Source: The Age

GOVERNMENT MPs yesterday expressed little disquiet over the hanging of Saddam Hussein, even though the Government has signed a commitment to abolish the death penalty. 

But the Opposition, Greens, human rights groups, church leaders and lawyers deplored the execution, saying capital punishment was never justified. When asked if he welcomed the execution of the former Iraqi president, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he thought it was a "great thing" that the Iraqis had been able to bring to justice a man who caused so much pain and agony.

"Personally, I don't support capital punishment," he told 3AW. "But other than that, I think, look, this is a man who was a wicked tyrant, and for him to be brought to an end is a step forward for Iraq."

Mr Downer said he had not told the Iraqi Government that Australia opposed capital punishment, saying it was their system and it was for them to make the decisions. But Tim Goodwin, a spokesman for Amnesty International, which has claimed that Saddam's trial was undermined by political interference and partiality, said the group was concerned that his appeal appeared to have been handled as a foregone conclusion.

"We've called for Saddam Hussein and others to face trial for the horrendous abuses under his government, but what we've seen is a missed opportunity to establish a new standard for justice, accountability and respect for human rights in Iraq."

Lex Lasry, QC, the lawyer who acted for Australian drug trafficker Van Nguyen, executed in Singapore in 2005, said Saddam should have been tried by an international criminal court, which would not have imposed the death penalty if it were under the auspices of the UN.

"The death penalty achieves nothing, and I think it demeans the community generally," Mr Lasry said.
He said Australia was a signatory to a UN covenant aimed at the abolition of the death penalty "although the way the Government talks about people like Saddam Hussein, you wouldn't realise it".

Treasurer Peter Costello said that while great challenges remained for Iraq, the end of Saddam "draws a bloody chapter of Iraqi history" to a close. And Senator Russell Trood (Liberal, Queensland) who last year questioned the direction of Australia and its allies' strategy in Iraq, said that while he had never been a supporter of the death penalty "Saddam was evil personified and perhaps an exception needs to be made".

But Dr Ameer Ali, the former chairman of the Government's hand-picked Muslim Community Reference Group, said the "harsh and hurried" manner in which Saddam was sentenced let many other culprits off the hook.

"We will never know the truth about the complicity of the American administration in aiding and abetting the Kurdish massacre that Saddam Hussein carried out," he said. "We will also never know his side of the story about the wheat for arms scandal. Whatever history is going to be written is not the whole truth."

Bishop Christopher Saunders, the chairman of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, said he believed in the sanctity of life and that "repaying violence with violence seems to me inappropriate".

Senator Kerry Nettle (Greens, NSW) called on the Prime Minister to join European leaders and the Vatican in condemning the death penalty.

"By not opposing the death penalty in all circumstances, the Government is making it harder to save the lives of Australians facing the death penalty," Senator Nettle said.