Saudi Arabia’s facelift
Oil-rich kingdom is to host anti-terror conference, first municipal elections all in same week.
By Ali Khalil - RIYADH
Hit by a wave of deadly attacks since 2003, Saudi Arabia is to host an international counter-terrorism conference to improve its image abroad, ahead of the first municipal polls in the ultra-conservative kingdom.
Delegations from more than 50 countries, flanked by international bodies, will discuss over four days starting Saturday the causes of terrorism, in addition to the relation between terror and money laundering as well as arms and drug trafficking.
Saudi Arabia - the homeland of 15 of the 19 plane hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and of Al-Qaeda terror chief Osama bin Laden - has attracted a large international gathering to its forum.
The conference is a "public relations stunt" by the Saudi government in its drive to shake off accusations of harbouring and funding Islamist terrorism, a Western diplomat said.
But some productive meetings between representatives of counter-terrorism departments might take place on the margins, especially as the Saudi government "is looking seriously into ways of tackling domestic terrorism", the diplomat said, requesting anonymity.
Since May 2003, Saudi Arabia has been battling a wave of terror by presumed Islamist extremists from Al-Qaeda who have killed more than 100 people and wounded hundreds in a spate of bombings and shootings.
The United Nations, European Union, Arab League and African Union will be represented at the gathering, while countries such as the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany have said they will take part.
Fifteen Arab countries are due to show up, with Libya and Iraq the main Arab absentees.
The anti-terrorism conference ends two days before the first round of the landmark municipal elections, projected as the first step towards reform in the absolute monarchy, kicks off in the Saudi capital on February 10.
Other regions will go to the polls on March 3 and April 21.
Only half the seats on 178 councils are up for grabs, while the other half will be appointed by the government, which still insists that the polls open the way to greater public participation.
Holding the polls was in keeping with the policy advocated by King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz to "press ahead on the path of political and administrative reform," the cabinet said as it announced the decision to hold the elections back in October 2003.
The unprecedented ballot is part of a drive to introduce limited reforms, which Riyadh insists must be tailored to Saudi specifications and not necessarily follow a Western pattern.
Women, who represent more than 50 percent of the population, were barred from the exercise, despite neutral rules that say citizens over 21 years of age, except military personnel, have the right to vote.
The proclaimed process of reform has also been tainted by a crackdown on a dozen constitutional reformists, who were arrested in March 2004.
Only activists who pledged to no longer lobby for reform in public were set free, while three opted to stay behind bars facing an ongoing trial. Their outspoken lawyer joined them in detention last November.
Oil-rich kingdom is to host anti-terror conference, first municipal elections all in same week.
By Ali Khalil - RIYADH
Hit by a wave of deadly attacks since 2003, Saudi Arabia is to host an international counter-terrorism conference to improve its image abroad, ahead of the first municipal polls in the ultra-conservative kingdom.
Delegations from more than 50 countries, flanked by international bodies, will discuss over four days starting Saturday the causes of terrorism, in addition to the relation between terror and money laundering as well as arms and drug trafficking.
Saudi Arabia - the homeland of 15 of the 19 plane hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and of Al-Qaeda terror chief Osama bin Laden - has attracted a large international gathering to its forum.
The conference is a "public relations stunt" by the Saudi government in its drive to shake off accusations of harbouring and funding Islamist terrorism, a Western diplomat said.
But some productive meetings between representatives of counter-terrorism departments might take place on the margins, especially as the Saudi government "is looking seriously into ways of tackling domestic terrorism", the diplomat said, requesting anonymity.
Since May 2003, Saudi Arabia has been battling a wave of terror by presumed Islamist extremists from Al-Qaeda who have killed more than 100 people and wounded hundreds in a spate of bombings and shootings.
The United Nations, European Union, Arab League and African Union will be represented at the gathering, while countries such as the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany have said they will take part.
Fifteen Arab countries are due to show up, with Libya and Iraq the main Arab absentees.
The anti-terrorism conference ends two days before the first round of the landmark municipal elections, projected as the first step towards reform in the absolute monarchy, kicks off in the Saudi capital on February 10.
Other regions will go to the polls on March 3 and April 21.
Only half the seats on 178 councils are up for grabs, while the other half will be appointed by the government, which still insists that the polls open the way to greater public participation.
Holding the polls was in keeping with the policy advocated by King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz to "press ahead on the path of political and administrative reform," the cabinet said as it announced the decision to hold the elections back in October 2003.
The unprecedented ballot is part of a drive to introduce limited reforms, which Riyadh insists must be tailored to Saudi specifications and not necessarily follow a Western pattern.
Women, who represent more than 50 percent of the population, were barred from the exercise, despite neutral rules that say citizens over 21 years of age, except military personnel, have the right to vote.
The proclaimed process of reform has also been tainted by a crackdown on a dozen constitutional reformists, who were arrested in March 2004.
Only activists who pledged to no longer lobby for reform in public were set free, while three opted to stay behind bars facing an ongoing trial. Their outspoken lawyer joined them in detention last November.
posted by Casey Britton | 1:54 PM
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