Subject: Here follows an article by Konstantine Kedrov, participant of the Brussels Congress, published in aDate: Thu, 23 Dec 93 15:31:36 GMT
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X-Comment: The Transnational Radical Party List
central Russian newspaper "Izvestia" (16 December 1993) and translated by
Julia Kalinina
EUROPE SAYS "NO" TO DEATH PENALTY
In the building of European Parliament in Brussels a Constituent Congress
of the International League for the abolishment of death penalty took
place.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI ON THE ELECTRIC CHAIR
Don't be afraid, the nominee of the Oscar prize didn't kill anybody and
wasn't sentenced to death. Electric chair was delivered to the European
Parliament by the opponents of death penalty as a protest against the
barbarity of the 20th century. Bertolucci tied himself up to the chair to
support the noble intentions of the League. The journalists were so
fascinated by weird exotic of the electrical death that they even proposed
the participants of the Congress to declare against death penalty in a pose
of a sentenced to the capital punishment.
To tell the truth, I also experienced that weird "initiation". The feeling
of belts tightly drawing your arms and legs to the chair is not pleasant
enough to want to keep it in your memory. Once again one can see that
"humane" penalty doesn't exist. Even psychologically it's scaring.
Let's remind the famous guillotine of emperor Ludovik. The humane king
wanted to smooth the tortures of a penalized person by replacing an axe
with a guillotine. When the guillotine was demonstrated him for his
approval, the educated emperor took a ruler and modified the draft of a
knife. This knife must not be straight but with the 45' angle - thus the
blow power will be greater and a penalized person wouldn't be tortured that
much. Poor emperor didn't know that he would experience the invention on
his own neck.
MONOPOLY FOR THE MURDER.
All the speeches in English, French, Deutch, Italian, Spanish, Russian
contained the urgent demand for death penalty abolishment or at least the
moratorium for carrying out the verdicts. For some reason US were blamed
most of all. By the way, death penalty is not adopted by all the states in
that country.
Representatives of Russia could boast thanks to the fact that capital
punishment in our country is not applied to non-adults, pregnant women and
old persons. In US, unfortunately, this barrier is overstepped. Not long
ago a teenager was penalized.
The jurist paid special attention to the uncompatibility of the capital
punishment and the principle of the "subject of law". The administration of
justice can be applied only to the alive persons but not to the dead ones.
If one of the law subjects is being eliminated than it is not justice but
massacre and revenge what is totally uncompatible with the concept of law.
The representatives of France and Brazil (where death penalty doesn't
exist) feeled themselves better than anybody else though the criminal
statistics there is not lawer than in our country.
The main argument of all the delegations - uncompatibility of death penalty
and the Declaration of Human Rights. The talks about the rights are
senseless if the state doesn't guarantee the right to live.
New Russian Constitution doesn't abolish death penalty, what means that the
right for life also is not guaranteed.
The participants of the Congress named the state right for death penalty to
be a state monopoly for murder. If the citizens are not allowed to kill
each other on the revenge considerations why is it allowed to the state?
>From the point of view of the Congress, that is a survival of the past when
the rights of a state in all cases were set higher than the rights of an
individual.
THE MESSAGES OF DALAI-LAMA AND VLADIMIR MONOMAKH
Death penalty in Tibet injures the souls of religious Buddhists. The
Dalai-Lama appeal to the Congress says that from the buddhist's point of
view, everything alive can re-incarnate in Buddah. It's impossible to kill
anything alive, moreover - to kill a human being. Any human being is a
potential saint. To kill him maens to kill Buddah.
One priest offered a goat and when he took out his knife a goat started
laughing as a man.
- Why are you laughing?- asked the priest.
- I laugh because in my previous incarnation, I was a priest offering a
goat.
Then a priest laughed.
- I remind that in my previous life I was that goat you offered.
The chain of violence secluded. A murder gives birth to a murder. That wise
buddhist parable deeply excited the salle.
The Transnational Party Coordinator Sergio D'Elia (Italy) said that from
the christian point of view the death penalty is absolutely unacceptable.
Anatolij Pristavkin, Chairman of the Commission on mercy of the President
of Russia sadly smiled. He knows that the position of Russian Clergy
doesn't coincide with D'Elia's point of view.
One thousand years ago when Kievskaya Rus' accepted Christianity, Prince
Vladimir abolished death penalty. A person who was baptized in a senile age
clearly conceived uncompatibility of death penalty and Christ's
commandments. However one year passed and the boyards forced Vladimir to
cancel death penalty prohibition. Though it was canceled, juridically death
penalty wasn't included in the Kievskaya Rus' Criminal Statute. Later
another famous prince Vladimir Monomakh bequeathed his sons a well-known
letter in which he conjured his heirs to reject forever the murders and
revenge. An ability to forgive was appreciated more than any military
deads. "Don't kill an innocent or guilty person, don't order to kill even
if smb's death is his fault". I'm sure that the Congress in Brussels would
great that Monomakh's appeal with the same storm of applause as the
Dalai-Lama message though one thousand years has passed between them.
POLITICAL MURDERS
Capital punishment for the criminal and political crimes was abolished by
emress Ekaterina. Having sworn "not to shed Russian blood", she kept her
promise. Unfortunately, in Ekaterina II reign the prohibition was canceled
once again due to the Pugachev's rebellion. A new rise of violence -
penalty of Dekabrists in the XIX century. he deepest shock for all Russia.
Barbarian assault on the Alexander II life and his death caused a wave of
murders. It's impossible to re-read without astonishment a letter by Lev
Tolstoj, where he calls the emperor to rise under his personal feeling and
forgive his enemies regecting death penalty according to the Christ"s
commandment. Seemed like inter-centuries connection was re-established and
the humanism of Vladimir Monomakh became available to the Russians.
One of Tolstoj's arguments against death penalty turned out to be
prophetical. Denying the political expediency of death penalty he said
that every terrorist had a son or a brother who sooner or later would start
to revenge using the same bloody methods. That happened. A brother of the
penalized terrorist A.Uljanov became the most cruel dictator in Russia
until an even more cruel one replaced him.
A representative of a Green Party Maria-Tereza Delash on her first day of
the meeting with the Russian delegation proposed to drink for "the Russia
of Lev Tolstoj"
"Russia is a civilized country. It has Lev Tolstoj. I believe that death
penalty will be abolished in your country".
Unfortunately we couldn't share her confidence. Political passions don't
afford us to rise to the height of Vladimir Monomakh and Lev Tolstoj. Only
two months ago the Supreme Council passed a decision on death penalty for
the political enemies. Even the extremest prophet will not predict what
passions will boil up in a new 2-chambers parliament of Russia. In the
meantime in the European Parliament Emma Bonino, Radical Party Secretary,
who worked a lot for the establishing of the International Tribunal for the
War Crimes Commited in Former Yugoslavia, reported that the Tribunal
rejects to use death penalty verdicts.
And immediately the Congress was alarmed by a news that came from Moldova
about the death penalty sentence for a political enemy. A message from
Azerbaidjan also alarmed the Congress - a law that allows to shoot the
deserters was passed.
Is it possible that former USSR countries are doomed to search always their
own way in the opposite side of the all-world progress?
RIGHT NOT TO KILL
Every speaker brought somebody with him to the salle: Christ, Buddha,
Gandi, Albert Shweizer, Vladimir Kievskij, Turgenev, Chekhov, Viktor
Giugeau, Tomas Mann, Mouzes; all of them said "Don't kill". They spoke
nine European languages and among others Russian sounded pretty often.
Transnational Party that had organized this Congress pursued two main
goals: to start an international Tribunal in Hague and put death penalty
outside the law (at least international) till the begining of the third
millenium. That goal seems unreachable but the International Tribunal now
established in Hague also recently seemed to be a pure utopia.
It's clear that in a world enveloped in the political passions besides the
right not to be killed another right - not to kill - must exist. Millions
of people in former Jugoslavia, USSR, Africa, China, many regions of Middle
Asia are devoid of this right now.
At first the Congress in Brussels seemed to me something like a meeting of
"fine soul" day-dreamers. Well, they came from different countries, spoke,
adopted a resolution, elected a permanent Committee, filled the metal box
of the Europarliament with the new documents - what's further? However to
the end of Congress work it became more and notable what we lack in Russia
- purposefulness, consistency and decisivness to realize every nominated
goal. Europe says - don't kill!
It can be said that a mission organized by the Russian branch of the
Transnational Party was successful. Two representatives of Russia -
Pristavkin and Bezrukov - were included in the permanent committee of the
International League for the abolishment of death penalty to the 2000-year.
Brussels-Moscow
On behalf of the editorial board: an appeal of the International Congress
in Brussels - to abolish death penalty befor the 2000-th year - directly
concerns Russian laws. In the nearest future we intend to publish the
material about the attitude towards this problem in our country, about the
work of the Commission on mercy of the President of Russia.
