The author of the article (Bilkiss Jaffaralli : ?Death penalty for rapists, murderers and drug suppliers !?), published in this same paper yesterday, is obviously well aware, as many of us are, of the ills that are starting to eat up the Mauritian society nowadays. The current social environment in which we live, and recent events like the one that occurred in Lallmatie a couple of weeks ago, really makes us wonder where we are all going in terms of social harmony in this country. As the author so rightly points it out in her own words, peace, unity, and humanity are values that are rapidly fading away.

Mauritius suspended the death penalty in 1995 (thank God for the former decision-makers who believed in the sanctity of life strongly enough and had the courage to rid us of such an evil practice). Mauritius is not alone though. Over the past three decades, over half of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty.

Why? Simply because the death penalty is the ultimate violation of human rights! Why else ? Especially when it is turned into a freak show with an audience of ?privileged? people attending the execution !

Lots of people talk about God and the fact that we need to be answerable to God. Fair enough, but who else but God can take the life of a human being? Who are we to decide in His place? Would the same people really be trying to make us believe that God would want human beings to kill other human beings and that would be okay!? Pleeeease?

The death penalty as a deterrent? You must be joking!

Research will show that it is indeed not the case and that the ?legal killing? of a man or woman does not act as a deterrent and prevent other potential criminals from committing crimes. In fact, in most countries which have abolished the death penalty, recent crime figures have failed to show that abolishing the death penalty has led to increased levels of crimes. In some of these countries in fact, crimes rates have managed to go down following the abolition of the death penalty.

What about the risk of executing innocents? This brings shivers down my spine! Let?s take the example of drugs dealers again. Let?s say you are a ?respectable person? for the sake of the argument ? whatever that may mean - and somebody plants a large quantity of drugs in your car without your knowledge and that ?poor you, oh God! ? poor you, you do not succeed in proving in court that you are innocent. If we follow the arguments of supporters of the death penalty, then this ?respectable person? would end up being hanged. Do you fancy the idea? It could be any of us! That has happened, you know !

It is a fact that sometimes justice is not being done or does not appear to have been done! But we should really not panic and we should start to widen the scope of our thinking a little bit and stop day-dreaming about the re-introduction of the death penalty being a solution to all our problems. Come on! Life is a bit more complicated than that !

Justice must be done, I agree. Criminals must pay, I agree.

What I don?t agree is the manner in which we think we could achieve justice and make criminals pay. Legalizing and institutionalizing ?killings? won?t make our conscience clear! It certainly won?t make the pain of the victims or victims? relatives and friends go away !

Putting pressure on decision-makers to ensure that harsh penalties (excluding the death penalty) are implemented and that criminals don?t get away with their crimes is one of the solutions.

There is hope! This is true, but certainly not if we start using violence again in retaliation to violence.

Christine FAUGOO