Amnesty International Rakes Singapore over Executions, Mostly of Drug Offenders

The tiny Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore has the world's highest execution rate, and a majority of those it executes are drug offenders, the human rights watchdog group Amnesty International charged in a report issued Thursday. Singapore authorities have executed at least 408 people since 1991, the report found, and at least 252 of them were drug offenders. The actual number of executed drug offenders is higher, but cannot be determined because Singapore will not release any information on executions in the last three years other than their annual totals.

Singapore has earned a reputation as an authoritarian society, and its drug laws certainly bolster that notion. Anyone holding more than half an ounce of heroin or little more than a pound of marijuana is presumed to be trafficking. The only sentence available for that offense: Death by hanging. That's what happened in one case cited by Amnesty, that of Rozman Jusoh. The 24-year-old Malaysian laborer was hanged for drug trafficking in 1996, despite a reported IQ of 74.

As everywhere else, the death penalty in Singapore falls disproportionately on the most marginalized members of society.

"Many of those executed have been migrant workers, drug addicts, the impoverished or those lacking in education," Amnesty said. "Drug addicts are particularly vulnerable. Many were hanged after being found in possession of relatively small quantities of drugs. Singapore's Misuse of Drugs Act contains several clauses which conflict with the universally guaranteed right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and provides for a mandatory death sentence for at least 20 different drug-related offences. For instance, any person found in possession of the key to anything containing controlled drugs is presumed guilty of possessing those drugs and, if the amount exceeds a specified amount, faces a mandatory death penalty for "trafficking".

"Such provisions erode the right to a fair trial and increase the risk of executing the innocent," Amnesty stressed. "Moreover, it is often the drug addicts or minor drug pushers who are hanged, while those who mastermind the crime of trafficking evade arrest and punishment."

Singapore is the runaway global leader in executions per capita with 13.6 per million citizens, according to the United Nations. It was followed by Saudi Arabia (4.65), Belarus (3.20), Sierra Leone (2.84), Kyrgyzstan (2.80), Jordan (2.12) and China (2.01). The United States couldn't place it that category, but it did take fourth in the total number executed. The US trailed first-place China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Saudi Arabia, but did manage to out-execute also-rans Nigeria and Singapore.

The Singapore government defended its policy. "By protecting Singaporeans from drugs, we are protecting their human rights," Inderjit Singh, a member of parliament, told the Associated Press. "The rule breakers have to be dealt with -- it's the same in any part of the world," said Singh, who is also president of a chip-making company. "We just do it differently."

To read the Amnesty International report, "Singapore: The death penalty: A hidden toll of executions," visit http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engasa360012004 online.

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1-16-04

i honestly dont think its right to boldface or italic anything that isnt boldfaced or italicized (sp) in the original article...just my input

Many of those executed have been migrant workers, drug addicts, the impoverished or those lacking in education," Amnesty said. "Drug addicts are particularly vulnerable. Many were hanged after being found in possession of relatively small quantities of drugs. Singapore's Misuse of Drugs Act contains several clauses which conflict with the universally guaranteed right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and provides for a mandatory death sentence for at least 20 different drug-related offences. For instance, any person found in possession of the key to anything containing controlled drugs is presumed guilty of possessing those drugs and, if the amount exceeds a specified amount, faces a mandatory death penalty for "trafficking".

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now i know people who dont use psychedellic drugs are pretty dumb and dimwitted, but i dont understand how people who advocate a war on drugs cant see right through this. Governing bodies want nothing but absolute dominion of every aspect of your life! Drugs make that really difficult. They make you think "outside the box." They may not exactly make you smart, but they do definetly expand your mind. Im not just talkin acid, but marijuana heroin ecstasy anything. They def make you think outside conformist mentality. Thats what suppresive governments hate the most! They want you to be a robot, they want you to be a laborer. Do your work worker bee or face punishment. If the people must live in fear and supression, so be it. Whatever puts food in the pigs trough.

Drugs will make you realize what patric henry realized, that a life without liberty is not a life worth living.

Its starting to creep into our country AND WE MUST STOP IT AT ONCE! I do not advocate making all drugs legal on the simple principle that no one should dictate what we put in our bodies. Many drugs obviously cause problems in society. I DO however disagree with the means that we prevent these problems, and this is a seperate issue i wont get into.

What i am saying here is people need to read into things like this, they need to open their minds and think outside their little conformist shells. Drugs are not evil. If dictatorships kill INNOCENT people for posessing fucking drugs, there is a hidden reason for it. THIS IS HARMFUL TO HUMANITY, AND MUST BE STOPPED.

Singapore is the runaway global leader in executions per capita with 13.6 per million citizens, according to the United Nations. It was followed by Saudi Arabia (4.65), Belarus (3.20), Sierra Leone (2.84), Kyrgyzstan (2.80), Jordan (2.12) and China (2.01). The United States couldn't place it that category, but it did take fourth in the total number executed. The US trailed first-place China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Saudi Arabia, but did manage to out-execute also-rans Nigeria and Singapore.

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This article is great because its looking into both sides of the issue. However, here in the US its a little different: WE EXECUTE MURDERERS! We dont execute drug users, allthough we do punish them to a rediculous extent. I dont understand how people cant see this. Our world governments hate it when we do drugs. It takes money out of their pockets. It makes us think things they dont want us thinking. It breaks us from our pre-molded fates.

And im not speakign without experience, I too am a victim of the drug war. Thankfully I am not a martyr.

The Singapore government defended its policy. "By protecting Singaporeans from drugs, we are protecting their human rights," Inderjit Singh, a member of parliament, told the Associated Press. "The rule breakers have to be dealt with -- it's the same in any part of the world," said Singh, who is also president of a chip-making company. "We just do it differently."

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EXACTLY the kind of amoral bullshit response I expected! Im sorry Mr Singh, but you cannot under any circumstances justify murder without being a hypocrite. You are a slave to money and power. You are an addict. They rule your life. You are a slave and a tool, and you deserve to live a life so harsh you are forced to die by your own hands.

I thank God every day that I was born in the USA. While we are radical in our drug views, we dont do things this inhumane. Give me liberty, or give me death.

...and may God provide justice appropriately.

THE WOOD said:

I thank God every day that I was born in the USA. While we are radical in our drug views, we dont do things this inhumane. Give me liberty, or give me death.

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If that's the way you really feel hang yourself it, cause you've (We) not got liberty living there!

^^ We cannot neglect the fact that living in Western nations, we are far better off than living in any oppressive Asiatic/African society ...

However, garnering the attitude that "since we have it better than them, we have nothing to complain about" only leads to further eradication of rights ... Hopefully I'll never have to deal with such a situation, but some of us might be more partial to being executed, rather than spending the rest of our life in prison, persecuted for our deviant political activities.

If that's the way you really feel hang yourself it, cause you've (We) not got liberty living there!

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I dont know what you are talking about. I am going to assume your some punkass 17 year old kid that hasnt a clue about how our government functions. I dont take lightly to comments like that and neither should you.

Gaz_hmmmm said:

If that's the way you really feel hang yourself it, cause you've (We) not got liberty living there!

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You're an idiot. You can't honestly compare Singapore's drug laws to The United States'. You must have a lower IQ then poor Rozman Jusoh there. Either that or you're just a spiteful, shit stirring, prick.

Note: Adding bold and italics in a citation is fine. However at the end of the article you should put something like "italics added".

we dont kill our drug dealers we just lock em up for a good time.....
which imo is as good as being dead for the years ur in there...

^^^Then move to Singapore. Our prisons are 5 star resorts compared to thiers.

THE WOOD said:

This article is great because its looking into both sides of the issue. However, here in the US its a little different: WE EXECUTE MURDERERS!

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I'm pretty sure that Amnesty International isn't very keen on the death penalty for any offence and I agree with them for a number of reasons.

One being that the Govt of the US has murdered people that were found to be innocent after a rather fatal incident with said govt's weapon of choice.

Secondly in the land of the free white people generally have to reach lower depths of depravity before they are landed with the death penalty while non-whites only have to murder someone. May God give you justice. Hah. May God grant you a monoculture. And every other fool thing you may wish for.

It really amazes me that a people with such a strong belief in a just God would preempt that God's justice with their own quite fallible one when I who don't believe in any such thing am quite happy to wait and see.

It is a very strange world.

UPDATE: Gov't refutes report, points out 'grave errors'

GOVT POINTS OUT 12 'GRAVE ERRORS' IN AMNESTY REPORT
by M Nirmala
Straits Times (Singapore)
Sat, 31 Jan 2004

S'pore Stands By Its Tough Position On The Death Penalty, Which Is Applied To Only The Most Serious Crimes, Says Statement

SINGAPORE applies the death penalty to only the most serious crimes, and does not apologise for taking a tough stand on law and order, the Government said yesterday in refuting a Jan 14 report by human rights group Amnesty International.

Capital punishment is imposed only for crimes such as murder, offences involving firearms and drug trafficking 'which would severely compromise the safety and security of Singapore', the Government said in a statement.

The death penalty, it said, had deterred major drug syndicates from establishing a presence in the Republic.

In a detailed and toughly worded response, the Government said Amnesty International had made grave errors of fact and misrepresentation in its report that Singapore leads the world in executions.

'To advance its political campaign against the death penalty, it is clear that Amnesty International has chosen to deliberately misrepresent the facts,' it said.

The organisation, it said, had resorted to 'grave errors of facts and misrepresentations, which seriously call into question the credibility of its report'.

It cited 12 errors, including these:

a.. Amnesty International asserted that most of those executed here were foreigners, and that of the 174 executions carried out between 1993 and last year, more than half were of foreigners.

In fact, the Government said, during this period, 64 per cent of those executed were Singaporeans. In the last five years, 101 Singaporeans and 37 foreigners were executed.

'Given that one in four residents in Singapore is a foreigner, it is not only false but mischievous to allege that a significant proportion of prisoners executed were foreigners,' it said.

a.. The Jan 14 report asserted that the death penalty fell more heavily on the 'poorest, least educated and most vulnerable'.

In fact, said the Government, of those executed between 1993 and last year, 44 per cent had primary education, 34 per cent had secondary education and 2 per cent had vocational or tertiary education. Only 20 per cent were unemployed.

Its statement comes two weeks after a Home Affairs Ministry spokesman had dismissed the report as absurd.

The report said Singapore had likely the highest per capita rate of executions in the world. It cited a United Nations study that said Singapore had three times the number of executions, relative to the size of its population, compared to the next country on the list, Saudi Arabia.

The report alleged that more than 400 prisoners had been hanged in the last 13 years and official information about the use of the death penalty is 'shrouded in secrecy'.

The Government said that while Amnesty International was entitled to have its own view on the issue of the death penalty and to campaign against it worldwide, international norms call for respect of differences in views and beliefs.

'Singapore does not seek to impose its views on others. We ask only that others do not impose their views on us,' the Government said.

The decision to keep the death penalty on the statute books had been a considered one, it said.

Singapore recognises that the death penalty is a severe penalty and cannot be remedied if it is applied wrongly.

Hence, the death penalty is used only for very serious crimes such as murder, firearms and drugs offences.

'Singapore weighs the right to life of the convicted against the rights of victims and the right of the community to live in peace and security,' the Government said.

Keeping the death penalty had worked for Singapore, making it one of the safest places in the world to live and work in,' it said.

The Government statement will be sent to Amnesty International and be posted on the Internet.

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