QATAR: The sixth International Conference on New or Restored Democracies opens in Doha

The sixth International Conference on New or Restored Democracies began on Sunday (October 29) in Doha, Qatar. Foreign ministers, politicians and government representatives from 192 countries are expected to participate in the conference. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni cancelled plans to attend the U.N. meeting in Qatar because legislators from the Islamist militant group Hamas were expected to be there, officials said on Sunday. Ahmed Bahar, the Deputy Chairman of the Palestinian Parliament and guest at the Doha conference, told Reuters in an interview that Livni's decision to boycott the forum was representative of what Hamas sees as Israel's attempts to hinder the growth of democracy in the Palestinian Territories. "She is having our people killed. During the days of Eid al Fitr the Israeli army killed over 15 Palestinians, of them women, children, men and sheikhs (Muslim clerics). And it had homes demolished over its inhabitants and continues to build the wall. It detains young men and there are presently almost 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails. She is against democracy and that is why she cannot show her face to the international community at this democracy meeting in Qatar," said Ahmed Bahar, Deputy Chairman of the Palestinian Parliament. With regard to the Israeli soldier captured in a raid near Gaza in June involving Hamas's military wing, Bahar insisted that the solution lay in the Israeli government's hands. "There are goodwill attempts by the Egyptians who want to help solve this issue. But the Israeli government wants to impose orders on the Palestinians to release the Israeli soldier and only then will it think about what can be done for the Palestinians. This is the truth and this is why the ball is in their court," said Bahar. The conference is scheduled to run to November 1 and includes talks on reform processes, good governance, freedom, development and battling poverty. Israel has low-level ties with Qatar, but Livni's attendance at the United Nations convention on democracy would have been the first visit by a leading Israeli government minister to the Gulf state in a decade. Israel, backed by the West, has boycotted Hamas, which won Palestinian elections in January. Hamas refuses to recognise Israel and its charter calls for the Jewish state's destruction. The last Israeli leader to visit Qatar was then Prime Minister Shimon Peres who opened a trade office in 1996.

ITN Source | October 30, 2006

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