US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro met in Panama for the first high-level discussion between the two countries in nearly 60 years. By all accounts the meeting was conducted with mutual respect and a sense of great hope for the future. Much still remains to be done before relations are fully normalized, but it seems clear that both Obama and Castro believe that those steps can be taken. We will have to see how the US Congress regards the prospect of restored full relations.
Bangladesh executed Islamist opposition leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman on Saturday for war crimes committed during the 1971 war. The war created the independent nation-state of Bangladesh, successfully separating it from Pakistan. About 3 million people dies in the 9-month independence struggle. Virtually every outside observer, including the UN and the European Union, believed that the trial of Kamaruzzaman had not met internationally recognized standards and had urged the death penalty to be set aside. We will also have to see how Kamaruzzman’s supporters react to the execution.
The United Nations maintains a large refugee camp in northeast Kenya for thousands of Somalians who have fled the violence in their country. No one knows how many refugees live in the Dadaab camp–esitmates range from 300-600,000 making it the largest refugee camp in the world. It was established in 1991 and Kenya has demanded that the refugees be moved back to Somalia in three months. The demand comes after the attack on Garissa University and Kenya believes that the refugee camp allows too many security threats to Kenyan citizens. It is impossible to imagine how such a massive population transfer could occur in an orderly fashion in such a short time frame.
World Politics News 
Leave a comment