Saturday October 22nd

What a glorious sunny day! At this time of the year, every day like this is a bonus. The news of the capture and subsequent death of Colonel Ghaddafi is everywhere in the news just now. I have to admit that it leaves me with some very mixed feelings. I certainly wish the Libyan people well, and hope that as a nation they can make a new start that will enable a real sharing of resources and a real opportunity for freedom of expression, action and political choice. I am also very aware that the Colonel's long period of power was often a time of brutality and cruelty, and that there are many with good reason to hate him and to seek vengeance against him.

All the same, I am sad that he was not kept safe in captivity, once secured, and that he will not be standing trial and facing his accusers from the dock. This is in part because I do believe that every death, even the death of someone who has himself killed, diminishes us; in part also because I believe that those who have acted unjustly should be treated in a way that makes clear that 'our' standards (whoever 'we' may be) are not the same as theirs.

Speaking very personally, I should like to see even dictators dealt with with mercy and a degree of compassion, for this is to re-assert humanity over what is dark and satanic in our world - but I recognize, of course, how difficult it would be to argue that case in today's Libya. Even so, for the new regime to produce the sort of open, tolerant and egalitarian society that we might wish, at some point there will need to be the application of mercy within a process of rehabilitation - the purposeful beating of swords into ploughshares. This will always be a difficult and perhaps a dangerous task, insofar as such a process will run counter to some of the deepest desires of those who have been grievously hurt.

But it is for this reason, surely, that scripture warns us away from vengeance. "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord; I will repay": human justice requires that those who have committed crimes be confronted and punished, but good justice is founded in a determined decision that we live together in tolerance and peace, and must be carefully distinguished and separated from our natural, but ultimately destructive, desire for vengeance.

Even where scripture supports the notion of vengeance ("An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth") it is careful to place boundaries and restrictions on what can be claimed - so that proper restitution is not undermined by a descent into some kind of 'arms race', and estrangement is tackled and dealt with, rather than allowed to drift into feud.

There will be an investigation into the circumstances of the Colonel's death, sand at least one British MP has already described such an investigation as unnecessary, because he deserved all that was coming to him. That may be, but his death in the way it happened is still for me a matter of regret, and I would hope would be a matter of regret for the new leaders of Libya; and it does need to be investigated.