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Qatar Approves Peaceful Demonstrations At WTO Meeting
DOHA, Jan 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Gulf Arab state of Qatar will allow peaceful demonstrations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting Doha is to host in November, local newspapers reported Tuesday.
"We will not prevent anybody from entering [Qatar] to demonstrate on condition that the demonstrations are peaceful. We will allow them to express their views in total freedom," Finance and Trade Minister Yussef Hussein Kamal told reporters.
"We have started preparations to host the meeting," Kamal said, quoted in Al-Watan newspaper, during a conference on tourism at which plans to ease visas for visitors to Qatar were discussed.
Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Tahani met on Friday with the director of the WTO, Mike Moore, to discuss Qatar's request to host the meetings.
Considered a thorn in the side of much of the Arab world by Arab states themselves, Qatar has been feverishly working for a larger international role, often acting against policies of other Gulf Arab countries. The minister's statements are aimed to mitigate fears that Qatar may crackdown on protestors.
WTO officials meeting in Geneva Tuesday agreed to hold the meeting in Qatar despite sharp criticism from human rights groups who argued that the conservative Gulf state would have no qualms about harassing demonstrators.
When the last ministerial conference was held in the U.S. city of Seattle in November 1999, anti-globalization protesters rampaged through the streets, seriously disrupting the meeting.
Visitors to the conservative Gulf Arab state need a visa backed by a local sponsor and must state a specific reason for their travel.
Qatar was the only country offering to host the meeting after Chile withdrew its offer to welcome delegates in Santiago, they said.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch warned this month that Doha was an inappropriate venue because of a ban on freedom of assembly in the Gulf monarchies. U.S. trade unions last week joined the campaign against holding the WTO conference in Doha.
"Once again the cynical and arrogant WTO bureaucrats... think they can run and hide from the deep and abiding problems the WTO has created," said United Steelworkers of America (USWA) president George Becker.
The USWA was among 20 groups to sign a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Trade Representative-designate Robert Zoellick asking them to oppose Qatar as the site.
The Doha conference is expected to take place November 5-9, ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which slows down life in the Gulf. WTO officials will set a definite meeting at the next session of the general council on February 8th.
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