Dictators without Borders

Well, poor old neoliberal dictator Alberto Fujimori lost his bid for parliament in Japan, but he remains under house arrest in Chile (ahem). He has to stay there in order to be safe from extradition for human rights violations committed as president of Peru. Ironic, it seems to me, not only that he is hiding out in Chile, of all places, but that the last "terrorists" to give him any real trouble in Peru were not the famous lunatics, Shining Path, but the pseudo-indigenous (Inca) Tupac Amaru (when they took over the, um, Japanese embassy in 1996).

On a side note, the Economist mounts an interesting defense of international courts, noting:

It is easy to pooh-pooh international courts. After the creation of the world's first international war-crimes tribunals in Nuremberg and Tokyo at the end of the second world war, it took nearly half a century before another one was established—the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), set up by the UN in The Hague in 1993. But since then, progress has been impressive. Of the 161 people the ICTY has indicted, only four are still on the run; 59 have been convicted.

tags technorati : Alberto Fujimori Peru Japan

Criminals Hide Behind Veils!

or maybe not.

Police seeking a man over the murder of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky are considering the theory he may have fled the UK dressed as a veiled Muslim woman.

It is understood West Yorkshire Police - who have not commented on reports about the veil theory - regard it only as one of a number of possibilities.[ . . . ]

Some newspaper reports have suggested Mr Jamma, a prime suspect in the fatal shooting, stole his sister's passport and wore a full niqab (a veil that totally obscures the face) to evade checks at Heathrow airport between Christmas Day last year and New Year's Day.

So, really, the niqab should be illegal for reasons of public safety and national security. It's got nothing at all, really, to do with religious discrimination or cultural paternalism.