On Bahrain conference on middle east reforms
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice travels to Bahrain November 11-12 to participate in an international conference on supporting democratic, educational and economic reforms in the broader Middle East.
"The Forum for the Future brings together governments, civil society groups from the region, and international organizations all seeking to support democracy, free market economic reforms, progressive economic policies, education throughout the broader Middle East," said Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried in Washington November 9.
At the forum, Rice plans to announce two new initiatives -- the Foundation for the Future and the Fund for the Future, which are financed primarily by the United States, but also by European and Middle Eastern countries.
The Foundation for the Future, supported by $35 million from the United States, $2 million from Europe, $1 million from Jordan and $6 million from other countries, will make grants to nongovernmental organizations working to democratize the Middle East, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Liz Cheney said in the same briefing.
Cheney said that she expects more announcements of contributions during or after the conference. She said the foundation has been set up as a result of the Democratic Assistance Dialogue in Rabat, Morocco, held in December 2004, when civil society activists and governments came together for the first time to talk about civil society's needs from governments.
"The civil society groups have asked for a foundation, some sort of entity that is not connected with any one government, that can provide support for their efforts to help to open up their societies," Cheney said.
Cheney said the headquarters of the foundation and fund will be located in the Middle East but did not disclose the country.
The Fund for the Future, underwritten by $50 million from the United States, $20 million from Egypt, $20 million from Morocco and $1 million from Denmark, will support entrepreneurship in the Middle East, modeled on enterprise funds that successfully were used in central and eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, Fried said.
Cheney said the fund will provide primarily equity investments and some loan capital to small and medium-size enterprises across the broader Middle East.
The Bahrain conference is the second Forum for the Future, following up on the work launched at the first forum held in Morocco in December 2004.
Fried said the first forum generated a great deal of debate about whether democracy and reform were even possible to implant in the region.
"That question has been answered because the peoples of the region themselves have answered it. In the region in the past year we have seen elections. We have seen the people of Lebanon standing up and demanding freedom and sovereignty. We have seen civil society groups which will be present in abundance in Bahrain speaking to an agenda of reform," he said.
Cheney said that the elections in the Palestinian Territories, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and the new family code in Morocco enshrining the rights of women are indications that the governments in the Middle East recognize the need to democratize.
She said the focus of the reform issue debate in the broader Middle East is not whether to reform, but rather how and when to do so to respond to popular pressure.
"The curtain of fear is lifting. It is a process that will be difficult. It is a process that may take a long time, but in many ways once people begin to have a voice and once people recognize that they can demand that voice, it becomes much harder for governments who want to silence them to use the traditional tools to do that," she added.
Cheney made a special appeal to Syria to release democratic activist Kamal Labwani who recently visited the United States as a guest of the State Department and was jailed after his return to Damascus November 8.
