The noose snaps and another body collapses in Singapore's Changi prison gallows at dawn on a Friday, while nearby elderly men and women dance the rythmic rituals of tai-chi in perfectly neat parks.
Elsewhere in what is regarded as the safest nation in Asia, the younger generations are readying for work and school, while newspapers reporting virtually no local crime wait to be bought at fastidiously clean news-stands.
Dawn on Friday is execution time in Singapore, the nation that human-rights group Amnesty International says has the highest death penalty rate per capita in the world.
According to Amnesty, 408 people have been hanged to death here since 1991, with authorities, who keep a tight grip on the local media, ensuring there is little public debate about its controversial system of capital punishment.
And just as many Asian nations aspire to emulate Singapore's economic success, it appears they are also increasingly following the city-state's zero-tolerance approach to crime and robustly embracing the death penalty.
Across many parts of Asia, capital punishment is on the rise, with China, Vietnam, Bangladesh and most recently the Philippines just some of the countries making international headlines with their enthusiastic attitude towards the death penalty.
"While in other regions around the world governments move away from the death penalty, we are seeing in Asia quite a substantial increase in the use of the death penalty," said Amnesty's Asia program interim director, Ingrid Massage.
Massage cited higher crime rates and increasing security fears generated by the global war on terrorism as factors in the worsening trend.
Although Singapore has the highest rate of executions per capita, China is the clear leader in sheer number of people put to death, with the government's "strike-hard campaign" against corruption throwing renewed focus on capital punishment.
Chinese authorities ensure the total numbers executed each year remain secret. Yet Amnesty said it had been able to determine 1,060 executions in China in 2002 and 2,468 the year before, with the actual number believed to be far higher.
In one particular death frenzy, Amnesty said at least 150 accused drug criminals were executed across China in June, 2002 to mark the UN' International Drugs Day.
"China stands out completely on its own. By all standards it goes off the scale," Massage said.
In Vietnam, the use of the death penalty is also on the rise, while tolerance for campaigning against the punishment is falling.
As in China, the official number of executions is a tightly held state secret, but AFP reported last month that at least 62 people were put to death by firing squad last year, mainly for murder and drug trafficking.
The Philippines joined its more authoritarian regional neighbors on the issue last month when President Gloria Arroyo announced that a near four-year moratorium on capital punishment would be lifted on Jan. 30 with the scheduled execution of two kidnappers.
The Philippines is closely following Japan, where 43 people have been executed since 1993.
South Korea also allows the death penalty with justice ministry figures showing 231 people were executed between 1976 and 1997.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS