Friday, Nov. 27, 2009
From Friday's Globe and Mail
For overseeing the mass torture and murder of 14,000 people, Comrade Duch of the Khmer Rouge stands to be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison, under the rules of a tribunal co-sponsored by the United Nations and the Cambodian government. That may not seem enough. Even the most ardent advocates of death-penalty abolition may regret that Kaing Guek Eav (Comrade Duch's real name) will not be put to death.
Yet there is logic, and justice, in allowing the 67-year-old Comrade Duch (pronounced Dook) to live out the rest of his days in prison. Genocide is not a crime of monsters. It is a very human crime. It is made possible not by a few psychopaths but by many ordinary people capable of both good and evil. Executing an individual provides an illusory comfort that the evil is gone. Justice should never take comfort in killing.
No comments:
Post a Comment