14/12/2007

Christian Group Demands Moratorium On Death Penalty

LAHORE, Pakistan (UCAN) -- About 100 Christians took to the streets of a Christian enclave in Lahore to voice their objection to the death penalty in the country.

Shouting slogans and carrying placards stating "No to death penalty" and "We want life" in English and Urdu, the national language, they staged a procession on Nov. 30 that marched half a kilometer to St. John's Catholic Church in Youhanabad, the country's largest Christian settlement.

Youhanabad, with about 4,000 families, is on the outskirts of Lahore, 270 kilometers southeast of Islamabad. Local members of the Sant'Egidio Community, a worldwide Catholic lay movement, organized the event.

Addressing the gathering inside St. John's Church, parish priest Father Emmanuel Asi highlighted the dignity of life as found in Bible passages. Life is a gift of God and a right which should not be taken away as punishment for any crime, he said. Other ways exist to deal with criminals, to make them observe the law and respect other people, the priest said, demanding abolition of the death penalty from the Pakistan Penal Code.

Death by hanging in Pakistan can be imposed for crimes including premeditated murder, robbery, hijacking, arms trading, drug trafficking, rape, child smuggling, blasphemy and sexual relations between unmarried people.

Yousaf Benjamin, coordinator of Peace Education, a program of the Pakistan Catholic bishop's National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), backed Father Asi by referring to Amnesty International's 2006 report, which ranks Pakistan third on its list of countries with the most confirmed executions.

According to that report, Pakistan executed 82 people last year. China ranked first with 1,010 executions and Iran second with 177.

The law neglects the values of forgiveness and reconciliation, according to Benjamin. He also pointed out the case of Maqsood Kala, a Muslim who was hanged on March 1998 for theft and murder but later declared innocent.

Further, Benjamin continued, the law "is manipulated, especially in blasphemy cases, where both the judicial system and police department investigate with bias, without checking veracity of the facts."

The blasphemy laws, introduced in 1985, currently mandate a death sentence for anyone defiling "the sacred name of the Holy Prophet" Muhammad and stipulate life imprisonment for "willfully" desecrating the Qur'an.

No one convicted of blasphemy has yet been executed, and most death sentences for blasphemy are overturned on appeal to higher courts, but some Christians and Muslims accused of blasphemy have been killed in jails or police stations by overzealous people. The NCJP and other minority religious groups have long charged that this law is being abused.

Some organizers of the protest march told UCA News it was a response to Pakistan's vote against a resolution by a United Nations General Assembly committee on Nov. 15 calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions, with a view to eventually abolishing the death penalty entirely.

According to the U.N. website, the Assembly committee that deals with human rights "voted 99 to 52, with 33 abstentions, in favour of the resolution, which states 'that there is no conclusive evidence of the death penalty's deterrent value and that any miscarriage or failure of justice in the death penalty's implementation is irreversible and irreparable.'"

The report adds that "the resolution will now go before the full 192-member Assembly for a vote," but also notes that "all Assembly resolutions are non-binding."

Sana Iqbal, 21, coordinator of the Sant'Egidio Community in Lahore, told UCA News the purpose of highlighting concern for the death penalty was to create awareness about human rights and about discrimination faced by the Christian minority.

The university student charged that the laws "have gone a long way in preserving the power of conservative (Islamic) clerical elements" and are "tools for personal vendettas against vulnerable segments of society including the poor and minorities."

The Sant'Egidio Community, founded in Rome in 1968 by high school and university students, was recognized in the mid-1980s by the Holy See as an international Catholic association. It currently claims more than 50,000 members in more than 70 countries and is campaigning for the death penalty moratorium.

The local community, which began in Pakistan in 2001, now has about 500 members in major cities. Its Lahore chapter, started last year, has 50 members, mostly college students.