Yearbook 2008 Jamaica. In March, Amnesty International strongly criticized the Jamaican authorities for neglecting the country’s poor inner-city population. According to the human rights organization, the government had deliberately abandoned the slum dwellers of the cities, which made them into criminal gang violence. Amnesty described the situation of the poor as a kind of hostage…
Author: payhelpcenter
Ivory Coast 2008
Yearbook 2008 Ivory Coast. The former rebels who rule the Ivory Coast’s northern half began their demobilization in May with the intention of disbanding their armed forces until the November presidential election. However, the disarmament took considerably longer than planned, and when the registration of voters also expired at the time, the country’s leader in…
Italy 2008
Yearbook 2008 Italy. Italy’s left-center government, led by Prime Minister Romano Prodi, fell on January 24 after losing a vote in the Senate. The government’s case was preceded by Justice Minister Clemente Mastella being forced to resign in the middle of the month as a result of corruption suspicions against him and his wife. Mastella’s…
Israel 2008
Yearbook 2008 Israel. The year was marked by concerns in the coalition government. Ultra right-wing party Yisrael Beitenu left the government in January in protest against having decided to talk to Palestinians on so-called core issues, such as border clearing and Jerusalem status. Without Yisrael Beitenu, the coalition had only a small majority in the…
Ireland 2008
Yearbook 2008 Ireland. Bertie Ahern resigned as prime minister in May after eleven years in the post. Finance Minister Brian Cowen took over both as head of government and leader of Fianna Fáil. One reason Ahern resigned now was concern that criticism of his private affairs would affect the outcome of the referendum on the…
Iraq 2008
Yearbook 2008 Iraq. The relative calm that settled over parts of the country in 2007 continued. The total number of civilians killed in violence fell by two-thirds in 2008, according to official Iraqi figures, to about 5,700, compared with the previous year. The explanations were three: the Shi’a Mahdi Army ceasefire, the US troop reinforcement…
Iran 2008
Yearbook 2008 Iran. The elections to the majlis (parliament) in March and April were between groups that largely all shared a fundamentalist view of Islam. The dividing line went between conservative supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and pragmatic critics led by Ali Larijani, former chief negotiator on issues of nuclear fission. After a second round…
Indonesia 2008
Yearbook 2008 Indonesia. Former dictator Suharto passed away in January at the age of 86 after a long illness. He goes to history as one of Asia’s most blood-soaked despots. He gradually seized power from 1965, when he, as army general, defeated a coup attempt and crushed the influential Communist Party. At least half a…
India 2008
Yearbook 2008 India. When over 170 people were killed in attacks on a series of targets in central Bombay on November 26, it was the culmination of a year of repeated terrorist attacks. What gave the attacks in Bombay a special symbolic weight was that they were aimed at, among other things, two of the…
Iceland 2008
Yearbook 2008 Iceland. The year became the most dramatic for Iceland since independence. After a severe earthquake in which about thirty people were injured, the nation experienced the cheer of Olympic silver in handball and then thrown into a financial crisis that seemed to be the worst in the world. In the spring, I resumed…