PRISTINA and MITROVICA, Kosovo — Kosovo will make a unilateral declaration of independence within days of the delivery of a report on its status to the U.N. on Dec. 10, according to the breakaway Serbian province’s prime minister, Agim Ceku. But what then? Kosovo has declared independence twice before, but only secured the recognition of neighboring Albania. “The circumstances are very different this time,” Ceku told World Politics Review in a recent interview. “Now we have got everything that has been developed in the last eight years under the U.N. administration: We have a parliament; we have a government; we [...]
Editor’s Note: Rights & Wrongs is a weekly column covering the world’s major human rights-related happenings. It is written by regular WPR contributor Juliette Terzieff. U.N. FINDS MASSIVE ANGOLA ABUSES — A United Nations special investigative team has found widespread human rights abuses in Angola’s legal system, including incidences of torture and detention without effective legal redress. “The right to access to a lawyer and a corresponding legal aid system as guaranteed by the [Angolan] constitution, exists only in theory. Legal assistance is only available during the trial stage and sometimes the accused do not enjoy the benefit of a [...]
The intense political and media scrutiny directed towards Blackwater Inc. this week evokes the old Irish saying that “calm waters run deep, but the Devil lurks in the depths.” During congressional hearings, the rock was lifted to reveal one of the most profound developments in the American way of war since perhaps the use of conscription during the Civil War: civilianization of the battlefield. Ironically, the media exposure of the stark statistic that there are today more civilian contractors serving in Iraq than members of the armed forces occurred during the same week when many Americans tuned in to the [...]
