Source Dawn-Inter Press Service

The European Union (EU), bowing to strong opposition from most Third

World nations, temporarily has abandoned a proposal calling for a

worldwide moratorium on capital punishment and its eventual abolition.

The opposition came mostly from countries who either are tough on crime

or who favor the death penalty for capital crimes.

The EU initiative at the United Nations, co-sponsored by some 74 mostly

European and Latin American countries, was formally withdrawn - primarily

because of 13 substantive amendments brought by anti-abolitionists.

The amendments - which had the support of some 83 countries - were

co-sponsored mostly by African, Asian, Caribbean and Middle Eastern

nations, including Singapore, Egypt, China, India, Indonesia, Iran,

Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Pakistan, Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbadoes,

Niger, Cameroon and Sierra Leone.

If adopted, they would have completely diluted the thrust of the original

resolution which sought the "complete" abolition of the death penalty.

"The EU was absolutely arrogant. They were not willing even to discuss

this with us," one Third World diplomat told IPS. "In the end, they had

to withdraw to save face."

The United States, whose State of Texas alone has executed some 195

people since executions were resumed in the country in 1977, found itself

on the side of Third World nations opposing the EU proposal. Singapore,

which has some of the world's toughest laws against crime, emerged as the

strongest defender of the death penalty.

"We can debate endlessly the merits of the death penalty," Ambassador

Kishore Mahbubani told delegates. "But the key issue here is not the

death penalty. The key issue is whether a small group of societies from

one continent should be allowed to impose their values on the rest of the

world."

Mahbubani said while the EU could advocate the abolition of the death

penalty today, "tomorrow, they could advocate the legalization of drugs

(which already has happened in some European countries).

"The day after tomorrow they could advocate the legislation of

prostitution (which also is the case in some European societies). Where

and when will it stop?."

Mahbubani conceded that the West had won the great political and economic

debates: the victory of democracy over communism and free-market

economies over centrally-planned economies. But the verdict on the great

social debate is far from clear, he argued.

Being plagued with problems relating to high crime, personal insecurity,

high divorce rates, growing single-parent families and rising drug usage,

the West has still not found the right answers to key social questions.

"The unfortunate problem that the developing countries (who make up 85 %

of mankind now) face is that they are being subject to a great export

of social and personal values from the developed societies, including

values that may not have worked well in the developed societies

themselves," Mahbubani asserted. He also argued that it was unwise to

abolish capital punishment because the EU has failed to explain why the

issue of the death penalty is a human rights rather than a criminal

justice issue.

"We all cherish the right to life. Nobody likes to be killed. But to

abolish capital punishment without abolishing murders clearly indicates

that the right of killers is defended more than the right to life of

innocent victims," he said.

Speaking on behalf of the EU, Ann-Marie Nyroos of Finland said the

abolition of the death penalty would enhance human dignity and would

promote the progressive development of human rights.

"In many cases where the death penalty was not yet abolished," she said,

"it was often applied in violation of minimum safeguards as set in the UN

Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other instruments protecting

the rights of those facing the death penalty."-

Source Dawn-Inter Press Service