(Tues.16 Jan, 2007): - The Vatican's semiofficial newspaper- L’Osservatore Romano,
described the executions taking place in Iraq as “ cruel justice.” Following Saddam
Hussein's Dec. 30 execution, the death penalty by hanging, was also applied at dawn
on Jan 15 to former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim and the head of Iraq's revolutionary
court, Awad Hamed al-Bander. A front page article in the Italian edition of L'Osservatore
Romano lamented _ "a cruel justice' again uses the scaffold." Following Saddam
Hussein's execution, turned into a spectacle, that attacked the person's dignity,
urgent appeals were heard from different institutions in the direction of dialogue
and reconciliation," says the newspaper and adds. “However, for the moment it does
not seem that this 'change of course' has taken place." Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi,
director of the Vatican press office, expressed the Vatican's opposition to the death
penalty at the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam. "A capital execution
is always tragic news," he said, "a reason for sadness, even if it is about a person,
who has been guilty of grave crimes. Father Lombardi added: "To kill the guilty one,
is not the way to rebuild justice and to reconcile society. The risk also exists that,
on the contrary, the spirit of vengeance will be fueled and new violence be sown.
In this dark time of the life of the Iraqi people, one cannot but hope that all those
responsible will make every effort, so that in a dramatic situation, channels of reconciliation
and peace will finally be opened."