‘Malawi must drop death penalty’

BLANTYRE - Britain has urged Malawi to abolish capital punishment, still a contentious issue here after the poor southern African nation issued a moratorium on executions 15 years ago.

"Although the government of Malawi has yet to abolish the death penalty in the statutes, Britain welcomes the moratorium on executions since 1992. This is an important step towards abolition," British high commissioner Richard Wildash said in a statement.

"Britain hopes that Malawi will one day join those countries that take the decision to abolish death penalty, but this is a matter for Malawi to decide. The role of the state is to preserve life, not to take it away," he added.

Britain, which is Malawi’s largest bilateral donor, contributing 70 million pounds in 2006-7 alone, has launched a project that promotes interventions in combating human rights violations in prisons and communities.

Wildash said many countries were "fast" abolishing the death penalty, calling it a "naked violation" of the right to life and the "ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment."

Murder, treason and armed robbery are punishable by hanging in Malawi, where the majority of people favour the death penalty and want it retained under the country’s democratic constitution which became effective in 1995.

The influential Roman Catholic church and other prominent Christian churches and rights groups want the death penalty abolished, generating a heated debate over the years.

Former president Bakili Muluzi, who ruled Malawi for two decades from 1994 following the country’s first democratic elections, vowed that he would "never sign a death sentence against a fellow human being" during his rule.

Muluzi was credited for improving human rights after three decades of late Kamuzu Banda’s absolute dictatorship under which rights were seriously abused.