49 Pakistani Children Await Hangman's Noose

by Ahmar Mustikhan

Amnesty International (AI) in its report "Pakistan: Juveniles sentenced to death," said "Pakistan is now one of only a handful of countries which are still ignoring the near universal consensus that killing children is no solution to juvenile crime."

"Pakistan's cruel treatment of a juvenile, Mohammed Saleem, not only demonstrates its blatant disregard for children's rights, it also flies in the face of its international obligations and violates the country's own constitution," said Menno Kaminga, a member of Amnesty's international executive committee.

Saleem's freedom lasted a little over four months. He was re-arrested on May 13 for the same crime. Saleem's story, narrated to the AI, is spine-chilling. His harrowing tale began after he was arrested on June 1, 1998, and lasted until he was freed on January 7. Now it may begin all over again.

"Once in the police station,," Saleem told AI, "they started asking me if I belonged to a political party and if I had killed the policemen. I said that I don't know anything about any party, nobody in our family is involved in any political activity, but they did not believe me. They kept beating me with fists and with a leather strap and a stick all the time to make confess.

"But I had nothing to confess. This went on for four days ... "

When Saleem's trial began in the military court, "I did not understand what was going on," he recalled. "I was in court all day, every day and very upset. They used to take me to the court early in the morning without breakfast, and made me sit there all day. They gave me nothing to eat at midday, and in the evening when I got back to jail, around 7 or 8 o' clock my food there was cold. I used to tremble a lot and prayed all the time.

"Then one day they told me that I would be hanged, all was finished. I did not know before that this was coming or could come. I fainted. The judge told me that I could appeal. I looked around and thought I was already dead," the boy said.

"The police were laughing that night when they took me back to jail. I thought they would hang me right away. I was taken to a death cell in the Central Jail after that. There were no other young people in the death cells," Saleem noted. "The warden one day said that no one had made an appeal on my behalf, that made me very nervous. I only kept thinking of death. I was trembling all the time, I was so scared.

"During the 20 days or so in the death cell, I could not sleep, I did not dream, all the time my eyes were open. Even now I often think of that time," he said.

After his freedom, Saleem was asked what he thought about capital punishment. The 13-year-old boy responded: "Punishment is necessary, but not hanging. If one person is hanged, the whole family is hanged."

Saleem's entire family of carpet-weavers worked for a collective $5 a day to repay a $1,600 debt they incurred for his defense. Kaminga said he is incensed that Saleem and his family would have to undergo the ordeal all over again.

Kaminga pointed out that Saleem's re-arrest violated the prohibition of double jeopardy -- the principle that no one can be tried for the same offense twice. This kind of safeguard is not only contained in international law but also in Article 13 of Pakistan's constitution.

Although the so-called Juvenile Offenders Bill, drawn up in 1995 in consultation with non-governmental organizations, has yet to be passed by Pakistan's parliament, there are still no official sanctions against the death penalty, and the use of chains, whipping or amputation is prohibited for any child under the age of 16.

The world's "model democracy," the U.S. ranks first among the child executioners, according to Amnesty International. There were 3,549 people on the death row, including 73 children, at the end of 1998.

"The U.S. and Somalia are the two nations that have so far failed to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child," said Dr. Habiba Hasan, another member of AI's international executive board.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that "Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offenses committed by persons below eighteen years of age."

At least 123 countries still practice executions but exempt children from capital punishment.