Killing Saddam Hussein is no solution, say churches
-05/11/06
The Vatican has said tha
Killing Saddam Hussein is no solution, say churches
-05/11/06
The Vatican has said that it would be wrong to execute former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and other opponents of the death penalty ñ including peace churches (Mennonites, Quakers, and Brethren in Christ) and ecumenical bodies ñ are likely to argue that such an outcome would be counterproductive as well as morally corrosive.
The concern of church and human rights bodies comes after the verdict of death by hanging was passed upon Saddam after the first of two projected trials in Iraq, following the ex-presidentís seizure by the Americans after the US-led invasion and occupation of the country in 2003.
Reaction on the streets of Baghdad and in other parts of Iraq was mixed, and largely divided on established political and sectarian lines ñ highlighting one of the major concerns for the fragile future of the country.
Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace, said today that carrying out the death sentence by hanging would be an unjustifiably vindictive action, even though Saddam Hussein has committed crimes against humanity, because every life is sacred.
He said: “For me, punishing a crime with another crime – which is what killing for vindication is – would mean that we are still at the point of demanding an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” reported Italian news agency Ansa.
Added Cardinal Martino: “Unfortunately, Iraq is one of the few countries that have not yet made the civilised choice of abolishing the death penalty.”
In 2003 the Cardinal angered the United States government when he criticised US troops for treating Saddam like an animal when they took him captive, dragging him out of a hole in the ground.
The pictures of Saddamís medical examination broadcast on national TV were said by some lawyers to be in flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention. Insurgents subsequently meted out the same treatment to captured coalition troops.
Groups like Christian Peacemaker Teams, whose reconciliation work inside the country began before the invasion, have long argued that it is important to break rather than feed the cycle of violence.
Questions have also been raised about the conduct of the trial. But opponents of the brutal Saddam regime and many of his victims were mainly celebrating the execution verdict tonight.
The British government is against the death penalty, but its protests against the verdict have so far verged from non-existent to muted. A spokesperson said that the handling of the case ìwas a matter for the Iraqi government and people.î
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said that it would be wrong and unhelpful for the ex-dictator to be killed, however. At the same time he recognised the thirst for justice among Saddamís victims.
English clergyman Dr Andrew White, vicar of St Georgeís Anglican Church in Baghdad, said on BBC radio this morning that the verdict was an appropriate one. But many other church leaders in the USA and Europe disagree.
Simon Barrow, co-director of the UK Christian think tank Ekklesia, said that the churches needed to speak out consistently against all kinds of violence, both by states and by armed terror groups.
ìThe British government was complicit in the war, and it cannot evade its responsibility in thisî, he added. ìHumanly speaking, the desire for revenge against Saddam is entirely understandable ñ but it is politically unwise, and morally it contributes to the climate of increasing sectarian murder which is threatening to unpick what remains of Iraqi society in the aftermath of an armed intervention that has brought little justice and no peace.î
Ekklesia, which relates to Christian Peacemaker Teams, has highlighted the destructive consequences of the ìmyth of redemptive violenceî within the world order ñ the quasi-religious but also secular ideology which encourages people to believe that killing is a solution.
Killing Saddam Hussein is no solution, say churches
-05/11/06
The Vatican has said that it would be wrong to execute former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and other opponents of the death penalty ñ including peace churches (Mennonites, Quakers, and Brethren in Christ) and ecumenical bodies ñ are likely to argue that such an outcome would be counterproductive as well as morally corrosive.
The concern of church and human rights bodies comes after the verdict of death by hanging was passed upon Saddam after the first of two projected trials in Iraq, following the ex-presidentís seizure by the Americans after the US-led invasion and occupation of the country in 2003.
Reaction on the streets of Baghdad and in other parts of Iraq was mixed, and largely divided on established political and sectarian lines ñ highlighting one of the major concerns for the fragile future of the country.
Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace, said today that carrying out the death sentence by hanging would be an unjustifiably vindictive action, even though Saddam Hussein has committed crimes against humanity, because every life is sacred.
He said: “For me, punishing a crime with another crime – which is what killing for vindication is – would mean that we are still at the point of demanding an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” reported Italian news agency Ansa.
Added Cardinal Martino: “Unfortunately, Iraq is one of the few countries that have not yet made the civilised choice of abolishing the death penalty.”
In 2003 the Cardinal angered the United States government when he criticised US troops for treating Saddam like an animal when they took him captive, dragging him out of a hole in the ground.
The pictures of Saddamís medical examination broadcast on national TV were said by some lawyers to be in flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention. Insurgents subsequently meted out the same treatment to captured coalition troops.
Groups like Christian Peacemaker Teams, whose reconciliation work inside the country began before the invasion, have long argued that it is important to break rather than feed the cycle of violence.
Questions have also been raised about the conduct of the trial. But opponents of the brutal Saddam regime and many of his victims were mainly celebrating the execution verdict tonight.
The British government is against the death penalty, but its protests against the verdict have so far verged from non-existent to muted. A spokesperson said that the handling of the case ìwas a matter for the Iraqi government and people.î
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said that it would be wrong and unhelpful for the ex-dictator to be killed, however. At the same time he recognised the thirst for justice among Saddamís victims.
English clergyman Dr Andrew White, vicar of St Georgeís Anglican Church in Baghdad, said on BBC radio this morning that the verdict was an appropriate one. But many other church leaders in the USA and Europe disagree.
Simon Barrow, co-director of the UK Christian think tank Ekklesia, said that the churches needed to speak out consistently against all kinds of violence, both by states and by armed terror groups.
ìThe British government was complicit in the war, and it cannot evade its responsibility in thisî, he added. ìHumanly speaking, the desire for revenge against Saddam is entirely understandable ñ but it is politically unwise, and morally it contributes to the climate of increasing sectarian murder which is threatening to unpick what remains of Iraqi society in the aftermath of an armed intervention that has brought little justice and no peace.î
Ekklesia, which relates to Christian Peacemaker Teams, has highlighted the destructive consequences of the ìmyth of redemptive violenceî within the world order ñ the quasi-religious but also secular ideology which encourages people to believe that killing is a solution.