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World leaders criticize video

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 3, 2007

Grainy cell phone video of Saddam Hussein's execution triggered international criticism Tuesday, with Britain's deputy prime minister calling the leaked images "unacceptable" and the Vatican decrying the footage as a "spectacle" violating human rights.

The Italian government pushed for a U.N. moratorium on the death penalty, and Cuba called the execution "an illegal act."

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon ran into trouble on his first day of work when he failed to state the United Nations' official stance opposing capital punishment and said it should be a decision of individual countries.

"Saddam Hussein was responsible for committing heinous crimes and unspeakable atrocities against Iraqi people, and we should never forget victims of his crime," Ban said in response to a reporter's question about Hussein's execution Saturday for crimes against humanity. "The issue of capital punishment is for each and every member state to decide."

His ambiguous answer put a question mark over the United Nations' stance on the death penalty, although Ban's spokeswoman said there was no change in policy.

British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said those who leaked the footage should be condemned.

"I think the manner was quite deplorable really. I don't think one can endorse in any way that, whatever your views about capital punishment," Prescott said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

The Holy See's daily, L'Osservatore Romano, decried media images of Hussein's hanging as a spectacle violating human rights and harming efforts to promote reconciliation in Iraq. The Vatican opposes the death penalty.

The office of Italian Premier Romano Prodi said Italy would seek the support of other countries that oppose capital punishment to put the issue of a moratorium to the U.N. General Assembly. Italy and all other European Union countries ban capital punishment.

Italy, which is one of the rotating members of the U.N. Security Council, has lobbied unsuccessfully for U.N. action against the death penalty.

[Last modified January 3, 2007, 00:47:37]