[Peace-discuss] AHDR

[C. G. Estabrook]

<www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=8086904&type=worldNews>

	Arab report sees little reform, faults U.S. action
	Tue Apr 5, 2005 04:38 AM ET
	By Jonathan Wright

CAIRO (Reuters) - In a long-awaited report contested by the United States
and Egypt, Arab intellectuals and reformers said they saw no significant
advances towards democracy in the Arab world in the year after October
2003.

The third Arab Human Development Report (AHDR), released on Tuesday under
U.N. auspices, says most reforms were "embryonic and fragmentary" and did
not amount to a serious effort to end repression in the region, which has
some of the world's most authoritarian governments.

The United States, which says its policy is to promote democracy in the
region, contributed to an international context which hampered progress,
through its policy towards Israel, its actions in Iraq and security
measures affecting Arabs, it said.

"Overall, there has been no significant easing of the human development
crisis in the Arab region," it said.

The report was written before elections in Iraq in January and the recent
street protests in Lebanon -- events which the Bush administration has
cited as evidence of change.

The U.S. and Egyptian governments had criticised parts of an early draft
of the U.N. report, leading to a dispute which held up its release for at
least three months.

But the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) eventually decided to put it out
under its logo, with a disclaimer in the preface.

"The very process of writing this AHDR has been a source of significant
public and, unfortunately, highly politicised and often inaccurate
speculation," wrote Mark Malloch Brown, UNDP Administrator at the time it
was written.

"Some of the views expressed by the authors are not shared by UNDP or the
UN... (But) This report clearly reflects a very real anger and concern
felt across the region," he added.

The most controversial parts of the report, subtitled Towards Freedom in
the Arab World, describe the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory
and the occupation of Iraq by the United States and its allies as
violations of freedom and obstacles to human development there and in the
region.

It says that the occupations gave Arab governments an excuse to postpone
democratisation, forced Arab reformers to divert some of their energies
away from reform and strengthened extremist groups which advocate
violence.

The United States also undermined the international system by repeatedly
using or threatening to use its U.N. Security Council veto, enabling
Israel to build new Jewish settlements and continue with its barrier in
the West Bank, it adds.

INCREASED SUFFERING IN IRAQ

"This has pushed many people in the region to lose hope of obtaining
justice from global governance and could exacerbate a tendency towards
extremism," the report said.

In Iraq, the occupation has increased human suffering and, because the
United States has failed to meet its obligations to protect citizens, the
country has seen "an unprecedented loss of internal security", it said.

"After dismantling the old state, the U.S.-led authorities made little
progress in building a new one. Despite the optimistic reports published
by the Occupation forces and the U.S. Administration their performance
continued to be deficient," it added.

In its analysis of the roots of authoritarianism in the Middle East, the
intellectuals cited the discovery of oil, the creation of Israel, the
phenomenon of client states during the Cold War and the fragile and
unnatural nature of most of the Arab states created during the
decolonisation period.

The U.S. response to the September 2001 attacks on the United States added
to the ambiguity in the Western attitude to human rights in the Middle
East, it said.

"The 'war on terror' has cut into many Arab freedoms... An unfortunate
by-product in some countries has been that Arabs are increasingly the
victims of stereotyping, disproportionately harassed or detained without
cause," it said.

"The fact that some Western countries ... have taken steps widely
perceived to be discriminatory and repressive, has weakened the position
of those reformers calling for Arab governments ... to change their
course," it added.

The report notes an increase in activity by civil society groups pressing
for changes inside Arab countries, some reform initiatives by Arab
governments, some improvements in education and some empowerment of women
in the Arab world.

But it added: "There is a near-complete consensus that there is a serious
failing in the Arab world, and that this is located specifically in the
political sphere."

It says that if the current repressive situation continues, more intense
social conflict is likely to follow.

"Disaster can be averted. The alternative is to pursue an historic,
peaceful and deep process of negotiated political alternation ... The
desired outcome is a redistribution of power within Arab societies,
restoring sovereignty to its rightful owners, the vast majority of people
in the Arab world."

© Reuters 2005