The real war crminals and terrorists in the world today are the top 500 dictators who run "countries without borders" with some of the biggest GNP's in the world - CORPORATIONS. They answer to no one and they live on and on from one so-called democratic election after another. They are fueling the hatred in the world today to advance their own agenda of controling regions rich in natural resources. Keep populations off balance and it is easy to control the masses. Until we address the real terrorist and war criminals in the world today - the corporations - we will never stop the uncontroled hatred people feel towards those who have caused so much death, economic hardship and division in the world today.

Thomas Jefferson had it right!

Sent by James McConnell | 2:31 PM ET | 07-29-2008

I have been directing a trial monitoring project of the current human rights trial of former president Alberto Fujimori in Peru (our blog is www.fujimoriontrial.org). One of the issues I am seeing is that tension in integrating international criminal law principles into national law, and the general public's lack of understanding of these principles. In the end,the division between those who condemned the Fujimori regime and those who remain loyal do not seem to be meeting half way. One reason is that Fujimori supporters while acknowledging there were human rights violations seem to take the stand that they were justified due to the context of an internal armed struggle against insurgents, i.e. "terrorist" groups. Given this, I am wondering if in the end these criminal trials will address the larger issues that still remain unresolved, which are essentially whether civil rights/human rights can be compromised for reasons of national security.

Sent by Lisa J. Laplante | 2:37 PM ET | 07-29-2008

(continued from last message)

However, it is clear from my own ethnographic research in Peru that there is an unequivocal demand for justice, that is criminal trials. This position in fact was adopted by the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which specifically worked towards the goal of supporting later criminal trials. Now that hundreds of criminal investigations and a handful of trials are underway, it will be an important case to watch in terms of whether national criminal justice efforts meet the high expections of victims, and possibly contribute to a broader societal dialogue about the conflict.

In the end, Peru pushes us to ask if the idea of choosing is still relevant. The right to justice and the state obligation to prosecute seems to be setting a new standard that trials and truth commisisons must go hand in hand.

Sent by Lisa J. Laplante | 2:51 PM ET | 07-29-2008

If there was a criminal actively committing crimes in your neighborhood, we would never have a debate about whether or not we should wait to apprehend and prosecute the offender until after he had stopped offending. As there is no credible peace process going on in Darfur anyways, it's difficult to imagine how an indictment could make things worse than they already are.

Sent by Brian K. Trotter | 9:43 AM ET | 07-30-2008