World News Roundup, 12/27

Here are the stories you probably aren’t seeing on TV tonight.

5 Ethiopian assassination plotters sentenced to death, 33 get life sentences
UN Panel says Guinean junta leader should be tried for crimes against humanity
Mortar attack on MPs in Somalia
Feature: Eritreans fleeing into Sudan
You know the situation is pretty bad when Sudan looks good. Aside from the usual poverty, Eritrea is one of the most repressive states in the world where free speech is concerned. From Eritrea’s BBCProfile:

Eritrea is the only African country to have no privately-owned news media. In 2005 the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) described it as one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists.

Another press watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, notes that there is “no freedom of expression”.

The government closed the private press in 2001 for “endangering national security” and arrested many journalists after several publications printed the dissenting views of some National Assembly members.

Isaias Afewerki was elected president of independent Eritrea by the national assembly in 1993. He had been the de facto leader before independence.
Eritrean president
Isaias Afewerki: President since 1993

Presidential elections, planned for 1997, never materialised. Eritrea is a one-party state, with the ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice the only party allowed to operate.

In case you missed it on 12/23: Eritrea hit with UN sanctions for aiding Somali islamist insurgents
Since my post on the subject last November, I have seen a grand total of two posts on the subject from neocons. American Spectator noted the mass defection of Eritrea’s soccer team very briefly and with a sense of detached amusement. Ryan Mauro briefly noted the UN sanctions and suggested Eritrea be added to the State Department’s “State Sponsors of Terror” list, which I agree with.

Thailand deporting Hmong refugees back to Laos
And what awaits them there? BBC:

More than 1,500 have already been forced back over the border. Their fate is still uncertain, as the Lao government refuses to allow international agencies to monitor the returnees.

According to Amnesty International, 20 women and girls sent back to Laos in December 2005 were detained for 18 months, and some were tortured.

Other returnees have vanished.

Laos is a communist one-party state, and the Hmong were recruited by the CIA during the Cold War to fight against the communists. But Laos is a friendly trading partner of the US, so neocons avoid the subject entirely. However, Senator Pat Leahy and Amnesty International took notice:

“It is important to note that U.S. Senators, Russ Feingold ( D-WI ), Patrick Leahy ( D-VT ), Richard Lugar ( R-IN ), Barbara Boxer ( D-CA ), Al Franken ( D-MN ) , Amy Klobuchar ( D-MN ), Mark Begich ( D-AK ), Lisa Murkowski ( R-AK ) and Sheldon Whitehouse ( D-RI ) sent the letter to Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on December 17, 2009, and released it on December 23, 2009, in Washington, D.C. following reports of more Thai soldiers and a large troop convoy of over 50 army trucks and buses being deployed at the main Hmong refugee camp at Ban Huay Nam Khao to force over 4,000 political refugees back to Laos over the Christmas and New Year holiday season,” Smith concluded.

It’s a shame that only two Republican senators signed on to this.
Uzbekistan holding parliamentary elections open only to pro-government parties to create illusion of democracy – Uzbeks not fooled
Airlines seeking antitrust immunity to collude on US-Tokyo flights

I’m heading out now, but there’s plenty more going on in the world. Feel free to share your international stories.