[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 11



MALAYSIA:

Changing male mentality


David Anthony, the 66-year-old coordinator of Man.V (pronounced man dot
vee, short for Man's Action Network Against Violence), has dedicated
himself to addressing the issue of violent men. The father of 2 boys, aged
9 and 14, leads an all-male team who fight violence against women by
conducting workshops in schools and companies.

Anthony has a theory on why some men are violent:

"It goes back to the whole issue of sexism (women are weak and men are
powerful and in control). Sexism plus power, equals violence against
women. Neither capital punishment nor castration can solve the problem.
The most effective tool is education," says Anthony.

What about the theory that the extra Y chromosome is believed to cause men
to be violent?

"That theory has been proven wrong because testosterone does not produce
that reaction (violence). It's mainly socialisation - the way men are
brought up. To be violent is a choice," says Anthony.

Men have to redefine certain stereotype notions.

"We have to construct new ideas. Though we have the emergence of
'metrosexuals' where men are becoming as knowledgeable about fashion as
women are, this is a subculture rather than the main movement towards
redefining male roles," says Anthony.

He thinks women play a big role in the way boys grow up. As an example, he
points out how girls are made to play with dolls and boys with rough toys.

"Women have to rethink how to educate their young children. The first 10
years of a child's life are the most impressionable. That's why we have to
stress the importance of gender equality from a young age," says Anthony.

(source: Malaysia Star)






CHINA:

China to open some death penalty trials


Judge Xiao Yang has said that Chinese courts will begin to open court
sessions when hearing death sentence trials a 2nd time.

"As of July 1, 2006, all the 2nd-instance trials of death sentence cases
shall be heard in open court," said Xiao, who is also president of the
Supreme People's Court.

A spokesman for the people's court, Sun Huapu, said in a Xinhuanet.com
interview that China is among more than 1/2 of the world's nations that
maintain the death penalty, which has drawn criticism from other nations,
the official Xinhua news agency reported.

He attributed China's preservation of the system to the country's level of
development -- still in its initial stage of socialism and a developing
country.

Many people still believe in the principle that "a killer should pay the
victim with his life," he said.

(source: United Press International)

*************

Conditions not ripe to abolish death penalty: spokesman


China, for the moment, does not have the right conditions for abolishing
capital punishment, said spokesman Sun Huapu of the Supreme People's Court
at Saturday's on-line meeting with visitors of two top Chinese websites.

In reply to netizens surfing the Xinhuanet.com and the GOV.cn, which is
the website of the Chinese central government, the spokesman made it clear
that China is among the more than half of the nations in the world that
have insisted on the death penalty, which has drawn criticism from others.
It is a global trend that the controversial practice will be gradually
reduced until it is abolished in the whole world, he said.

Sun attributed China's preservation of the system to its level of
development as the country is still in its initial stage of socialism and
a developing country, featuring a low level of civilization in which the
public still believes in the principle that "a killer should pay the
victim with his life".

But the country has exerted strict control over the death penalty,
ensuring that only a very small number of criminals committing extremely
severe crimes be executed, said the official.

In China, capital punishment falls into 2 categories -- a death penalty
with the criminal to be executed immediately after the sentencing, and
death with a 2-year probation.

The supreme court is busy preparing for the practice of unifying the 3
aspects of approval for death sentences: ideology, organization, and
material and equipment. It will open 3 more criminal tribunals, with
judges coming from across the country.

(source: Xinhua)

*******************

Exposing the Shocking Horrors Behind Sujiatun Concentration Camp's Closed
Gates


Falun Gong Practitioners' Organs are a Cheap Source on the Black Market In
recent years, international organ buying and selling markets have had
extreme shortages. As the world's most populous country with the death
penalty, China is beginning to use lethal injections so the executed
person's organs cannot be given to hospitals for organ transplants.

Since China's illegal organ trade business has been internationally
exposed, the United States Congress has held numerous hearings. The
international society has requested that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
follow the "use of the dead or executed persons' organs" statute announced
in 1990. The statute stipulates that a criminal's organs only be obtained
if the person or his or her relatives gave permission, or if the corpse is
unclaimed.

Due to fewer channels for obtaining human organs, the prices of organs
have been high for long periods of time. Since the CCP has ordered the
6-10 Office, a branch specially established to persecute Falun Gong
practitioners, to "kill Falun Gong practitioners and call it suicide" and
"to ruin their reputation, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them
physically," the organs of Falun Gong practitioners who have been tortured
to death have become a source of cheap merchandise for this black market.

Doctors and Merchants Involved were Deceived

An insider told The Epoch Times that the doctors and merchants involved in
the purchases of Falun Gong practitioners' organs were told that the
organs were from Falun Gong practitioners who "developed insanity from the
practice and died" or "became evil after practicing and murdered other
people, and therefore were sentenced to death and shot by the
authorities." Therefore, the involved parties never found a problem with
it nor did they have any moral criticisms about it. Since Sujiatun
Concentration Camp sells the organs at cheap prices, international organ
buying and selling representatives try to find ways to contact and make
deals with Sujiatun. Overseas Chinese also contact relatives in Shenyang
City in hopes of buying a cheap kidney from Sujiatun Camp.

Some private hospital and health systems workers know that it is possible
to buy organs of Falun Gong practitioners from Sujiatun Concentration
Camp, where the human organs have no traces of lethal injections. An
eyewitness claimed that locals of Sujiatun District regard it [the organ
buying] as taboo and are very cautious. The average person there would not
even raise the matter.

The Stone Crematorium Often Emits White Smoke

Sujiatun Concentration Camp is in a hidden place, surrounded by many
trees. One eyewitness said, "Now, some roads are blocked in Shenyang City
and vehicles are not allowed to pass. There are obstructions on the roads
similar to those on the road to Sujiatun. The average car has no way to
get close to the camp. In order to avoid suspicion and trouble, we rode in
a truck that transported coal to get closer to the concentration camp. We
saw the camp crematorium emitting white smoke. No one was around the area
and the atmosphere was very scary. A local told me that every time they
pass by, they always see smoke emitting from the crematorium."

Prisoners' Corpses Immediately Cremated after Organ Removal

In the past, international media exposed the secret theft of human organs
in China to the international society. The law-violating Public Security
Bureau, judges and doctors colluded to steal organs from the dead for
transplants and large profits.

The Chinese criminals are often not permitted to contact their family so
no one will go to claim the body after the execution. This way, the organs
can be removed and the corpse quickly cremated. The CCP requests medical
personnel involved to secretly perform the operations, and their operation
vehicles cannot have any hospital logos. The doctors are also forbidden to
wear their operating clothes on the execution grounds. In addition, the
security guards monitor their organ removal surgeries and then cremate the
body immediately after.

Sujiatun Camp is Very Crowded, but Its Population Kept Secret Currently,
Shenyang has many corpse factories and private hospitals purchasing human
organs for resale on the international market. The Sujiatun concentration
camp has shifted more than 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners and gathered
some doctors for the organ removal surgery. In order to eliminate
potential evidence, the bodies are cremated.

A person who worked at the concentration camp said the workload is
ever-increasing. The authorities are continually transferring Falun Gong
practitioners there and the jail is crowded and full beyond imagination.
It is clearly a place a person cannot live in or withstand to see.

Before this disclosure, German anatomist Gunther von Hagens shocked the
world with his Body Worlds exhibition, which displayed many plastinated
cadavers, and encountered intense condemnation from human rights groups.
The media exposed that many of von Hagens' plastified human bodies were
executed prisoners from China. Gunther von Hagens also admitted to
receiving a corpse with a bullet wound in the head.

China is currently has the largest organ trade of any country. Functional
organs are sold to hospitals or patients, and the useable bodies were
given to Gunther von Hagens and the Institute of Plastination for
conversion into preserved specimens and used in the touring Body Worlds
exhibition.

Dead Falun Gong Practitioners' Organs "Missing"

During the middle of last June, according to a report provided by
practitioners of Falun Gong, organs of Falun Gong practitioners who were
tortured to death during their imprisonment were stolen for transplant.

According to a related people's investigation, blood holes and knife scars
were found on some Falun Gong practitioners' bodies that were tortured to
death. Some were autopsied without their family members' permission and
some victims' organs were excised. Informants revealed that doctors of the
Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Baiyun District, Guangzhou City openly
"directed" thugs who torture Falun Gong practitioners, "Don't beat them
[at the] waist, the kidneys can be used."

On February 16, 2001, Ren Pengwu (male, 33 years old), Falun Gong
practitioner in Harbin, was arrested for sending materials exposing
inconsistencies of the self-immolation case. He was imprisoned at the
Second Detention Center in Hulan County, Heilongjiang Province. After five
days, on the morning of February 21, he died. Without his family members'
agreement, under the guise of legal appraisal, the police excised all Ren
Pengwu's body organs, from gullet to genitals, and then illegally cremated
the body.

Yang Ruiyu, female, was originally an employee of Taijiang District
Property Management Bureau in Fuzhou City. On July 19, 2001, she was
abducted from her work place by public security staff. She died three days
later due to abuse while in custody. The body was sent under police escort
all the way to a crematorium. Yang Ruiyu's husband and daughter were not
allowed to approach the body. According to witnesses, there was a hollow
hole about the size of a fist on Yang Ruiyu's body.

The Falun Gong Clearwisdom website has urgently made a call to the
international community to pay close attention to the case of Chinese
Falun Gong practitioners' organs being stolen. It also called on relatives
of victims and people committed to justice to keep records of all evidence
of individuals and organizations involved in the crime for the purpose of
future lawsuits.

(source: Epoch Times International)