Sri Lanka's Interior Minister John Amaratunga assured...

Sri Lanka's Interior Minister John Amaratunga assured a Hands Off Cain delegation visiting the country that the Sri Lankan government was not contemplating a swift return to the death penalty despite calls for its re-introduction to combat a rising crime rate.
The delegation, made up of Italian MP Enrico Buemi, MEP Marco Cappato, Italian regional counsellor for Lombardy Alessandro Litta Modignani and HOC Board Member Anna Zammit, was at the conclusion of its mission in Sri Lanka. The visit was targeted at lobbying for support of a resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions that the EU may have presented at the 2003 UN General Assembly in New York and fact-finding on the current death penalty situation in the Asian country.
Minister Amaratunga had visited the Colombo prison to inspect the gallows in February 2003 triggering a fresh debate on the use of the death penalty as a means of curbing crime.
The Prisons Department had met all the requirements to ensure that the gallows is ready for use, including the purchase of ropes. However Mr Amaratunga assured the delegation that the government was not going to take a hurried or unilateral decision for the resumption of executions.
"The parliament has partly debated the re-introduction of the death penalty and will debate again on Thursday [September 25 -Ed.]. But there will be no vote," Mr Amaratunga said.
"The government has not committed itself to either implementation or abolition, at the moment the death penalty remains suspended. We like to listen to the views of the international community before we take a decision.
"Our concern is crime - especially murder and attempted murder - and also the safeguarding of the fundamental human rights of all. We are also closely following the public debate on the matter and listening to the views of a cross-section of society."
The Sri Lankan government instituted a crime prevention committee that had been charged with making a number of recommendations to curb rising crime. The committee comprised the secretaries to the interior and justice ministries and representatives of the police force, professional organisations and the joint business council.
"The crime prevention committee is not making any recommendations concerning the death penalty," Justice Secretary Dhara Wijayatilake told the HOC delegation in Colombo.
"Our position is to respect the de facto moratorium."
The Justice Ministry had taken no official position regarding the implementation of the death penalty.
"The public demand for the death penalty may decrease once an effective policy to curb rising crime is in place. This is currently lacking and very necessary."
Asked whether it would be useful for the country to have an internationally approved moratorium backing the local de facto moratorium, Ms Wijayatilake said: 'Yes it definitely would be. Even in the adaptation of national legislation, we always take into account international norms."