IRAQ. REINSTATED DEATH PENALTY RAISES DEEP MORAL QUESTIONS

"In Saddam's time and in all times the death penalty is not good. There is no justice and sometimes innocent people are killed without good reason," Baghdad resident Omar Abdul Aziz told IPS.
Others favour capital punishment but question how it should be applied -- especially to insurgents.
"The Iraqi government calls Iraqis who resist the occupation 'insurgents,' and this is the problem because they are not insurgents but freedom fighters. We should give them rewards, not use the death penalty against them," said Zuhair Hasan, a 38-year-old veteran of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.
Baghdad teacher Ahmed Ali spoke out unequivocally against capital punishment. "I've lived in Iraq all my life and we haven't seen any government bring justice to Iraq; especially in Saddam's government and this government under occupation. Because of that, I say don't use the death penalty because too many Iraqi people killed before were innocent."
Moreover, people's experiences with the Iraq-Iran war brought heightened fears of the death penalty.
"I was a soldier in the Iraqi army during the Iraq-Iran war, I was young and I was afraid of the sound of the bombs," veteran Hasan said. "I always thought about running away from the army especially when I was on the front, but I couldn't because of the death penalty. There were Special Forces at the front. Their job was to execute anyone trying to run away from the enemy."
But, he added, "The people who join the (current) resistance want to die, and they don't care about the death penalty."