Gulf | Yemen
Yemen conference 'gives no concrete plans for Gulf reforms'
The final communiqué of the Sanaa International Conference on Democracy, Political Reforms and Freedom of Expression fails to outline concrete steps for reforms in the region, participants complained.
- By Nasser Arrabyee, Correspondent
- Published: 00:00 June 28, 2006
Sanaa: The final communiqué of the Sanaa International Conference on Democracy, Political Reforms and Freedom of Expression fails to outline concrete steps for reforms in the region, participants complained.
Some participants of the two-day conference, opened by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, which concluded on Monday, also criticised the final statement of the conference as a "repeat" of previous conferences that were not implemented.
They described the statement as a "governmental vision".
"The final communiqué is a governmental vision and not the participants' vision," said Sadeq Al Mahdi, former Prime Minister of Sudan, and a participant.
Sa'ad Eddin Ebrahim, chairman of Cairo-based Bin Khaldun Centre for Human Rights Studies, said "the final statement is a carbon copy (of) ... previous conferences that came out only with statements without any follow up mechanism".
But Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al Querbi, who chaired the concluding session, defended by saying that the recommendations were more important than the statement.
"As there is a refusal (of) the dictatorship of governments, there should be also a refusal (of) the dictatorship of the civil society, so what should be done is to refuse the dictatorship of all sides," Al Querbi said.
The conference had some 500 participants from Arab and G8 countries, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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