Word: draconian
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...with customers in Europe and the U.S. planning Draconian budgets for next year, exports too have begun to soften, sending unemployment upward and the economy lurching toward recession. In three key areas, West Germany is already hurting...
...Parliament, Roy Jenkins, the humane and reform-minded Home Secretary, found himself cast in the difficult role of trying to convince an enraged public that the government was doing everything reasonable to protect its citizens. Among the "draconian" measures, "unprecedented in peacetime," that Jenkins asked Parliament to pass: outlawing the Irish Republican Army in Britain; curtailment of habeas corpus to permit police to arrest without warrant I.R.A. suspects and to hold them for up to seven days...
...cordon off areas of the 4,411-sq.-mi. island while police conduct intensive house-to-house searches without warrants. Anyone caught with an unlicensed gun or even a single bullet is tried under the provisions of a second law, the Gun Court Act. Under the terms of this draconian legislation, trials of gunmen are held in a special court, proceedings are closed to public and press, and there is no bail while the accused await trial. If convicted, prisoners are sentenced to indefinite detention at a specially designed rehabilitation prison...
They will have to move to end the Greek economy's 32% inflation and more than $1.2 billion balance of payments deficit. They could continue the draconian deflationary program imposed last winter by the ousted junta, which included high interest rates, restrictions on bank credits and cuts in government spending. Such restrictions are far from popular, however, and the Cabinet may hesitate to continue them for fear of alienating the public support it will need to build a firm foundation for civilian rule...
...Geneva-based organization accused Amin of allowing his army and special police forces to terrorize the country, violating the constitution with arbitrary decrees and undermining the judiciary by attacking judges. Big Daddy's most publicized atrocity was his draconian expulsion of 50,000 Ugandan Asians in 1972, but that, apparently, was only the beginning. Tens of thousands of blacks have fled to Kenya, Tanzania and Europe since Amin seized power in January 1971. About 50,000 have been killed. Uncounted thousands have vanished and are presumed dead. Relatives file missing-persons reports, but they are often thankful that...