A Hands Off Cain delegation formed by Hon

A Hands Off Cain delegation formed by Hon. Enrico Buemi (Italian Social Democrats), Marco Cappato MEP, Alessandro Litta Modignani (Lombard regional Councillor) and Anna Zammit (HOC board member) is in Sri Lanka, as part of a project funded by the European Commission, in order to ask for support towards a UN resolution on capital executions.
They first met with Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy, Sri Lankan human rights commissioner, who said she had officially taken an anti death penalty stance and denounced the summary executions of Tamil rebels which took place in the North-Eastern part of the country. She also reminded the delegation that a recent survey had revealed that 80% of public opinion was in favour of the death penalty.
They then met Parliamentary spokesman Joseph Michael Perera, who said there had been lots of requests by parliamentarians in favour of the resumption of executions and that Parliament had made a non binding recommendation to such an effect. He also stated his personal conviction that the death penalty did not act as a deterrent.
The third meeting was with Rohan Pereira, responsible for judicial affairs at the Foreign Ministry, who recognised the merits of Hands Off Cain's moratorium approach over complete abolition as, he said, it was more respectful to Sri Lanka's internal political processes.