Jokubas Minkevicius - Lithuania

The echo of Lithuania, 29 December

ABSTRACT: The Association for the abolition of the death penalty by the Year 2000 asks all government to adopt a moratorium of the executions and the abolition of the death penalty in Europe. The author believes the public opinion and the competent authorities are not yet ready, so he addressed an appeal to all intellectuals,

("HANDS OFF CAIN", 1 February 1994)

...In the context of its program to struggle for human rights, the Radical Party has raised the problem of the death penalty. The question istems from the fundamental documents of our time: the Declaration of human rights and the European Convention on the rights of man, as well as from all the constitutions of those states that respect the principles contained in them. The radical party, taking a firm stance for the right to life, condemns the death penalty as a punitive measure.

...The repressive policy and its victims in the former U.S.S.R. are fairly well-known. But even after the fall of the totalitarian regime, the conscience of the repression has been maintained; and not just the conscience but the practice as well.

...What is the problem of the death penalty and its abolition? Why has this issue been discussed for two days at the European Parliament by eminent personalities of politics, law, science and culture, and by members of the transnational radical party and representatives of various countries?

....The public opinion wants tougher laws and harsher sentences, and the physical annihilation of the criminals. Nonetheless, there is a doubt that forces us to reflect: can a policy that adopts extreme repressive laws represent the cure-all for such a widespread evil?

The secretary of the transnational radical party, Emma Bonino, who devoted many energies for the establishment of the international tribunal against war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, said that, unlike the Nuremberg trial, this tribunal will issue no death sentences.

Thus, on the initiative of the radical party, which breaks the vicious circle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, the Association for the abolition of the death penalty by the Year 2000 addresses all governments with the following objectives: a moratorium of the executions, and the abolition of the death penalty in Europe, including Lithuania.

Since owing to the spread of crime and the scarce awareness of the law, such a great part of the public opinion and the competent authorities are not ready for a similar step, we address our appeal to all intellectuals.