June 24
GLOBAL:
Report on the death penalty worldwide lists China, Iran and Iraq as top
executioners for 2003
Hands Off Cain's 2004 report, edited by Elisabetta Zamparutti and
published in Italian by Marsilio, is dedicated to Levy Mwanawasa, the
President of Zambia. President Mwanawasa is also the author of the
foreword to this years edition.
Since his election in 2001, President Mwanawasa has given a strong boost
to the process of democratisation in the country. A strongly abolitionist
Baptist, he has moreover refused to sign any death warrants since he took
office.
In April 2003, he set up a constitutional review commission with the
abolition of the death penalty as one of the terms of reference for its
tasks.
On May 21, 2003, President Mwanawasa refused to authorise the execution of
scores of people, and decided to commute their death sentences to life in
prison instead.
On February 27, 2004 he commuted the death sentences of 44 soldiers
convicted of treason to jail terms ranging from 10 to 20 years. He has
also announced that Government intends to propose the abolition of the
death penalty to Parliament. In the meanwhile, he has ordered the review
of all capital trials that resulted in death verdicts.
On May 7, 2004, President Mwanawasa commuted a further 15 death sentences,
handed out for murder and robbery with violence, to jail terms of between
20 and 50 years.
The last execution in Zambia took place in January 1997, when in a single
day, eight people were put to death. Since then, Zambia has had a de facto
moratorium on capital punishment, that continues to be observed thanks to
the firm beliefs of President Mwanawasa, who has declared that: "You
cannot be slaughtering people like chickens and I will not sign any death
warrant for as long as I remain president. I do not want to be the chief
hanger."
THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTS OF 2003
The worldwide situation to date
The worldwide situation concerning the death penalty has once again
registered a trend towards abolition in the past year. The countries or
territories that to different extents have decided to give up the practice
of capital punishment total 133, including the first months of 2004. Of
these 81 have abolished the death penalty completely; 14 have abolished it
for ordinary crimes; 1, Russia, as a member of the Council of Europe is
committed to abolish it and in the meanwhile apply a moratorium on
executions; 5 are observing moratoriums and 32 countries are de facto
abolitionist, not having carried out executions for at least 10 years.
Countries that retain the death penalty number 63 - this is 3 down from
2002, when there were 66 retentionist states - and not all of these put
people to death regularly. In 2003, in fact, only 29 retentionists carried
out executions. This was 5 countries less that executed people than in
2002, when 34 states were recorded as having carried out executions. Yet
the number of known executions for 2003 is significantly higher than the
2002 total: 5,599 executions to 4,101 the previous year. This increase is
attributable to the simple fact that Chinese officials, for the first
time, released near official statistics on the number of executions
carried out annually in China, where information relating to capital
punishment is classed as a state secret. At least 5,000 executions were
carried out in the country in 2003, but the number was again probably much
higher. Even this figure is already considerably higher than the ones
given in previous years by the media and abolitionist organizations.
In relative terms therefore, the number of executions worldwide has in
fact diminished in comparison to previous years.
Asia however remains the continent that executes the highest number of
people. Considering that in China there were at least 5,000 executions,
the total of executions in Asia for 2003 amounts to 5,474. In 2002, 3,946
executions had been recorded in Asia, but the number of reported
executions in China, the top executioner worldwide, was always thought to
be much lower than reality.
Africa continues to cut down on the use of capital punishment: 56
executions were recorded continent-wide in 2003, down 7 from the 63
registered in 2002.
Europe would be a death-penalty free zone if it wasnt for Belarus that in
2003 carried out at least 1 execution.
North and South America would also be death penalty free, were it not for
the 65 people put to death in the United States (down from 71 in 2002) and
the 3 people put to death in Cuba after a few years of suspension of
capital punishment.
Top executioners for 2003: China, Iran and Iraq
Of the 63 countries worldwide retain the death penalty, 48 are
dictatorial, authoritarian or illiberal states. These countries accounted
for at least 5,525 executions, or 98.7% of the world total of executions
in 2003. One country alone, China, carried out at least 5,000, or 89.3% of
the executions that took place during 2003. Iran was responsible for at
least 154 executions. Iraq, up to April 9 when US Central Command chief
General Tommy Franks suspended the death penalty - as the US-led coalition
invaded the country and toppled Saddam Husseins regime - had already
executed at least 113 people.
Vietnam carried out 69 executions; Saudi Arabia 52; Kazakhstan at least
19; Pakistan at least 18; Singapore at least 14; and Sudan at least 13.
Many of these countries do not issue official statistics on the practice
of the death penalty therefore the number of executions may be much
higher. In some countries, executions are completely covert, and news of
them does not even filter through to the local media. Two cases in point
are North Korea and Syria.
The conclusion that can be drawn from such a picture is that the definite
solution to the problem of capital punishment - more than by tackling the
issue in itself - is better achieved through the establishment of
democracy, the rule of law and the promotion and respect of political
rights and civil liberties.
Authoritarian states once again take the podium as the top executioners of
the year in 2003: China, Iran and Iraq (up to April 9, 2004)
China, where reality exceeds the worst estimates
The number of death sentences passed, as the number of executions carried
out, are classed as state secrets in China, nevertheless one fact emerges
clearly: China is the worlds top executioner. Information on the real
extent of the judicial massacre that takes place in China is beginning to
filter through sources within the ruling Communist regime. The number of
people put to death in the PRC is much higher than the highest estimates
by western media or abolitionist organisations.
In 2003, according to a judicial source, 5,000 people were executed in
China. Chen Zhonglin, a member of the Peoples National Congress
(Parliament) in Beijing, said that China carries out 10,000 executions
every year. His declaration was published on the China Youth Daily in
March 2004. This was the first time that a similar declaration was
published by a state-controlled newspaper.
In Disidai, or The Fourth Generation a Communist Party member writing
under the pseudonym Zong Hairen said 15,000 people had been sent to their
death in China between 1998 and 2001. The book was published in 2002.
In June 2003, Chinese President Hu Jintao praised the strike-hard campaign
launched in April 2001, that led to the execution of thousands of people,
and announced that it would continue for at least another year. On
December 11, Peoples Supreme Court President Xiao Yang called for the
perpetuation of the campaign that had resulted in 819,000 death sentences
or jail terms exceeding 5 years.
People accused of violent and non-violent crimes alike were fed to the
shredder that is Chinas capital punishment system - terrorists and
separatist militants, murderers and robbers, kidnappers and rapists,
drug-traffickers and small time peddlers, smugglers of weapons and
cigarettes, counterfeiters of banknotes and invoices, pimps and
tomb-raiders, corrupters and corrupted - were put on trial in mass public
rallies, forced to wear placards announcing their name and crime, and then
taken to a field and shot.
Chinas Attorney General, Han Zubin, called for measures against
"separatists, terrorists and adherents to evil cults" to be stepped up for
the sake of "national security." In the five years up to 2003, 3,500
people had been charged with "crimes against the state", including murder,
bomb attacks and arson, but also non-violent political dissent. Han
confirmed that the total included suspected practitioners of Falun Gong, a
spiritual movement branded an "evil cult" by the Communist authorities and
outlawed in 1999.
China has also accused of terrorism activists for an enhanced Tibetan
autonomy and leaders of the Uighur people in the Islamic northwest of the
country.
In 2003, the practice of removing organs from executed prisoners to sell
for transplants was once again denounced.
Iran, again in the top 3
Iran, along with China, regularly features among the countries that
execute most people in the world. Though China remains by far the most
prolific executioner, Iran, in proportion to its population, applies
capital punishment just as much. In 2003, 154 executions were recorded in
Iran, including a woman and a minor. This total is significantly less than
in 2002, when 316 executions were registered, including a woman stoned to
death, but as with other illiberal countries, the real number of people
put to death by the state is probably much higher. Iranian authorities do
not issue official statistics on the death penalty, and HOCs total is
based on news reports by Iranian media, that very likely do not carry news
of every single execution.
Iran does not limit itself to the death penalty. Its interpretation of
Sharia law prescribes whippings for sexual relations before marriage,
lashings for drinking alcohol and amputation of hands and feet for petty
thieves.
Iraq, the last executions under Saddam
The execution of political opponents and military conspirators - a
hallmark of Saddam Husseins regime - were kept up till its fall on April
9, 2003. The US Central Command suspended the use of the death penalty on
that day, and the Coalition Provisional Authority upheld the ban. Capital
punishment still features in Iraqi laws, and though the provisional
constitution makes no mention of the death penalty, a new constitution in
all probability will re-introduce it. On June 6, the newly-appointed
Justice Minister Malek Dohan al Hassan affirmed that after the handover of
power by the CPA to Iraqi authorities on June 30 his country would resume
executions, and that the former president Saddam Hussein may be liable to
it. This, HOC notes, would definitely not be the best way to present the
new Iraq to the world.
Hands Off Cain recorded at least 113 executions for the first few months
of 2003, the majority of which were carried out following summary trials.
Past estimates for executions under Saddam Husseins dictatorship seem to
have fallen far short of the real number of victims - by tens of
thousands. The Coalition Provisional Authority said that at least 300,000
people had been buried in mass graves. Officials from human rights
organisations talked of 500,000 victims and some Iraqi political parties
estimate that more than 1 million people were executed and buried in
secret places.
(source: Payvand)
