Sergio D'Elia and Elisabetta Zamparutti, together with...

Sergio D'Elia and Elisabetta Zamparutti, together with Silvia Piccinini of the Italian Embassy in Lusaka, met with MP Doris Katai Mwinga, Clerk of the Zambian National Assembly. The Parliamentary Clerk, worried that her country was being singled out as a non democratic state, said: "Beware of automatically linking the issue of the death penalty with the absence of democracy as capital executions in the United States and other countries are tied to other reasons".Doris Katai Mwinga continued by saying that that on August 8 amendments were approved to the criminal code, eliminating corporal punishment. During the House debate two government parliamentarians intervened to say that the abolition of corporal punishment was also a step towards the abolition of the death penalty.Doris Katai Mwinga also wanted to go more in depth with us on the so called Singapore amendment on domestic jurisdiction, which we asked Zambia to vote against. Doris Katai Mwinga fully welcomed Hands Off Cain's request after we highlighted to her the fact that last November her government ratified the Statute of the International Criminal Court, which excludes the death penalty for crimes such as genocide and is a crystal clear example, in terms of human rights, of the supremacy of international over domestic jurisdiction. On the same day the HOC delegation, together with First Secretary of the Italian Embassy in Lusaka, Andrea Romussi, met with Kalungu Joseph Sampa, of the Catholic Commission for the Development of Peace and Justice.The Commission has been fighting against the death penalty since 1988. Sampa said that President Levy Mwanawasa is a personally convinced abolitionist who, since holding office, has always refused to sign executions warrants, a fact the Commission considers to be a vantage point for the abolitionists. The Commission is currently conducting a radio based campaign for abolitionism, but is having difficulty in persuading the public and the politicians as to the merits of abolishing the death penalty. On August 14, the delegation met with Foreign Minister Kalombo Mwansa.HOC asked the Minister to vote in favour of a moratorium resolution at the General Assembly, and against the Singapore amendment. "Considering the fact that the death penalty is still provided for in our laws, together with the fact that we are in a period of reflection and transition on this issue, we can today confirm our abstention at the General Assembly. We will continue our dialogue with you and we certainly won't be making any backward steps on the issue," Minister said. Regarding the Singapore amendment, the Minister announced that, "for us this kind of amendment is too distant from our current situation, so I can assure you that we will not back it by abstaining."Zambia is a retentionist state. The last execution took place at the beginning of January '97 when 8 convicts were hanged. Since then the country has seemingly implemented a de facto moratorium. Zambia has always abstained on the moratorium resolution at the UN Commission on Human Rights and will probably do the same at the General Assembly.