The newly-elected
president was inaugurated in Mali ,
marking the representative republic’s official return to democratic, civilian
rule after a military coup in 2012. The
coup had occurred because of frustration with the previous elected government’s
inability to put down both a Tuareg rebellion and an Islamist insurgency in the
north, which, as I have posted, were thwarted by a French-led international
coalition in the former French colony, which represented a significant victory
in the War on Terrorism.
Longtime Communist
strongman Hun Sen was recently reelected for another term as Prime Minister of
Cambodia in an election marred by allegations of widespread election
fraud. The opposition, joined by one of
the Cambodian Princes, has protested the results. The international community ought to pressure
the Cambodian regime to respect the expressed will of the people, as it is
having some incremental success in doing in Burma ,
but is not doing adequately in regard to a situation similar to Cambodia ’s in Zimbabwe .
The
International Criminal Court has rejected the appeal of Charles Taylor’s
sentence for crimes against humanity. Taylor was the dictator of Liberia in the 2000s during the
Liberian Civil War and was responsible for human rights abuses, including mass
murder. An international coalition backed by the United States under President George W. Bush had helped remove the Liberian dictator from power, end the bloodshed and allow Liberia to restore itself to representative government and liberty. These sentences against dictators for crimes against humanity are essential for deterring such behavior.
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