Moscow
Troops to Georgia: Russia sent more troops to its border with the former Soviet republic of Georgia this week, as tensions between the two countries rose. A Russian Defense Ministry statement said the troop increase was a response to “Georgian threats” to use force in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, where Russia has around 1,000 peacekeepers. Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said it had made no threats, and that Russia was manufacturing an excuse to beef up its presence in the region. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently recognized both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, another breakaway region of Georgia, as legal entities. A furious Georgia accused Russia of “de facto annexation."
Harare, Zimbabwe
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Mugabe buys time: A human-rights group said this week that President Robert Mugabe was using the army to spread “terror and violence” against his political opponents, as the government once again postponed releasing results of the March election. Soldiers and armed militias have been rounding up and beating opposition activists, and have arrested scores of people, including women and their nursing babies who’d taken refuge at the opposition party’s headquarters. Mugabe is believed to have lost the election to Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change, but he appears willing to unleash civil war to stay in power. A deeply divided United Nations Security Council, meanwhile, decided this week to take no action on the crisis, after South Africa persuaded other African countries to vote down Britain’s proposal to censure Mugabe. “Different countries hold elections; some do it very well, some do it not so well,” said Dumisani Kumalo, the South African ambassador. “That is the only way you can look at elections.”
Lhasa, China
Rioters jailed: A Chinese court sentenced the first 30 people to jail this week for participating in last month’s deadly riots in Tibet. Those convicted will serve terms ranging from three years to life in prison, state media reported. At least 50 more people, possibly several hundred, are in custody awaiting another mass trial for the same offense. Chinese human-rights activists said it was unclear whether any of the defendants had been allowed legal representation. The Lhasa riot began as a peaceful protest in support of Buddhist monks but escalated into violence against Chinese-owned businesses. Chinese troops cracked down hard, and anywhere from a few dozen to a hundred people were killed.
Kabul, Afghanistan
Attempt on Karzai: Afghan President Hamid Karzai narrowly escaped an assassination attempt last weekend. Gunmen opened fire from a hotel room as Karzai presided over an outdoor ceremony in Kabul to mark the anniversary of Afghanistan’s victory over the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. Three people, including a legislator, were killed. Security officials said they’d known of the Taliban plot in advance and had taken preventive measures. Yet “the result is that we failed,” said intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh. Taliban attacks in northern and central areas have increased sharply over the past year. Before that, their attacks were largely confined to the south.
Baghdad
Tariq Aziz goes on trial: The public apologist for Saddam Hussein’s regime went on trial this week for crimes against humanity. Tariq Aziz, 72, was a deputy prime minister of Iraq for decades, sometimes serving also as foreign minister. Under Saddam, he was the diplomatic face of Iraq, attending international summits in place of the dictator, who rarely left the country. But Iraqi lawyers say the charges against Aziz are flimsy. Aziz is being prosecuted for signing execution orders in his capacity as a member of Saddam’s Revolutionary Command Council. But that group was a rubber-stamp body that did not make independent decisions and simply endorsed the dictator’s orders. It’s unlikely that Aziz had any influence over executions.
Delhi
Girls still aborted: The widespread abortion of female fetuses is a “national shame,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said this week in his first speech on the subject. The sex ratio in India had fallen to 927 girls born for every 1,000 boys in 2001 from 962 per 1,000 in 1981. That means that despite India’s rising education levels and standard of living, the “inhuman, uncivilized, and reprehensible” practice of selective abortion of girls has increased, Singh said. He said the government would crack down on doctors who perform such abortions.
