That's the number of people who were executed by their state in 2008. According to a new Amnesty International reportDeath Sentences and Executions in 2008 China lead the world in executions, killing 1,718 people. That accounts for about a 72% share in total world-wide executions. Iran and Saudi Arabia also place high on the list, killing at least 346 people and 102 people respectively, in part through stoning and beheading.
The United States put to death 37 people in 2008--though just yesterday New Mexico governor (and former UN Ambassador) Bill Richardson signed a bill outlawing the death penalty in his state. Meanwhile, Belarus is the only country with an active death penalty in Europe, having executed four people last year.
There is, however, some good news to report. Of the 59 countries around the world that still have the death penalty on the books, only 25 used it. This, says, Amnesty's Irene Khan shows the trend is toward abolition.
Photo from Flickr.
In addition to the Taliban and al Qaeda, Richard Holbooke, the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, is having to navigate the occasionally tricky field of public relations. First, The Times of London (not, I gather, all too reputable a paper, for what it's worth) published reports that Holbrooke had dismissed the UN's top representative in Afghanistan, Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide, as "useless and ineffective." Then The New York Times (a more trustworthy source, if still prone to overly salacious headlines) reports that Holbrooke, when he was negotiating an end to the wars in Bosnia in 1996, promised Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, currently standing trial at The Hague, that he would not be prosecuted, as part of a deal for peace.
I have no idea as to the veracity of these rumors, and each has traveled the predictable line of denial and re-accusation, but I have a couple comments nonetheless. On the first, whatever Holbrooke may or may not have said, Eide is most certainly not "useless" (as I'm sure the veteran Holbrooke recognizes, even if their notorious "short fuses" don't match up well). By all accounts, Eide has gotten the nitty-gritty of Afghan politics, working with President Karzai to bolster Afghanistan's democracy and stabilize its security. Overall, the UN has continued to play a large role throughout the country on a number of political, legal, and humanitarian fronts, and the United States has consistently supported its efforts.
More specifically, I object to the insinuation of this Reuters report of the supposed scandal that the United States' appointment of Peter Galbraith as Eide's number two is any indication of Holbrooke's dissatisfaction with the UN head. On the contrary, I see the fact that the Obama Administration would appoint someone so high-profile as Galbraith to this spot as a pretty clear indication of its -- and by extension, Holbrooke's -- support for Eide and the work that the UN is doing in Afghanistan.
In Karadzic's case, oversimplified reports -- alleging that Karadzic was guaranteed "immunity," for example -- have inflated what seems a more routine diplomatic-legal gambit. While Holbrooke has understandably -- given his current position -- denied any such conversations having ever taken place, it doesn't seem implausible that some sort of offer was put on the table. Such a promise might have been the best way to guarantee peace at the time -- even two officials who corroborate the story admit that "Holbrooke did the right thing and got the job done" -- but I don't think it provides sufficient justification to not even pursue a trial years down the line. This may seem cynical, but in the 1990's, peace in Bosnia was the priority; today, Bosnians deserve justice, and Karadzic should face a fair trial to determine his culpability in the crimes of a decade ago. The question of whether Holbrooke's alleged entreaty could be legally binding is for the Court to decide, but I don't think that it should detract from investigating Karadzic's role in the crimes against humanity that did occur.
(image of Holbrooke, a former U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN, speaking at the UN in 2006)
Every year, nine million people get sick from tuberculosis. 5000 will die from TB today alone. And, almost unbelievably, two billion human beings around the world are infected with the bacteria that causes TB.
20 dollars are enough to provide a patient with a 6-month treatment of antibiotics. Today, on TB Day, learn what you can do to help. (You can start by visiting Google.)
Among the many compounding issues that refugees face one of the most emotionally daunting is losing contact with friends and family members. For decades the Red Cross has been the venue through which family members become reunited. But now, two Danish web entrepreneurs , brothers Christopher and David Mikkelsen, have created an alternate way of putting lost family members in touch with each other. The site is called Refunite. Der Speigel explains:
The Red Cross system, though -- as efficient as it may be -- requires refugees to apply for help from a third party. Requests are sent first to Red Cross headquarters in Geneva from where they are then sent to personnel working in the conflict zone in question. Should Refugees United, as the Mikkelsens call their organization, attract enough members, it could provide the displaced with a new way to search -- one that they control themselves.
SNIP
"It's really just another search engine," Christopher Mikkelsen, 30, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "But the fact that it is specifically intended to help refugees find their families makes it a beacon. It is about helping the refugees and helping those people trying to help refugees."
Great work, Mikkelsens.
Image from flickr: A Kosovo refugee family in Macedonia
Ban greets CFR Term Members at the United Nations. At around the 10 minute mark, Ban declares that he is going to the G-20 in London next month to represent the voice of poor citizens of countries that have been excluded from the meeting.
The good news is that Macedonia's presidential election yesterday went off peacefully and, it seems, democratically. The bad news, of course, is that this does not bring the country any closer to choosing a name that is also acceptable to their Greek neighbors, whose northernmost province awkwardly also bears the name Macedonia.
In this respect, the suggestion conveyed by EU and NATO officials, that a repeat of last year's tumultuous elections could further distance Macedonia from membership in the two bodies, is a little disingenuous. Assuredly this vote was very important, and the ability to conduct peaceful elections should be a staple of an aspiring EU and NATO state, but the reality is that Macedonia's candidacy has been stalled not by its electoral difficulties, but by Greece's stringent objection to the country's name. And it was a president being elected yesterday, not a name.
Sunday, March 22, 2009 was World Water Day. Here's a video about water, those who have it, those who don't, those whose water is contaminated, and what we can do about it: