Taipei, March 28 (CNA) Human rights group Amnesty International (AI) urged Taiwan to commute the death sentences of more than 70 people as it released its annual report on the death penalty Monday.
Taiwan's four executions in 2010 and five more in 2011 "are a step backwards" for the country, which was once considered a leader in the movement to abolish the death penalty in Asia, AI Secretary-General Salil Shetty wrote in a letter published alongside the organization's report "Death Sentences and Executions in 2010."
Taiwan ended a more than four-year hiatus with four executions last April and another five earlier this month, drawing criticisms from the European Union and human rights groups and placing it among 22 countries that carried out executions in 2010.
The executions "stand in stark, disturbing contrast to a rising tide of world opinion" to abolish capital punishment, Shetty wrote, noting that a total of 31 countries abolished the death penalty in law or in practice during the last decade.
To date, 139 countries have ended the death penalty, either in law or in practice, according to the AI report.
AI's Taiwan office also released the first report on the death penalty by a local human rights group and submitted a 10-point recommendation to the Taiwan government Monday.
The group urged the government to halt executions, to submit a timetable for the eventual abolition of the death penalty, to improve the victim protection system, and to improve the transparency of death penalty-related information.
It was "ironic" that the five executions were carried out only four weeks after President Ma Ying-jeou apologized to the family of Chiang Kuo-ching, a 21-year-old Air Force private who had been wrongly convicted and executed for the rape and murder of a young girl in 1997, AI Taiwan's Deputy Secretary-General Tony Yang said.
The president's action sent mixed messages to the international human rights community, which had troubles figuring out why Taiwan resumed the executions after signing two United Nations human rights covenants -- the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights -- in 2009, Yang said.
"At the end of the day, the abolition of the death penalty is a test of the politicians' values and faith, " said Kao Yung-cheng, Deputy Convener of Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP) , a major player in Taiwan's effort to end capital punishment.
"You can't always use popular mandates, crime deterrence, or religious, cultural or political principles as justifications, " Kao said.
Kao added that if Mongolia was able to adopt a moratorium on capital punishment in 2010, "I don't see why Taiwan cannot do it."
On a global level, AI found two regions mostly responsible for the majority of executions -- Asia and the Middle East.
The total number of executions has declined from at least 714 people in 2009 to at least 527 in 2010. However, these numbers do not include China, where AI believes thousands of people are executed each year behind the regime's shroud of secrecy. (By Chris Wang) enditem/ly