ARMED SOUTH VIETNAMESE POLICE AND BARBED WERE BARRICADES KEPT LARGE CROWDS OF PEOPLE OUT OF SAIGON'S CENTRAL MARKET PLACE EARLY YESTERDAY MORNING (FRIDAY), WHERE FIVE CRIMINALS WERE EXECUTED.SCORES OF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS MILLED AROUND IN AN AREA BEING THE FIRING SQUAD.

THE CRIMINALS, WHOSE AGES RANGED FROM 26 TO 33 YEARS, WERE THE FIRST COMMON CRIMINALS TO BE PUBLICLY EXECUTED.BY A 36-MAN FIRING SQUAD.THEY WERE BLINDFOLDED AND TIED TO STAKES.THEY WERE SENTENCED FOR CRIMES RANGING FROM RAPE TO ARMED ROBBERY.THEY WERE NOT VIETCONG TERRORISTS ALTHOUGH THIS FATE HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN RESERVED FOR VIETCONG TERRORISTS OR AGENTS.A ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND TWO BUDDHIST MONKS WERE PRESENT TO GIVE THE LAST SACRAMENTS TO THE CONDEMNED MEN.

NONE OF THE MEN UTTERED A WORD AS THE ORDERS TO FIRE WERE GIVEN.FOUR OF THE FIVE APPEARED TO DIE ALMOST INSTANTANEOUSLY, BEING THROWN BACK AS THE BULLETS RIPPED INTO THEIR BODIES AND THEN SLUMPING FORWARD.BUT THE FIFTH MAN, WITH HIS HANDS CLASPED IN PRAYER, DID NOT.HE BRIEFLY DROPPED HIS HANDS, GRIMACED, THEN PUT HIS HANDS TOGETHER IN PRAYER AGAIN.HIS LIPS COULD BE SEEN TO BE MOVING BEFORE SINGLE BULLETS SLAMMED INTO HIM.

AFTER THE COUP DE GRACE HAD BEEN ADMINISTERED, THEIR BODIES WERE ALLOWED TO HANG FROM THE POSTS FOR A FEW MINUTES.LATER, THEIR BODIES WERE BUNDLED INTO CRUDELY-MADE WOODEN COFFINS AND DRIVEN OFF IN A TRUCK.FIRE ENGINES MOVED UP TO HOSE THE AREA DOWN.

(AT A PRESS CONFERENCE, THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE PRIME MINISTER, AIR VICE-MARSHAL NGUYEN CAO KY SAID THAT IN ALL PROBABILITY, PUBLIC EXECUTIONS OF VIETCONG WOULD BE AVOIDED IN THE FUTURE.THIS WAS NECESSARY BECAUSE OF VIETCONG RETALIATION AGAINST CAPTURED AMERICAN PRISONERS-THE LATEST WAS LAST WEEK WHEN TWO AMERICAN SOLDIERS WERE PUBLICLY EXECUTED).