist establishment carries no consensus among the Iranian youth, which now numerically represents the absolute majority of the population.

The Islamist regime has responded by cracking down on students on several occasions in order to defuse the most imminent threats of rebellion. It has also devised a more sinister and long-term plan for the containment of Iranian youth: a systematic and massive induction to drug addiction, which has now reached colossal proportions. Several United Nations and DEA reports have documented this crisis, indicating that drug addiction is the thorniest problem in Iran.

To give an idea of the magnitude of this matter, Afghanistan produced around 6,000 tons of opium in 2003approximately half of which has been acquired by Iran. After the Afghani government announced it would crack down on opium production, the Iranian government decided, after an open debate reported by several official press agencies such as IRNA, to start producing opium on Iranian soil to satisfy the internal (and induced) demand.

How did the situation get this out of hand? The use of drugs has traditionally been tolerated within Iranian society, particularly the consumption of hashish and opium by middle-aged and older men, the same way Western societies have been more permissive of alcohol. Today, however, drug use is no longer an old people's bad habit. The average addiction age is falling rapidly; a few years ago, the addiction age fell to the age group of 25-29. Today the age group of 10-19 is the most afflicted by drug addiction in Iran.

Sociologically, a strict correlation has been established between lack of jobs and drug consumption in all societies. As far as Iran is concerned, the situation is exacerbated by not only rampant unemployment, but also by a general apathy and lack of confidence in the future. Iranian youth doesnt see the light at the end of the emotional tunnel in which the country has subsisted since the theocracy was established almost 26 years ago. The official unemployment rate is 14 percent, but Western analysts estimate the real number to be at approximately 30 percent. Although youth unemployment easily exceeds 50 percent, this statistic disregards the reality of the other 50 percent, who are usually under-employed. The quality of Iranian education is high, comparable to Western countries. Thus, the despair of highly skilled young graduates forced to accept menial jobs in small shops is reflected more in the drug addiction rates rather than the employment statistics.

Buying heroin and opium is easier than buying bread or milk, for which Iranians have to endure long lines. Official government rhetoric blames the nefarious influence of Western culture and the Internet for the increase in drug consumption. In reality, the government does nothing to fight the problem. On the contrary, in the best case it turns a blind eye to the illicit drug traffic that brings even more money to the pockets of the powerful mullahs in charge. And in the worst case it favors the increase of drug addiction, even revoking the subsidies given to people for detoxification. Thirty pills of Naltroxone, a substance commonly used in Iran during the first days of the rehabilitation program, cost a little more than 20,000 tomans (25 U.S. dollars). Previously, that cost was covered by governmental subsidies; but ever since Parliament canceled the program, detoxification has become too expensive for Irans unemployed young people.

Promoting opium as a way to control potentially hostile masses has been done successfully in the past. A classic example is the British policyadopted during the 19th centuryof buying the ashes of opium from Chinese and Indian subjects in order to drive them into addiction and curb their rebellious instincts. Great Britain even went to war against China twice (the so called Opium Wars of 1839 and 1856) to force the Qing Emperor to legalize the import of opium.

Unfortunately, a dangerous side effect of massive drug consumption is now developing in Iran: the rise in HIV/AIDS transmitted through the sharing of needles for intravenous drug use. Such practice is in widespread use among inmates, who have extremely limited access to clean and unused needles. So the vicious spiral begins with early drug addiction, which is likely to drive the young addict to commit small crimes to finance the habit; sooner or later that person is caught and sent to jail, where the likelihood of contracting HIV is extremely high.

Official statistics, which tend to underestimate the problem for political convenience, state that 65 percent of all recorded HIV/AIDS cases in Iran are due to the sharing of needles. Unconfirmed reports put the percentage of HIV positive long-term inmates between 30 and 40 percent of the overall inmate population.

While the extremely dangerous situation, as far as drug addiction is concerned, is well known by UN officials, their recipe to regain control of the problem is doomed to failure, simply because there is no such thing as a government in Iran. The best parallel one can use to describe the Iranian power structure is the Mafia. The Genovese, Gambino, Bonano, Colombo and Lucchese type families have their equivalent in the ayatollahs Rafsanjani, Jannati, and Khamenei, Messbaheh-Yazdi, Vaaezeh-Tabasi and man, many more, each one with a private militia at their disposal. Just like the Mafia families divvied territory and areas of influence, the Ayatollahs divvy interests and monopolize particular businesses. For example, Rafsanjani started his personal fortune by supervising all oil deals, while Tabassi looks after the major charity organization, the Shrine of Imam Reza, which is a huge source of liquid cash. Rafsanjani later diversified his business, and was the mullah who most profited when ex-President Clinton allowed the import of pistachios and carpets from Iran.

The network of connections and shady business deals has grown so intricate that drawing a power map based on links between ayatollahs, businesses and militias today is an impossible task. What is certain, however, is that a constant struggle exists among the top ayatollahs to extend their influence. An indication of such struggle is the chronic delay that affects the construction of Tehrans second airport. It took almost three decades to complete just the first phase, and the end of the project is still uncertain. The ayatollah who succeeds in controlling the airport will be the most powerful man in Iran, as the airport is likely to become the major hub for all illicit and clandestine operations, from drugs to prostitution, from weapon smuggling to young women and childrens sex slave dealings.

Much like Mafia wars, the mullahs power struggles often assume violent tones, such as when members of the various militias kill each other or when cars are blown up, often in daylight and in busy streets of Tehran, as a warning to opposing gangs. The difference between the Mafia and the Iranian power structure is that the Mafia was always a parallel and clandestine subsystem, so it never stood a chance of replacing the U.S. government. In Iran, on the other hand, the Mafia is the government. Structures like the Parliament and the judiciary are empty shells deprived of all power. Instead, power firmly resides in the hands of a few ayatollahs, and is exercised without any democratic control through private militias and squads of thugs, often recruited among ex-Taliban refugees, Al-Qaida members escaped from Afghanistan, Palestinians and other Arab Islamists who found a safe haven for terrorists in Iran.

The extent of Iranian corruption is difficult to comprehend in the Western world. It is something so endemic and so entrenched in all societal strata that it can be described as an uninterruptible chain which starts with the President, continues through the functionaries and public servants at all levels and ends with the police officers who patrol the streets. On December 26, 2004, One year after the terrible earthquake that killed 70,000 people in the Iranian city of Bam, survivors are still sleeping in poor quality tents, exposed to the inclement weather. Top quality tents sent by Germany, which could alleviate the poor living conditions of the survivors, have been sold by the mullahs on the black market, together with other items such as water pumps, water filters and generators, sent by the international community in great quantity in the weeks that followed the earthquake.
Iran as a nation is today sending the world a message of self-destruction and annihilation. Death is constantly brought about by stoning, public executions, floggings, and massive drug addiction and diseases such as HIV. Death is also promoted through the political and financial support offered by the Islamist regime to the suicide bombers of Hamas and Hizbollah. The construction of the ultimate weapon of mass destruction, the atomic bomb, is actively pursued by the Islamic Republic, which wouldnt hesitate to use it to annihilate Israel. The West has hesitated far too long to face the situation in Iran; inertia and appeasement have contributed not only to the constant deterioration of the living conditions of Iranians, but also to the weakening of security of not only neighboring countries, but also the West, which is the ultimate target of the mullahs Islamist fury.

Now is the time to inject a culture of life into Iran, and to counteract the nihilism of the Islamists with a message of optimism and hope for a better future. The only way to achieve that is by creating the conditions for a regime change promoted by Iranians inside and outside Iran who put party politicking and festering ideological grudges aside. This will clear the way for an internationally monitored referendum to choose a secular and democratic supplant for the mullahs primitive, vicious and sadistic regime.