Islamic militants faced the execution squad, stupefied...

Islamic militants faced the execution squad, stupefied by drink and driven to their deaths on an open lorry past laughing crowds.
In the afternoon sunlight bathing the Peoples Square in Kashgar, northwestern China, several dozen Islamic prisoners were lined up on blue lorries, dazed and barely comprehending.
Standing under a 100 feet granite statue of Chairman Mao, the handcuffed prisoners swayed gently. Their eyes were bloodshot, their unfocused gaze testament to their confusion. They didn't realise they would face the executioner within the hour.
These men had apparently been captured fighting for an independent Islamic state in the predominantly Turkic province of Xinjiang, where separatists have been trying to prise the largely Muslim area from Beijings grasp and establish a new nation, East Turkistan.
The confrontation between Afghanistan and the West [following the September 11 attacks on the US] heightened Islamic fervour. The crisis also gave China's leaders an opportunity to crack down on separatists with renewed ferocity, and Beijing turned the sombre moments before an execution into a political rally.
Hundreds of Communist Party members seated in neat rows, with the lorries of Islamic prisoners arrayed before them, applauded blood-curdling speeches quoting President Jiang Zemin. Ringed by banners, flags and propaganda pictures, the prisoners silently peered through their alcoholic haze.
After a full hour, and a final rallying cry and a wail from a police siren, the lorry convoy started its grim journey. Thousands of onlookers lined Liberation Street. Many laughed nervously when they came face-to-face with the prisoners heading to the execution ground.
Two of those prisoners will die now, a man wearing an embroidered cap said. The rest will go back to prison.