Europeans:
More Equal than Others?
By Dr Shireen M Mazari
Let me state my position on capital
punishment at the outset: I am unequi- vocally opposed
to it on a number of counts. First, it does not
act as a deterrent to murder and so far there is
no data to show that the number of murders has been
reduced as a result of the prevalence of the death
penalty -- or that there are fewer murders committed
in countries that have the death penalty than in
those that do not.
Second, from the developed to developing states,
justice is never perfect and there is always human
error. For instance, there have been cases even
in the "developed" US where innocent people
have been meted out capital punishment -- so life
imprisonment is a more just option.
Three, there is a moral issue involved regarding
the whole notion of taking a life: if murder is
wrong then on what grounds can one sanctify the
taking of life by the state? This is of course not
as straightforward as it may sound given the notion
of war and so on, but it does reflect the moral
dilemma linked to capital punishment.
Having said this much on capital punishment, at
present there is the issue hitting the newspapers
that relates to the murder of a taxi driver by a
British citizen, in Rawalpindi, who has subsequently
been given the death penalty. Of course, the European
media has raised a hue and cry regarding the trial
itself, along with Amnesty International, and there
seems to be an absurd assumption that because the
trial was in Pakistan it must, by definition, have
been unfair or flawed. No doubt our legal system
like so many others, leaves a lot to be desired
but given the illustrious lawyers the British citizen
had, and given that the family of the murdered man
was hardly influential, why should there be an automatic
assumption that the trial was flawed? Worse still
is the assumption that an exception to the death
penalty must be made in this case because it involves
a British citizen. Why? Are British citizens above
the law of the land in which they commit their crime
or are they automatically to be treated above the
rest of the local citizenry?
Of course, Amnesty has raised the issue of capital
punishment per se, but it is the argument put forward
by the head of Amnesty's South Asian team, Angelika
Pathak who declares that the "death penalty
is a symptom of a culture of violence". This
does not hold true with ground realities. After
all, Britain has no death penalty but there is systemic
violence ingrained in its society -- from football
hooliganism to racial violence and police violence.
The last has reached new heights after the July
2005 London bombings and this was witnessed not
only in the shooting of an innocent Brazilian (who
was killed in a hail of bullets by the Metropolitan
Police) but also in the more recent shooting and
violence against a Bangladeshi migrant family in
London.
In fact, while much is made of the distorted version
of the concept of jihad in Islam, no one is paying
much attention to the Church of England's violent
hymns like "Onward Christian soldiers"
and others in a similar vein. That is why British
and other European soldiers from the "coalition
of the willing" that invaded Iraq have found
it quite acceptable to violently abuse Iraqi prisoners
and Iraqi civil society -- along with the US whose
tales of Muslim prisoner abuse are now sickeningly
notorious.
So before Amnesty has substantive data it should
refrain from declaring that the death penalty reflects
a culture of violence -- no matter how attractive
that may sound to a particular audience. There are
multiple factors that breed a culture of violence.
Even more absurd is the manner in which Pakistan
is being targeted for the meting out of capital
punishment to a British citizen. The House of Commons
actually passed a resolution questioning our judicial
system and declared that the charges did not conform
to the "standards laid by the European and
Human Rights Commission". Are we in Pakistan
supposed to accept these standards? And why was
Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection
of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms not applied
by the Europeans in the case of the blasphemous
cartoons?
Interestingly, this is not the first case of a British
citizen being meted out capital punishment in another
country. The US has been carrying out capital punishment
against a number of British citizens and I have
yet to find any House of Commons resolution condemning
this action on the part of certain US States --
although I am willing to be corrected on this count.
For instance, there is the case of British national
Nicky Ingram, who was executed in Georgia in 1995
and, according to anti-death penalty campaigner
Clive Smith, his life could have been saved had
the then British Prime Minister John Major intervened.
In 2002, Blair refused to intervene personally,
and British citizen Tracy Housel was executed, again
in Georgia. Incidentally, Housel was denied access
to a British consul after his arrest -- which is
a right guaranteed to foreign nationals by the Vienna
Convention on Consular Relations and a right which
Pakistan has also respected. The US has ratified
this convention but is famous for routinely violating
it. Then there was John Elliott who was executed
by the US state of Texas in February 2003, again
despite appeals by the British government. I have
yet to trace the record of House of Commons resolutions
condemning the trials and executions of these individuals.
It is unfortunate that instead of fighting for principles
and creating greater public awareness regarding
the issue of capital punishment per se at the global
level, the Europeans are seeking to use political
and economic pressure on Pakistan to save a British
citizen on death row. What message is being sent
out to Europeans -- that they will be treated above
the law in countries like Pakistan? Did the president
of the EU Parliament write an equally forceful note
to President Bush in the case of the now-executed
British citizens as he has done to the Pakistani
President, to whom he has sent what can only be
regarded as an ominous note, stating that "the
carrying out of this execution will cast a shadow
over the reputation of Pakistan as it would clearly
represent a rare combination of excessive cruelty
and profound injustice."
It is unfortunate that the whole issue of capital
punishment has become lost in the web of political
pressures and diatribes from Amnesty and the EU.
This does no service to the fight against the death
penalty. Instead, it only shows that the EU regards
its own as above the laws of others.
(The writer is director general of the Institute
of Strategic Studies in Islamabad. Courtesy The
News)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
