20 October 2004 :

Vietnam's government has asked the police to consider abandoning firing squads in favour of a mechanised gun to execute criminals because shaky individuals can miss their target.
Under a recent instruction of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, the ministries of Justice and Public Security, in coordination with other relevant bodies, are to look into the possibility of changing the country's current method under which death sentences are carried out by firing squad.
"Execution should be changed to automatic shooting, which has high accuracy," Bui Duc Long, head of the Supreme Prosecution Institute's execution inspection department, was quoted by the Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper as saying.
Long said the ministry favoured the use of the mechanised gun because 30% of policemen selected to take part in firing squads missed the target because of nerves.
"The executioner will have to just push a button," Long, who is advising the Police Ministry on changes in capital punishment, told the newspaper in an interview.
Long did not describe the favoured machine, but said opinion was moving away from switching to lethal injection as too painful for the condemned.
The prime minister also asked the two ministries to consider the possibility of allowing relatives of executed criminals to freely bury the bodies by themselves.
At the moment the bodies were buried within the execution grounds and guarded by local security men.
Bodies are sometimes taken away from the execution grounds with the help of guardsmen who receive thousands of US dollars from relatives of executed people.