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TOKYO, Japan, 12 November 2006 — The Dalai Lama, opposing
capital punishment and reiterating his appeal for its abolition,
called for amnesty for the deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein
for the death sentence against him.
"The death penalty seems to fulfill a preventive function, yet it
is clearly a form of revenge," he said in his hotel in Tokyo,
winding his two-week visit to the country.
"However horrible the act any person may have committed, everyone
has the potential to improve and correct himself."
Ousted from power during a US-led invasion in 2003, Saddam was found
guilty, by an Iraqi court on November 5th, of killing 148 Shiites in
an Iraqi village in 1982 after an assassination attempt. The court
has sentenced Saddam to death by hanging.
The execution is expected to take place before the end of 2006.
The Dalai Lama commended the stand of the European Union, who opposes
the death penalty, and who calls on Iraq to refrain from carrying out
the death sentence passed on
Saddam Hussein.
The Dalai Lama feels that any criminal activity can be prevented in
society without having to resort to the death penalty, and hopes that
in the case of Saddam Hussein, as with all others, that human life
will be respected and spared.
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