Plitique , Etat de droit et democratie en Tunisiie
Arab Intellectual Alleges Report Coverup


By SALAH NASRAWI
Associated Press Writer

January 11, 2005, 4:31 PM EST


CAIRO, Egypt -- An Arab intellectual has accused the United States and Egypt of keeping the United Nations from publishing a survey of the Arab world because it criticizes the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the state of democracy in Egypt.

The U.N. Development Program denied those accusation by the document's chief coordinator, Nader Fergany. A UNDP spokesman said Tuesday the document was still being edited and would be published within a few months.

U.S. officials also have denied trying to block the report, "Freedom and Good Governance in the Arab World," and the Egyptian government has publicly criticized it for not seeking its views.

The report was prepared by an independent team of Arab experts and policy-makers.

The 2004 edition was to have been issued by the UNDP in October but has been blocked, its authors say, because it criticizes the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the state of democracy in Egypt. Cairo has been under virtual one-party rule for decades.

Fergany, frustrated by the monthslong delay in releasing the report, published parts of it in the leftist Egyptian newspaper Al Arabi. The document calls the occupation of Iraq "one of the most blatant forms of foreign intervention" and accuses U.S. troops of committing "savage strikes" and inflicting collective punishment against Iraqis.

Fergany says occupation, whether by the United States in Iraq or Israel in the Palestinian territories, hinders development.

The annual UNDP report has elicited passionate responses since first appearing in 2002 because of its frankness and willingness to challenge the status quo.

Fergany, who turned down repeated requests for an interview by The Associated Press, wrote in Al Arabi that the United States tried to block or tone down this year's version.

Mustafa Kamel el-Seyed, a Cairo University professor who wrote a chapter on political participation and the role of minorities, told the AP: "No government has any right to express any reservations on the report. This is censorship."

James Bullock, a U.S. Embassy official in Cairo, disputed those allegations Tuesday, saying the State Department first issued a denial Dec. 16.

The U.N. body also denied any government tried to suppress the report.

"It is untrue that UNDP is suppressing the report. It is untrue that either the government of the United States or the government of Egypt has asked us to block the report. As we said before, the report is still in the final editing process and we expect it to be published within the next couple of months," UNDP spokesman Bill Orme said.

But the agency has hinted at problems, saying any document coming out under its name "must meet the high standards of impartiality expected of a U.N. agency."

In a letter published in the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat last month, Egyptian Foreign Ministry official Dawlat Hassan said the report's authors failed to take the government's views into account, which is "unacceptable belittling of these states and it does not express a real readiness for cooperation to create a partnership for the development of this area."

Hassan did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Fergany also worked on the two previous reports, which were warmly received by the United States, with President Bush saying they helped advance his drive for political reform in the Middle East.

Arab leaders were angered by those reports. Last year, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa refused to host a ceremony to release the report because it criticized Arab governments. Organizers moved the ceremony to Jordan.

This time, Moussa said reports the United States tried to block publication of the survey show Washington was not serious when it called for more democracy and freedom of speech in the Arab world.

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