OCTOBER 28, 2003

Death zone

It became a byword for World War II atrocities but the killing has never stopped at Singapore’s infamous prison, Changi

ERIC ELLIS

Singapore’s historic Changi Prison, now threatened with demolition, has always been a killing field. Built in 1936 by the British as a model of the genre (largely because it had flushing toilets), it became notorious for the inhumanity meted to 50,000 Allied prisoners, 15,000 of them Australian, when the Japanese Imperial Forces occupied Singapore in 1942.

Singapore was liberated in 1945 but, unbeknownst to many outside the tiny island republic, the killings at Changi didn’t end there. Under the strict stewardship of Lee Kuan Yew, Changi remains one of the world’s deadliest killing grounds – and it all happens with state sanction.

Australian High Court judge Michael Kirby may regard the death penalty as “the ultimate proof of civilisation’s failure” but in Singapore capital punishment is embraced with its trademark efficiency. About 400 people are known to have been executed by Singapore, most of them at Changi, since 1991. Compare that with the 71 executed in the United States last year and remember the US has 70 times Singapore’s 4 million population.

Asked recently by the BBC about this world champion status, a clearly flustered Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said he had “more important issues to worry about” than keeping count of executions, adding it was “in the region of about 70-80” so far this year. (His press office later corrected him to say 10 people had been executed this year, 28 in 2002 and 27 in 2001.)

As calls for reform are summarily rejected, Singapore's main venue for them, Changi, faces demolition. Angry Australian war veterans have lobbied to save the prison, their battle joined by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, whose father was a Changi POW, and deputy PM John Anderson.

But Singapore seems mostly unmoved. It has conceded a part of the jail will be pre-served but, in less than 200 days, most of it will go. The government says it needs more room. The killings are set to continue.