Sergio D'Elia, Hands Off Cain Secretary

1,000TH EXECUTION IN THE U.S. AND CITIES AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY, D’ELIA: LETS NOT FORGET THE SLAUGHTER IN CHINA AND THOSE CONDEMNED TO DEATH IN IRAN, VIETNAM AND NORTH KOREA

November 30, 2005: Hands Off Cain adhered to the demonstration in Rome on November 30 in front of the United States embassy to mark the 1,000^th US execution since the Supreme Court reintroduced the death penalty in 1976. On occasion of the campaign “Cities for Life, Cities against the Death Penalty”, the 1,000^th execution in the United States and the demonstration in front of the US embassy in Rome to which Hands Off Cain has given its full support, the organisation’s Secretary Sergio D’Elia declared:
“We give our support to the demonstration in front of the US embassy to mark the 1000^th execution since the reintroduction of the death penalty, but we haven’t lost our sight of our sense of proportion and the huge differences with which the problem manifests itself in different countries.
“We are talking about the 1,000^th execution to be carried out in the US in the last 30 years compared with the at least 5,000 executions that have been carried out every year in China, without interruption, since the birth of the People’s Republic.
“If its unacceptable that executions continue to be carried out in the world’s oldest and most liberal democracy, we must not forget that China’s judicial slaughter and the capital punishment meted out by other totalitarian, authoritarian and illiberal regimes account for 98.9 per cent of the problem worldwide.
“The battle taken up by Hands Off Cain and the Radical Party for a universal moratorium on executions approved by the UN General Assembly is aimed firstly at all the unnamed and forgotten victims of the death penalty: those condemned to death in China, Iran, Vietnam and other illiberal states, those who die killed in silence and amongst general indifference.
“In the long term, the definitive solution to the problem regards states such as China, Iran, Vietnam, North Korea and Saudi Arabia and lies fundamentally with the affirmation of democracy and human rights.
“If it is true, such as with the United States, that democracy does not necessarily equate to the abolition of the death penalty, it is also true that long lasting abolition can only be conceived by a democratic system.
“Even dictators can abolish it by decree from one day to another, as they can, by decree, reintroduce it from one day to the next.” (Sources: HOC, 30/11/2005)