US election gaffes spread to Cambodia

Robert Mugabe (L) and Strongman Hun Xen (R)

Wednesday, 15 August 2012
David Boyle
The Phnom Penh Post

US presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s senior foreign policy adviser has likened Prime Minister Hun Sen to Zimbabwean tyrant Robert Mugabe and the former Sudanese president indicted for genocide, Omar Al Bashir, all while mispronouncing the premier’s name.

During a discussion featuring Romney adviser Rich Williamson held at the Washington-based think tank the Brookings Institution on July 25, the aid lumped “Hun Sun” in with other “less than pleasant guys” he had been forced to deal with.

“For better or worse, whether it’s Hun Sun [sic] or Robert Mugabe or Omar Al Bashir, I’ve dealt with some less than pleasant guys. And saying you are not doing good things never surprises them, they know they’re not,” Williamson said.

Williamson made the comments, first flagged on the popular online forum Khmer 440, during a foreign policy discussion with Michele Flournoy, co-chair of the National Security Advisory Committee for Obama for America.

Hun Xen [aka Hong Sun] lumped with Robert Mugabe and al-Bashir: Mitt Romney's senior adviser - You ain't heard this from KI-Media's mouth!!!

Rich Williamson, Mitt Romney’s Senior Adviser for Foreign and Defense Policy: "You talk about it. You know, I’ve -- for better or worse, whether it’s Hong Sun [aka Hun Sen] or Robert Mugabe or al-Bashir, I’ve dealt with some less than-pleasant guys, and saying you are not doing good things never surprises them. They know they’re not."

Watch the clip at 34:30 minutes:

http://www.brookings.edu/events/2012/07/25-obama-romney-advisers#ref-id=20120725_Flournoy1

'Cambodia Spring' Unlikely, Political Observers Say [-It could be a self implosion within the CPP itself]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JvCkK1x9D4

Politiktoons No. 216: The Exit

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://politiktoons.blogspot.com and also at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Delusions of power: A warning lesson Hun Xen should learn from Bashar al-Assad of Syria

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CBU60N90Og

Arab Uprisings Point Up Flaws in Global Court

Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni Nobel laureate, sought justice in the International Criminal Court for protesters killed in an uprising.

July 7, 2012
By LYDIA POLGREEN
The New York Times

“For justice to be legitimate, it is essential that it be applied equally to all”

JOHANNESBURG — It was exactly the kind of case the International Criminal Court was created to investigate: Yemen’s autocratic leader was clinging to power, turning his security forces’ guns on unarmed protesters. Hundreds were left dead, and many more were maimed.

But when Yemen’s Nobel laureate, Tawakkol Karman, traveled to The Hague to ask prosecutors to investigate, she was told the court would first need the approval of the United Nations Security Council. That never happened, and today the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, is living comfortably in Yemen’s capital, still wielding influence.

Now, as the world confronts increasing evidence of atrocities on a much vaster scale in Syria as President Bashar al-Assad’s government battles a growing rebellion, there are signs that Mr. Assad is likely to evade prosecution, much as Mr. Saleh has.

The men have not been prosecuted because they have powerful allies, underlining what critics say are crucial flaws in the court’s setup. That now threatens to undermine the still-fragile international consensus that formed the basis for the court’s creation in 2002: that leaders should be held accountable for crimes against their own people.

Already, the failure to act against some leaders challenged by the Arab Spring is emboldening critics who see the court as just another manifestation of a deeply undemocratic international order. So-called justice, they say, is reserved for outcast leaders, including an assortment of African officials from weak states with few powerful patrons.

Dictators, you may run but you will never escape the wheel of justice - Something for Hun Xen to think about!!!

Former Argentina's dictators Jorge Rafael Videla, left, and Reynaldo Bignone wait to listen the verdict of Argentina's historic stolen babies trial in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The two former dictators were convicted of systematically stealing babies from leftists when a military junta ran the country three decades ago. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Former Argentine dictators found guilty of stealing babies

Three decades ago, when a military junta ran the country of Argentina, the government ran a systematic program to take babies from leftist parents. Hundreds of babies are thought to have disappeared under the program.

July 5, 2012

By Debora Rey

Associated Press

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina

Former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla was convicted and sentenced to 50 years Thursday for a systematic program to steal babies from prisoners who were kidnapped, tortured and killed during the military junta's war on leftist dissidents three decades ago.

Argentina's last dictator, Reynaldo Bignone, also was convicted and got 15 years. Both men already were in prison for other human rights abuses.

"This is an historic day. Today legal justice has been made real — never again the justice of one's own hands, which the repressors were known for," prominent rights activist Tati Almeida said outside the courthouse, where a jubilant crowd watched on a big screen and cheered each sentence.

Lessons of the Arab Spring Where Are the Middle East's Revolutions Heading?

AFP

07/04/2012
By SPIEGEL Staff

In the end, the suffering of the Syrian people and the foreseeable downfall of Bashar Assad could promote moderate change elsewhere -- because both sides now know what is at stake.

One-and-a-half years after the start of the Arab Spring, Islamists have taken power in some countries, Gulf rulers are suppressing dissent with cash and Syria is descending into civil war. The Arab revolutions are at a turning point, but the horrors unleashed by Damascus could inspire moderation elsewhere.

The rebels advanced into the center of Damascus, even into the garage of the Palace of Justice and a Republican Guard base next to the presidential palace. Syria and Turkey moved tanks and batteries of antiaircraft guns into position, as they faced off on both sides of the country's northern border. "We are at war," Syrian President Bashar Assad said last Tuesday, when he met with his newly appointed cabinet.

In Cairo, newly elected President Mohammed Morsi made it clear that he attached no importance to his portrait being hung in Egyptian government offices in the future. The Egyptian stock index rose by 7.6 percent on the day after the election results were announced. It was the biggest gain in nine years.

A court in the Tunisian city of Monastir upheld a ruling against bloggers Jabeur Mejri and Ghazi Béji, who had been sentenced to seven years in prison for "transgressing morality, defamation and disrupting public order." They had published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad on their Facebook pages.

Is a Cambodian Spring Approaching? Not Any Time Soon [-Do you agree with Faine?]

KI-Media Opinion Poll

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We would appreciate it very much if you could take one minute of your time to fill in the following survey.

Thank you,

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June 5, 2012
Originally posted at http://fainegreenwood.com/2012/06/05/is-a-cambodian-spring-approaching-not-any-time-soon/

Borei Keila protesters at the US Embassy.

There has been some talk on Foreign Policy and in the New York Times about the prospect of a so-called “Cambodian spring,” an uprising of popular sentiment in this beleaguered Southeast Asian nation roughly equivalent to the democratic drama that has unfolded across the Middle East. Sounds nice. But could it ever actually happen?

As Prime Minister Hun Sen—who won a decisive, if not exactly fair victory in Sunday’s elections—racks up human rights violations and cracks down on peaceful protesters and land-grabbing victims, it’s easy for outside observers to draw parallels between his retrograde regime and the dangerous, inhumane policies of dictators who have dramatically toppled in recent months in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the average Cambodian can do little but watch as around 20% of the nation is signed away to lucrative-for-some economic concessions, and protesters—including innocent 14-year-old girls—are murdered, wounded or imprisoned at the behest of the government.

Surely some kind of popular uprising isn’t too far off in Cambodia?

I think any talk of a “Cambodian Spring” is premature, and for a few key reasons.

Politiktoo​ns No, 210 : Al-Assad's Friends

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Rebels storm pro-Assad Syrian TV channel

Damaged buildings are seen after gunmen stormed the headquarters of Al-Ikhbariya news channel near Damascus June 27, 2012. Gunmen stormed the pro-government Syrian TV channel headquarters on Wednesday, bombing buildings and shooting dead three employees, state media said, in one of the boldest attacks yet on a symbol of the authoritarian state. (Credit: Reuters/Stringer)

By Oliver Holmes
BEIRUT | Wed Jun 27, 2012

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Gunmen stormed a pro-government Syrian TV channel headquarters on Wednesday, bombing buildings and shooting dead three employees, state media said, in one of the boldest attacks yet on a symbol of the authoritarian state.

More than 150 people were killed in fierce fighting across Syria on Wednesday, 86 of them civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Intensified fighting in the country have driven up the death toll averages to around 100 people per day in the past week.

President Bashar al-Assad declared late on Tuesday that his country was "at war". U.S. intelligence officials said the Syrian government was "holding fairly firm" and digging in for a long struggle against rebel forces who are getting stronger.

Assad says Syria at war as battle reaches capital [_Another dictatorial regime unfolding?]

Syrian National Council leader Burhan Ghalioun (C) poses with Syrian free army in Sarmada, near the Turkey-Syria border June 26, 2012. (Credit: Reuters/ABDO)

Tue Jun 26, 2012
By Oliver Holmes

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad declared on Tuesday that his country was at war and ordered his new government to spare no effort to achieve victory, as the worst fighting of the 16-month conflict reached the outskirts of the capital.

Video published by activists recorded heavy gunfire and explosions in suburbs of Damascus. A trail of fresh blood on a sidewalk in the suburb of Qudsiya led into a building where one casualty was taken. A naked man writhed in pain, his body pierced by shrapnel.

Syria's state news agency SANA said "armed terrorist groups" had blocked the old road from Damascus to Beirut.

The declaration that Syria is at war marks a change of rhetoric from Assad, who had long dismissed the uprising against him as the work of scattered militants funded from abroad.

Politiktoons No. 206: Assad

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://politiktoons.blogspot.com and also at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Politiktoons No. 199: Hosni Mubarak

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://politiktoons.blogspot.com and also at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Charles Taylor - Hun Xen

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: From Charles Taylor ...

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Charles Taylor sentenced to 50 years in prison for war crimes [-A warning to Dick-tator Hun Xen!!!]

http://gu.com/p/38x9q

Judge at court in The Hague says ex-Liberia president's crimes were of the 'utmost gravity in scale and brutality'

Wednesday 30 May 2012

Owen Bowcott and agencies

guardian.co.uk

Liberia's former president, Charles Taylor, has been sentenced to 50 years in jail for being "in a class of his own" when committing war crimes during the long-running civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Judges at a UN-backed tribunal in The Hague said his leadership role and exploitation of the conflict to extract so-called "blood diamonds" meant he deserved one of the longest prison sentences handed down so far by the court.

Taylor, 64, was found guilty last month of 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity, when supporting rebels between 1996 and 2002 in return for conflict gems.

The offences included murder, rape, sexual slavery, recruiting child soldiers, enforced amputations and pillage.

2010 photo encapsulates Mideast transformation

In this Oct. 10, 2010 file photo, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, center, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, right, and his Yemeni counterpart Ali Abdullah Saleh, center left, pose for a group photo with Arab and African leaders during the second Afro-Arab summit in Sirte, Libya

30 March 2012
By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY | Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Laughing for the cameras, the Arab leaders appear nothing if not secure in their power, four longtime members of the Middle East coterie of rulers-for-life.

How times have changed. The photograph from an October 2010 Arab-African summit shows the  now deposed — and in one case dead — since the Arab Spring revolutions beleaders of Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia, all of themgan sweeping through the Middle East last year.

In the photo, Libya's Moammar Gadhafi wears black sunglasses and distinctive robes, with his arms draped around Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, both of them grinning. To one side is Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, standing with his hands clasped, smiling and relaxed.

Today, Saleh is out of power, Ben Ali is in exile, Mubarak is on trial and Gadhafi is dead, killed by rebel fighters. Their countries are enduring often-painful transitions.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: The People

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Arab League calls for unity government in Syria [-Another dick-tator on the way out?]

Arab League demands al-Assad resign

January 22, 2012
From Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, For CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: The opposition Syrian National Council says President al-Assad should step down
• The Arab League will take its plan to the U.N. in a bid to build support
• The unity government should prepare for elections, the Arab League says
• Arab League chief: Syria is not complying with parts of a league agreement

Cairo (CNN) -- The Arab League agreed on a path forward in Syria on Sunday that instructs President Bashar al-Assad to delegate powers to his vice president following the formation of a national unity government.

It called for the Syrian government to start a dialogue with the opposition within two weeks, and for the new government to be formed within two months.

The unity government should prepare to elect a council, within three months, that will write a constitution, the Arab League said. It should also prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections.