last song

[greedisgood]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/EJ11Ae08.html

 

Southeast Asia

 

The executioner's last song

By Steve Sandford

 

BANGKOK - With a body count of 55 kills, a number matching his age, Chaovarej Jaruboon belies the stereotypical image of a cold, hardened executioner. Indeed, the affable, soft-spoken prison guard could easily have been mistaken for a lounge entertainer, as he leaned back in his office chair with his acoustic guitar, and twangs a few bars of "Jailhouse Rock".

 

"I love all kinds of music," he said with a wide grin, listing a who's who of '50s and '60s greats, "Andy Williams, Paul Anka, Cliff Richards, Elvis Presley."

 

It's hard to imagine he's Thailand's best-known trigger man, with so much blood on his hands. But then, Chaovarej sees himself as just doing his duty at the very end of his country's often slow and much-maligned legal process.

 

THE MECHANICS OF DEATH

 

Thailand chose death by lethal injection after a research team's visit to a Texas correctional center several years ago. The procedure begins as three executioners each press a separate button to release a combination of three drugs into the condemned person who is strapped to a table. Only one of the three people will actually be carrying out the real execution, while the intravenous tubes from the others will empty into a hidden container. A green light will indicate that the prisoner has been injected with the sleeping drug, a yellow light will signify the injection of a muscle relaxant and a red light will signify the heart-stopping drug has been released, entering the condemned person. After six minutes, a doctor will verify that the prisoner is dead. After the execution, the body will be placed in a room with a temperature of 14-18 degrees Celsius for 12 hours before the final death verification is authorized.

 

On October 19, he's set to go down in history as the country's last firing-squad executioner at Bang Kwang maximum-security prison, just north of Bangkok. After mounting pressure from human-rights groups, the Thai government has agreed to switch from brutal machine-gun executions to death by lethal injection, a method that will allow the condemned to die "in peace with no pain or suffering", says the prison's new deputy director, Natthee Jitsawang.

 

The move will leave Chaovarej with another job - arranging the transfer of foreign prisoners to jails in their home countries once they've served mandatory terms in Bang Kwang, otherwise known as the "Bangkok Hilton".

 

"Now I am happy to retire. Less stress," he said. "I executed many people. It's a hard job - not your usual job. I am going to be hanging up the gun now.

 

"This job is not fun."

 

In fact, Chaovarej says he witnessed every execution at Bang Kwang since beginning work as a corrections officer in 1972. After assisting with several of the executions, cleaning the gun and preparing the prisoners for their final walk, the father of three conducted his first execution in 1984. He was paid an extra 2,000 baht (US$50).

 

Since then Chaovarej has executed many people - hitmen, drug dealers and murderers, plus a few big-time politicians he doesn't care to mention. It would not be good for the families of the dead, he explains.

 

"I do remember the last words a convicted hitman said to the monk," he recalls. "He told the monk he had killed many people and asked for ahr ho sigum, a Thai phrase meaning 'to forgive and forget'. Hitmen kill people for money and they know that someday someone is going to kill them, and they are prepared to die."

 

Even so, the hitman feared the spirits he believed he'd encounter in the afterlife, Chaovarej added with a smile.

 

So how does the head executioner cope with the traumatic nature of the job?

 

"Sometimes I play the guitar and listen to music to relax. My family is proud of what I do. I leave the job at the office. Everyone in my family is into the music."

 

Chaovarej's musical roots stem from his experience jamming in an air-force band during the Vietnam War at army bases near the border with Laos.

 

"I played in the officers' clubs in Ubon Ratchathani and Udon Thani from 1968 to '70," he explained, breaking into the chorus of "House of the Rising Sun".

 

After completing a two-year stint in the service, Chaovarej worked as a translator for Union Oil in southern Thailand before moving to the outskirts of Bangkok to begin his job as prison guard.

 

Situated on the banks of the Chao Phraya River in leafy Nonthaburi province, Bang Kwang opened its prison gates in 1931. Machine-gun executions in Thailand commenced in 1935, replacing death by decapitation with the use a sword. An original German-made Bremner automatic rifle took 230 lives before a replacement was implemented at Bang Kwan prison.

 

The Thai government halted executions in 1987 but reintroduced the death penalty in 1996. Since then, the rate of death sentences and executions has increased as Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government has taken a hard line against amphetamine or ya ba dealers with his popular but highly controversial "war against drugs".

 

So far, the bulk of convictions have been handed down to "mules" or drug couriers caught with more then 100,000 pills, which earns them the death penalty. "Pla lek nai ang yai," or "Small fish in a big pond," as the locals like to say, noting that the big dealers usually escape such punishment.

 

The Thaksin government's busiest execution day was April 18, 2001, when five men, including four with drug convictions, were tied to a post and gunned down in "the room to end all suffering" - Bang Kwan's death chamber. In a bid to deter drug traffickers, the government allowed journalists and cameramen in to witness preparations for the executions by Chaovarej and a co-executioner.

 

"I killed the first prisoner, and then they tied two prisoners to separate poles at the same time. There were many officials there and it was a very hard job to do. But it was my duty," Chaovarej said.

 

"When the job order comes, there is no time to think. They told us about the executions at lunchtime for the afternoon executions. For five people in one day, you have to check the guns, prepare the ammunition."

 

Graphic footage of the condemned men in leg irons, kissing the ground before being led into the execution chamber, created an immediate and harsh backlash from international human-rights groups.

 

Amnesty International damned the killings and the government's move to publicize them.

 

"It is outrageous for the new Thaksin government to flaunt it's tough anti-drugs stance by executing people. The death penalty provides no solutions to growing crime rates. Instead, it entrenches a culture of violence in society," the group said.

 

The outcry deterred further "public" executions by Chaovarej, and focused debate on whether use of a machine-gun was a brutal method of killing condemned prisoners.

 

Under the system set to be replaced, an executioner blasts a round from a 15-bullet clip at the condemned, who are tied to a pole behind a curtain 10 meters way. The prisoners have their hands tied and clutch incense and a lotus blossom, in accordance with Buddhist custom.

 

Subsequent executions have been low-key and few in number, but the Thai courts have responded to the government's hard line by continuing to hand down the death sentence to dozens of drug traffickers.

 

On July 26, 2001, a record 19 people - 16 men and three women - were sentenced to death by the Criminal Court in Bangkok for major drug-trafficking offenses. The following month another 17 got the death term on one day. Many of them are now pursuing appeals.

 

Chaovarej shot his last prisoner in December last year.

 

"I feel sorry for every prisoner in jail," he said. "I understand about Thai law. Jail is the last step for the prisoner. But the laws of society must be upheld and those that run against them must be punished."

 

Currently, 6,533 inmates, including 639 foreigners, are crammed into Bang Kwang, originally designed for about half that amount.

 

Since 1935, 319 prisoners, including three women, have been executed by firing squad in Thailand. The number of people who have received the death sentence has tripled over the past two years, with more than 900 prisoners now on death row, including more than 30 who have exhausted all forms of appeal. Two-thirds of them are drug dealers.

 

Many say they've actually been lucky - as several thousand people were gunned down in the brutal anti-drug crackdown from February to May this year. Police described the killings as "silencings" by drug-gang members desperate to avoid capture, but human-rights groups say most were extrajudicial murders by police and army teams encouraged by the government to simply eliminate suspected drug dealers.

 

Chaovarej is philosophical about his role in a justice system often slammed as brutal and deeply flawed. "Everything is a melody of life. Sometimes high and sometimes low," he said. "After each execution, I make merit from my heart. You can't just go to see a monk and your sins are gone."

 

He paused for a moment and then hit a few strings and sang an old Beatles favorite.

 

"Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away ... "

 

Soon, Chaovarej's heart will beat to a lighter rhythm.

 

(Copyright 2003 Steve Sandford.)

 

[Yehtmae]

Since then Chaovarej has executed many people - hitmen, drug dealers and murderers, plus a few big-time politicians he doesn't care to mention. It would not be good for the families of the dead, he explains.

 

Uhhh.... What? When was the last time a big time MP went to prison, let alone got the death penalty?

 

 

[Guest]

Interesting article.

 

 

quote

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The prisoners have their hands tied and clutch incense and a lotus blossom, in accordance with Buddhist custom.

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I think they have 3 incense sticks, a candle, and a lotus blossom. Also, I think the executioner serves for only 3 years. I might be wrong.