Oct. 26
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan adopts death penalty for 'honour' killings
Pakistan's National Assembly has passed legislation proposing the death
penalty for those who kill women in the name of family honour.
Under centuries-old tribal customs, hundreds of Pakistani women are
victims of so-called honour killings every year.
Women can be murdered for marrying for love, committing adultery or
earning an inadequate dowry.
In many cases, the killers go free because some police and prosecutors do
not consider them to be criminals.
The new bill just passed, proposes the death sentence for the most extreme
cases, and prison terms up to life for lesser cases.
(source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
SINGAPORE/AUSTRALIA:
CITY STATE DOES ITS DEATH BY THE BOOK
When it comes to the death penalty, Singapore is unapologetic for its
cold-hearted efficiency.
In its official drug education website, the city state publishes the diary
of David W, a 21-year-old addict the Government hanged in 2000.
"They weighed me today," David wrote 3 months before his death. "Not
because they are worried about me putting on weight, no not for that. They
need to know how heavy I am to calculate the length of the rope." Later,
David says one of the reasons he will be wearing a hood at his execution,
"is so they don't have to look at you."
Australian Nguyen Tuong Van, 24, is likely to know soon how David felt.
In a decision as swift as his expected execution, 3 judges this week
dismissed his appeal against the death sentence without saying a word to
the former child refugee.
Not looking at the condemned man might be one way of coming to terms with
state-sanctioned murder, but righteousness is another. Singapore firmly
believes its mandatory death sentence for anyone carrying more than 15g of
heroin has led to a reduction in drug-trafficking.
Australia, meanwhile, will begin a long and potentially futile attempt to
plead for Nguyen's life by appealing to President S.R. Nathan for rarely
bestowed clemency.
Diplomatically, they will be walking a fine line.
The last thing diplomats want is a repeat of the fallout after then prime
minister Bob Hawke called Malaysia "barbaric" when it hanged convicted
drug traffickers Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers in1986.
7 years later, behind-the-scenes diplomatic negotiations failed to gain a
reprieve for Australian Michael Denis McAuliffe, who was also hanged in
Malaysia for drug trafficking.
Australia had more success in Vietnam last year when quiet representations
helped win clemency for condemned woman, Le My Linh.
Singapore, however, has shown little interest in its world standing in
terms of its human rights record and is traditionally intransigent in the
face of external pressure.
While few Australians would sympathise with Nguyen, who attempted to
smuggle 396g of heroin from Cambodia to Melbourne, few also would support
Singapore's hardline stance on capital punishment.
Had Nguyen made it to Tullamarine Airport in Australia before arrest, he
would now be facing a possible 10-year prison sentence.
But Australia's position is complicated by what appears to be a double
standard set by politicians.
"We don't want to see a young Australian executed," said Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer this week, as he vowed to appeal for clemency based on
humanitarian and compassionate considerations.
At the same time, Prime Minister John Howard was urging Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to do what he could to uphold the
death sentences for 3 of the Bali bombers.
At the time of those sentences, Mr Downer said he didn't support the death
penalty but, "in these particular circumstances we won't be making any
representations against the sentence."
For those countries who consider drug-trafficking, like terrorism, to be a
threat to the lives of its citizens, these contradictory positions will be
noticed.
(source: The Weekend Australian, Oct. 23)
