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. HOLLYWOOD CALLS FOR SUU KYI’S RELEASE: More than two dozen Hollywood stars, including Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon, Jennifer Aniston and Jim Carrey, signed an open letter to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Sept. 6 urging the world’s top diplomat to personally intervene in the case of detained pro-democracy leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi. “This courageous, brave woman whom many call ‘Burma’s Nelson Mandela’ should be released and the military regime should end its attacks [...]
BANGKOK, Thailand — While desperate people braved pro-government thugs on the streets of Rangoon to protest economically devastating fuel price rises, Burma’s chief energy planner was in Singapore spouting fantastic figures about his country’s oil and gas wealth. Burma has reserves of more than 600 million barrels of oil and almost 16 trillion cubic feet of gas, claimed U Soe Myint last week. Selling Abroad, Shortages at Home The figures, if they are to be believed, should be good news for a country of 53 million impoverished people who suffer intermittent electricity supplies, or none at all in many areas, [...]
French President Nicolas Sarkozy once made headlines with the remark, “If Turkey were Europe, we would know it.” In July, European Commission president José Manuel Barroso gave voice to similar European sentiments in a Greek newspaper interview: “Let’s be honest,” he said, “Turkey is not ready to become an EU member and the EU is not ready to accept Turkey as a member. Neither tomorrow, nor the next day.” Despite the overwhelmingly positive European response to Erdogan’s recent triumph at the polls, and calls to revamp Turkey’s political and economic reforms by European leaders, one fact remains clear: Turkey’s membership [...]
