From: xlli@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (xiao-lin li)
Subject: Prisoner Execution: Shot from Behind 
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 20:53:33 GMT

In article <By2zD9.35t@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> yawei@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (~{QG9p~}) writes:
>In article <By2Lrp.C8C@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu> bihkyan@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Yang Yuanxin) writes:
>>living inside China are unaware of this "practice", Only some smart
>>people living outside China are aware of this. Why? Because this kind
>>of news are manufactured outside of China.
>> People who believe in this kind of thing must be one of the following
>> two kinds of people:
>> 1. Too naive/stupid.
>> 2. Real enemy of China. (Who actually know this are untrue)
>
>
>Are you saying that,
>
>  1. You actually lived in China at one time or another, and
>  2. You are not aware of public execution of prisoners?

I witnessed only one time of the execution in my entire life.
But it was horrible. I never want to watch it again.

That was in 1976 when I in the countryside for the first year
as "intellectual youth". It was after Mao's death. The commune
had a popular gethering of "surpressing counter-revolutionaries".
After the meeting, two people were sentenced to death with
immediate execution (Pan4 Chu4 Si3 Xing2, Li4 Ji3 Zhi2 Xin2).
The two people were sent to a truck waiting outside the
meeting site. The truck drove away, many people followed. I had a bike
and followed too. I was very curious to see how people would
be executed.

We arrived at the site on time. There was a small hill, the prisoners
were all in the valley, total five of them. The other three
were there to "accompany the death", they were sentenced to
infinite term in prison. All the people watching were up on the hill.
Four armed policemen walked down the hill, two with rifles and
two with pistols. One police with pistol walked to the back
of one prisoner and suddenly kicked his legs. The prisoner
immediately fell to his knees. The other police with rifle
raised his loaded gun and shot the guy in surprise to his head.
The guy fell like a log on the grass. Oh God, it was terrible
even to recall it now. The stuff and blood of the head was spread
everywhere. I did not eat for two days.

The other prisoner immediately collapsed on the gound. One
policeman tried to pull him up to knee, but failed. So another
police with rifle shot him on the ground. The bullet seemed to
be on the face. The man did not die immediately. The policeman
with pistol then added two more shots. The three prisoners who were
there to "accompany the death" were all shocked, one collapsed
to the ground. The other two moved their eyes away from the
deads.

As I recall, one prisoner was charged with "counter-revolutionary
revenge" for killing the CCP Secretary of the villege. He was a
son of the "landlord". It also listed his activity of doing counter-
revolutionary propaganda. The other guy was also for "counter-revolutionary"
crime, don't remember the details. Both were farmers. One body
was immediately collected by his family members. The other was
collected later by the police because he had no relative willing
to collect his body.

This happened after Mao's death, we had already been informed that
the Gang of Four were arrested by that time. The purpose of that
sentence was to "stabilize the society" and to "warn class enemies".

I really wish Mr. Yang Yuanxin were there. I never wanted to see
it again. But I do know what an execution is. 
Newsgroups: talk.politics.china