In Tehran, the female Iranian-American journalist who was captured and imprisoned by the Iranian government has successfully completed a week of fasting. Roxana Sabari was sentenced to 8 years in prison after she was found guilty of spying for the U.S. government in Washington. Sabari began to fast to protest her sentencing and secure her release. Her father has recently said that she has lost ten pounds already. After having her press card revoked in 2006, Ms. Saberi was originally arrested for buying a bottle of wine, which is against the law in Tehran. Eventually, the charges escalated to spying for the U.S. Sabari’s family has secured the most prominent human rights lawyer in Iran for her appeal, and both President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s top judiciary official have urged an investigation and fair appeal. This case has increased tensions between the U.S. and Iran just when it seemed their relationship might be thawing out.

In Hungary, attacks against the ethnic group Roma, more commonly known as gypsies, have increased at an alarming rate. Within the past year, at least seven Roma have been killed, plus around thirty attacks involving Molotov cocktails have occurred. In February, a Roma man and his four-year-old son were killed outside their home outside of Budapest. It is reported that many of these attacks are carried out by military or police personnel, and have no motivation other than that the victims are Roma. There is a long-standing stereotype that all Roma are petty thieves and criminals. Authorities believe attacks have increased because of this stereotype, in conjunction with the rise in unemployment and economic turmoil. Violence has also increased in the Czech Republic. As of now, Hungarian police have chosen not to name ethnicity as a motivation for the attacks, and have at times maintained the attacks are occurring between warring factions of Roma.

According to the United Nations, an average of seventy civilians have been killed per day in the civil war in Sri Lanka between the government and the rebel Tamil Tigers. The government currently has the rebels pinned in a small portion of land, and are pushing to eliminate the group entirely. They rejected a cease-fire agreement on Sunday because they want a full surrender. The U.N. estimates that anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 civilians are still trapped in the narrow portion of the land the rebels still claim. The Red Cross and the U.N. are greatly concerned about the lack of humanitarian aid flowing into the area. There are very little medical supplies and water, plus no food has been received for over three weeks. It is reported that the rebels are forcing civilians to take up arms against the government and are now even recruiting children as young as twelve. A total of 6,432 civilians have died in the fighting during the past three months.

Iran must handle Ms. Sabari’s appeal very delicately. The unjust treatment of an American citizen could cause serious outrage in the United States and would significantly increase strain on an already burdened relationship. It seems that the charges against Sabari are trumped up, as buying a bottle of wine somehow turned to a charge of treason overnight. It almost looks as if the Iranian government was looking for any excuse to arrest and try her. There is no question that the law is the law, and she was caught breaking it, but treason is going too far.

The global recession has people panicking and looking for a scapegoat. In Hungary, and it s neighboring countries, it seems that the Roma have become the popular target. One must remember that the Roma were persecuted along with the Jews during the Holocaust. Because it seems that the government has a hand in some of the attacks, or at least certain agencies do, there needs to be some external pressure. There is no just motivation for the attacks, and are getting increasingly worse. Someone needs to exert control of the mobs, and if the Hungarian government won’t do it, the international community should.

It is understandable, that the Sri Lankan government wants the total destruction of the Tamil Tigers, but to what lengths are they willing to go. Is the civilian sacrifice worth it? If the fight continues on for much longer, there could be serious discontent and unhappiness from the civilian population. The government should consider this cease-fire and aim for the disarmament of the group in treaty talks. 6,432 civilian deaths in three months is unacceptable no matter what the cause.

In a resurrection of last year’s “waterboarding” fiasco, the Justice Department has recently publicized documents that describe “brutal interrogation methods” used by the CIA on terror suspects. In response, President Obama issued a statement saying that the men and women involved at the CIA will not be prosecuted for their roles in the so-called illegal torture. Some of the methods, which were approved by the Bush administration in 2002, included keeping victims awake for long time periods and putting them inside a dark box filled with items to fuel their fears, such as insects. According to the article, some of the techniques detailed in the reports are ones that Japanese officials were prosecuted for after World War II. For some time the Obama administration has been divided over the release of the documents, but, obviously, they eventually were due in some part to the lawsuit filed by the ACLU. The release of the documents indicated that President Obama has sided with the proponents of full disclosure from the CIA and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) almost immediately issued a statement calling for an official inquiry that would “offer immunity in return for candid testimony.” Senator Leahy would like a full investigation of the events.

Around two weeks ago, a Spanish court announced that it would pursue charges against six former Bush administration officials, who are now commonly known as the “Bush Six”. The six officials first appeared in a book written by British barrister named Philippe Sands entitled Torture Team. The six men are: former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Douglas Feith; former Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales; former Justice Department lawyer, John Yoo; former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, David Addington; the former Pentagon general counsel, William Haynes; and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee. The charges are to be leveled by Spain because of the alleged torture of five Spanish citizens at Guantanamo Bay. Sands spent two years travelling the United States, interviewing some of the accused, as well as human-rights officials to compile research for his book. In an interview, “Feith called [the] book ‘wildly inaccurate’.” It is difficult to know what will be the next course of action, but the Obama administration may have to move in the near future. The article believes that the administration will either have to extradite the officials to Spain, or open its own investigation. Sands says he supports Obama, and believes he “will [do] the right thing.”

Also in Spain, it has been reported that the leader of the Basque separatist group ETA has been arrested. Jurdan Martitegi Lisazo was arrested in southern France during a joint raid by French and Spanish police units. All in all, nine militants in both Spain and France were captured, and police believe they were plotting an attack in Spain. Martitegi is believed to be the chief military and operations leader of the ETA, and is the fourth such individual arrested since May 2008. The ETA has killed well over 500 people in its fifty years of operations, and these arrests are believed to have put the group on its last legs. The group is designated by the State Department and the European Union as a terrorist organization.

I fear a resurrection of the “waterboarding” fiasco because it so bitterly drives the country apart. Partisanship is already at the highest levels it has ever been, so the last thing the country needs is the resurfacing of torture accusations. However, the U.S. must now be quite vigilant in policing human rights abuses within its own borders if it wants the rest of the world to do the same. So the, if these men truly deserve a trial, I believe that the Obama administration should allow it to happen or should conduct one itself. We cannot expect others to follow our lead if we do not set a great example. I personally do not believe that these men deserve to go to trial for their actions and be charged with crimes against humanity. They made terrible mistakes in their former positions, ones that I certainly would not approve of. Certain things need to stay behind closed doors.

The arrest of another senior ETA member is great new for Spain and the Basque region. The ETA has long terrorized the area and killed civilians at will. It is encouraging to see the Spanish police making such progress, and hopefully the group can be eliminated within the near future, or at least shift its focus away from military tactics.

A report out of Zimbabwe published in the New York Times claims that ranking officials within the ZANU-PF party, the party of President Robert Mugabe, are using blackmail and violence to gain amnesty from prosecution for human rights abuses. Now that Zimbabwe has a power sharing government and the Movement for Democratic Change (M.D.C.) has established itself as a major player in the country, senior Mugabe aides are concerned that they will be tried for the atrocities they committed to solidify Mr. Mugabe’s hold on power. According to sources inside the ZANU-PF party, senior officials are even attempting to implicate opposition leaders in plots to overthrow Mugabe and use it as blackmail to get them to quit or as leverage in negotiations. The current Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, allegedly said before the new government took office that “his party wanted amnesty” in order for the power-sharing agreement to work. Of course, when official talks are given and questions are raised about abductions or death threats, the ZANU-PF leaders play coy, thereby staying non-committal. In turn, the leaders of the M.D.C. have responded by saying that “[they’d] rather rot in hell than agree to anything like that.”

In Peru, former president Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for his role in human rights abuses committed during his ten-year rule. The most public event of these abuses was the murder of twenty-five civilians by a military death squad in 1992. Mr. Fujimori was president during Peru’s costly war with the Maoist Shining Path rebels. The judges have said that they are pleased with the verdict and about half of the country agrees. Fujimori still holds significant support and was even planning a return to power in 2005 before he was extradited to Chile. Similarly, his daughter is a presidential candidate in the upcoming election and has said that if she wins the presidency, her father will be pardoned. In 2000, Fujimori was sentenced to six years in prison for order an illegal search, which caused him to flee to Japan and effectively ended his hold on power. Throughout the trails, Mr. Fujimori has maintained his innocence and blames the charges on the fact that he governed during a civil war. He also is set to stand trial for two corruption charges and will appeal his sentence.

In Cambodia, it seems that the long awaited trials of the most senior Khmer Rouge officials will be put on hold again. On Wednesday, U.N. officials failed to reach an agreement with Cambodian officials over investigating internal corruption and the United Nations Development Program, which is funding the trial, will withhold the money until the problem is solved. Questions have arisen concerning corruption of the tribunal staff responsible for the trials. According to the article, it also appears that the trials have a certain aura of government manipulation that has displeased the United Nations. The U.N. cites the fact that two senior Cambodian officials, one of them the Prime Minister, are unwilling to expand the number of defendants tried as evidence of government control. It seems that that the U.N, and Cambodian officials have not developed a sense of trust with one another, so the money will be withheld until it is clear that Cambodian officials have made a sincere effort to address the allegations of corruption.

The reports from Zimbabwe and Cambodia are particularly disturbing to me because of the great advances both countries have made in recent times. For the first time since 1985, the opposition in Zimbabwe has had some voice in the government, but that power it is threatened by the corrupt leaders of the ZANU-PF. The opposition may not be easily broken, but when their families are threatened or they are tortured, that could readily change. Mr. Mugabe’s administration is adept and experienced at eliminating opposition, and that is what seriously concerns me. No amount of external pressure on Mugabe will do any good if the opposition is too afraid to pursue change.

Furthermore, it is disappointing to see such an important trial in Cambodia go awry because of internal corruption. Thirty years ago, Cambodians were tortured and murdered by a fanatical government, and its leaders must be tried. One would think that the Cambodian government wants this trial to happen as much as any other nation. The government needs to do everything in its power to allow these trials to continue.

Lastly, the sentencing of Alberto Fujimori can be taken two ways: as either a great victory or outrageous loss. The population of Peru is so divided on the issue that it could cause unrest, especially with his daughter running for president and guaranteeing him a pardon. I don’t think that there will be protests against his imprisonment, but there almost certainly will be against a pardon. The future could be bleak for the country. However, Fujimori deserves his punishment. The judges have made it known that Peru will not continue to tolerate human rights abuse. No instance, whether it be civil war or rebel attacks, should allow for the atrocities committed by Fujimori’s administration.