PUSHING REGIONAL REFORM (Liz Cheney, O'Connor, Cherie Blair) in cahoots

[Gloria]

Broken out for the current World Media Watch

2//Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 27 August 2003 Issue No. 652

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/652/re11.htm



PUSHING REGIONAL REFORM

Political, economic and educational reforms in the Middle East must happen now, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Liz Cheney, told Khaled Dawoud in Washington



At her office at the State Department, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, Liz Cheney, is busy hanging up front pages of newspapers which mark the fall of Baghdad to US forces on 9 April. "Hussein's Baghdad falls", reads one headline above the famous picture of the statue of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein being pulled down by a US tank surrounded by several hundred Iraqis. Like other members of the US administration, 36-year-old Cheney believes that the fall of the former Iraqi regime and "establishing Iraq as a stable, democratic and prosperous nation" are crucial for the rest of the region.



Liz, daughter of US Vice-President Dick Cheney who is known as a key hard-liner in the Bush administration together with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, has been supervising the implementation of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), officially announced by Secretary of State Colin Powell in December. The aims of the initiative, which received an initial funding of $29 million in 2002 and $100 million for 2003, are to provide support for "economic, political, and educational reform efforts in the Middle East and champion opportunity for all people of the region, especially women and youth".



Critics of the MEPI in the Arab world, however, see this initiative as a means for imposing US-backed reforms in the region following the 11 September attacks in New York and Washington. However, the current US administration believes that without these reforms, the region would continue to produce "ideologies of hatred and violence". In addition to the MEPI, US President George Bush announced in May another plan to establish a joint Middle East Free Trade Zone by 2013.



Under the auspices of the MEPI, explained Cheney, the US administration provides funding for over 50 programmes, which include parliamentary training for new parliaments, technical assistance for elections, support for countries seeking to sign Free Trade Agreements with the United States and training for Arab journalists. They also provide support for programmes which aim to revise current teaching methods, replacing the current system of learning by rote with a more child- oriented system of learning.



Two major programmes happening in the next two months include a forum in Bahrain to be held from 15 to 17 September on judicial development across the Middle East, and a meeting in Qatar in October, which will bring together women from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and Yemen for a week-long course on leadership and communication skills to promote the role of women in the political process. US Supreme Court Justice Sandra O'Connor will lead the US delegation at the judicial conference in Qatar, while Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, will lead the British delegation. Cheney said that Bahrain had also invited governments in the region to send three to four jurists, ministers of justice, chief justices and some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) "to emphasise the importance of an independent judicial system, how to select judges, how judges are trained and what kind of ethical standards should be applied". Also in October, she added, another meeting will be held in Qatar, specifically for women judges from across the Arab world to speak about the role of women and their experiences in the field of law.

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[Cha]

1. Gross! Is it just me or do they even just look Snarky!