by Kate Finn

Created on: January 11, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

Execution!

I was not going to comment publicly on this. It is such a contentious issue and I know that there are strong feelings out there. But at the risk of being slated, here goes ...

Saddam Hussein was exectued in Iraq yesterday by the Iraqi authorities for crimes against humanity. The massacre of 148 villagers took place on his orders in the 1990s. This is the crime he was convicted of, although there is evidence to suggest that his orders were responsible for the deaths of many more innocent people in Iraq during his reign of terror. His downfall, however, which led him to be captured by the Americans and put on trial in his own country, was brought about by the recent war in Iraq, which followed on from the September 11 attacks in 2001. Evidence suggests that Saddam had nothing personally to do with those attacks, although his country is a breeding ground for anti-western terrorism. It is, however, only one of many countries where terrorists are bred, including our own home-grown variety in the UK. The war in Iraq was started on false pretexts, that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, which he could use against western civilisations. It was sold to us as a defensive war, one that would ensure our safety in the west.

Are we any safer? I don't feel any safer. In fact I feel more threatened than ever before, especially since the London bombings on July 7th, 2005.

Apart from that, the brutal killing of a man by hanging is supposed to be just punishment for his crimes. Now I know that Saddam Hussein was an evil tyrant and I am not sorry that he is gone. But how does killing a man punish him for his crimes? He is beyond this world now. Many believe he is in hell. Many more like me think he is beyond suffering now. When a relative dies, we comfort one another, saying that they are at peace now, that nothing can hurt them anymore. Yet many societies also accept the state sponsored killing of convicted criminals as punishment. I see a double standard at work here. Far better to punish the man by making him face his crimes and his victims and their relatives? Make him work at rebuilding Iraq, a country brought to its knees. Make sure he can never have freedom again. After all, he is free now. Would that be sufficient punishment for his crimes?

I also have a problem with execution because it entails violence to human beings. However depraved a person is, however heinous their crimes against other human beings, they are still human and most religious organisations

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