Do not forget Belarus

Amid the protests for democracy and their violent suppressions in the Middle East, a relic of Eastern Europe should not be forgotten. BBC reports the arrest of dissident Vasily Parfenkov on the eve of Alexander Lukashenko's inauguration under spurious charges, in retribution for protests sparked after sham elections last year. Europe has seemingly closed its eyes on its last reigning dictatorship.

2011 = 1989

At least this seems to be the case. After the toppling of long-standing regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, in the past few days international news has also been abuzz with unrest and sometimes violent protests in Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Algeria, if not even more countries. Egypt has of course been the biggest prize so far; although Tunisia was the one that started it all, news of the latest political developments have largely been overshadowed by the events in Egypt, and the only Tunisian event that has seemed to warrant significant international attention was the sudden influx of refugees into Italian territory. Further developments demand just as much attention as Egypt, however: Jordan is a crucial player in Arab-Israeli peace, just as Egypt has long been (the Mubarak regime was tolerated by the West and Israel precisely because it held an at the time seemingly tentative peace deal with Egypt); stability in Yemen has consequences in the fight against al-Qaeda extremism, as does the American-shattered Iraq which has only just formed a new government and has long been struggling to get on its feet. Libya's Gaddafi has been in power more than 40 years, longer than any autocratic leader in the Middle East, and like Algeria's Bouteflika has been running the country as a police state under the false pretense of popular representation. Whether protests in these countries can bear fruit remains to be seen: the images of Iran's brutal crackdown of the 2009 protests still loom fresh, and the same heavy-handed tactics have appeared once again under Ahmadinejad, and also in Libya and Algeria. Moreover, rich Gulf countries have been able to stifle dissent by buying out their people with large subsidies, as Kuwait and Bahrain have. But if the power of Twitter and Facebook is to be believed, things are far from reaching their boiling point.

He's gone

Courtesy of Al Jazeera English:

The thirty seconds that brought down thirty years of authoritarian rule:

Just watching everything unfold from Jan. 25 has been exhilarating; what jubilation it must be for all the tens of thousands on Tahrir!

引渡問題

這幾天台灣最大的事情（除了十八億樂透和馬英九再度向世人證明他應該去吃屎以外），當屬菲律賓將台灣犯人引渡（回）去中國的事了。但在網路上一片躂伐、外交部也召回代表外並採取報復措施外，外交部亞太司司長在這篇訪問中卻認為菲律賓在此案裡沒有把犯人送回台灣也有道理：

The jurisdiction principle of nationality that Taiwan claimed is only one of many theories of jurisdiction in international law, as authorities can also claim jurisdiction based on the nationality of the victims, the country in which the crime took place, or mutual agreements to combat serious crime, Lee said.

Taiwan did not have a say in the case because it did not participate in the investigation, which was jointly carried out by China and the Philippines, Lee said.

However, Lee cited a similar case late last year in which none of the 18 Taiwanese suspects arrested Dec. 22 were deported to China because the case was a cooperative effort between the police authorities of Taiwan and the Philippines.

有趣的是，這是中央社的英語報導，但我沒看到中文報導一樣的事。也有可能只是我沒找到而已－－照理來說，中央社身為台灣官方的新聞機構，應該中英文會同步才對吧？

照李世明的說法，因為台灣這次並沒有參與調察及逮捕行動，而詐騙的對象是在中國，故菲律賓將嫌犯送到中國送審也說得通。我對國際法和國際慣例不熟，但是就我自己所知，似乎別國也有類似情形。這陣子最有名的大概就是維基解密創辦人Julian Assange因強姦罪嫌被瑞典要求引渡。Assange是澳洲人，但所稱的強姦犯罪發生在瑞典，而瑞典官方在Assange前往英國後依歐洲法規提出引渡要求。這同樣也是嫌犯要被引渡到發生犯罪行為的國家，而不是嫌犯所屬國籍的國家。

我還想到另一件陳年已久的案件，是英國「駭客」Gary McKinnon入侵美國國防單位電腦的事情。McKinnon在2002年被逮捕後，美國就企圖將他引渡過去在美國法院受審，而McKinnon的律師則聲稱有精神方面的疾病，無法承受美國司法過度苛刻的刑罰；光是是否要引渡一事至今已纏訟八年。這個案件也許跟菲律賓一事有更多共通點：兩者都是引渡國宣稱犯罪行為發生在該國境內，而略國嫌犯國籍的問題。當然，如我先前所說，我真的對國際法不熟；但是如果照其他國際案例來看，是不是這起事件背後還是真的有些道理？我們是不是又被媒體及網路的群眾暴力鼓譟影響了？