US embassy cable - 05CAIRO4174

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 004174 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
FOR NEA, NEA/ELA, AND NEA/PI 
TUNIS FOR MEPI (MULREAN) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, KMPI, EG, MEPI, civil society 
SUBJECT: BMENA: CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPANTS DISCUSS LACK OF 
FOLLOW-UP; UNAWARE OF G8 ACTIVITIES 
 
REF: 04 CAIRO 9249 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
1.  (U)  This is a joint cable from Embassy Cairo and the 
MEPI Regional Office in Tunis. 
 
2.  (SBU)  Summary:  During a recent meeting with Tunis MEPI 
Regional Office Specialist Labidi, Egyptian participants in 
last December's Civil Society Dialogue at the Forum for the 
Future discussed their perception that there had been little 
follow-up to the Dialogue.  Despite attempts to communicate 
with Arab governments, they have not had any feedback from 
the GOE or others on the content of the Dialogue.  They 
argued that only continued pressure from the U.S. will force 
the governments of the region to address reform issues 
seriously.  The activists were unaware of any planning for 
the Bahrain Forum for the Future or for the meetings of the 
Democracy Assistance Dialogue.  They urged that a more 
structured system for dealing with civil society be put in 
place by the Bahrain Forum, since they fear that, once the 
G-8 passes to the Russian Presidency, any hope of 
institutionalizing a civil society role will disappear.  End 
summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
No Civil Society Dialogue Follow-up on Arab Side 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
3.  (SBU)  Pol-Econ Specialist Wahid Labidi (Tunis MEPI 
Regional Office) met with Bahey El-Din Hassan, Director of 
the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), Moataz 
El-Fegiry (CIHRS), Dr. Gamal A. Gawad of Al-Ahram Center for 
Political and Strategic Studies (ACPSS), and other Egyptian 
civil society activists during a May 14-17 visit to Cairo. 
The first two interlocutors participated in the Civil Society 
Dialogue at the December 2004 Forum for the Future in Rabat, 
with Bahey acting as the Dialogue's chairman (reftel).  They 
admitted that, while they had maintained contact with some of 
the other Dialogue participants, they had not taken any 
action on behalf of the Dialogue since December other than 
distributing the Dialogue's declaration to Arab governments. 
They had not had any other interaction with the GOE or other 
Arab governments concerning the declaration or any other 
Forum-related issue.  Bahey said he was not surprised that 
there had been no outreach by Arab governments to civil 
society groups such as his own.  Bahey asserted that was 
further evidence that Arab governments were generally not 
serious about reform.  Only consistent pressure by the U.S. 
will force the governments to look at such reform issues, he 
said.  (Note:  In February, during the lead-up to the Arab 
League Ministerial with the G-8--which had been planned for 
early March and was then postponed indefinitely--the GOE had 
reached out to several Cairo-based NGOs to solicit their 
participation in the March meeting.  The GOE did not seek 
participation of civil society groups, such as CIHRS, whose 
primary missions are human rights and democracy advocacy. 
End note) 
 
------------------------------- 
Unaware of Activity on G-8 Side 
------------------------------- 
 
4.  (SBU)  Earlier this year, Bahey and other civil society 
representatives met with a UK official (NFI) responsible for 
the Forum for the Future and sent him a memo regarding 
follow-up to Rabat.  They never received a response, however, 
and had the impression that the UK official was swamped with 
other work.  Likewise, they have heard nothing about 
preparations for the November Forum in Bahrain, which they 
hope will refer back to the Civil Society Dialogue 
declaration from Rabat as a means of judging what has been 
accomplished in the intervening period.  The Egyptian 
activists emphasized the Rabat declaration's call to define 
better the role and mechanism for civil society participation 
"as an equal partner" in the Forum for the Future.  They 
explained that Arab civil society activists were divided on 
whether to embrace the Forum for the Future, with many 
critics seeing it as either a whitewash for repressive Arab 
regimes or a diversion from other key issues, such as Iraq 
and Palestine.  Those who agreed to participate need to 
demonstrate that there are concrete benefits,  Bahey 
explained, such as a mechanism for ensuring that Arab 
governments are engaged in a real dialogue with civil society 
and are responsive to their demands.  Further, the activists 
worried that, if such roles and mechanisms were not agreed 
upon during the UK,s G8 presidency, there was little hope 
for positive developments under the subsequent Russian 
presidency. 
5.  (SBU)  According to the Egyptian activists, determining a 
civil society role in the Forum for the Future requires 
defining who should participate.  This should include civil 
society representatives from G8 countries, since their 
experience and stature would not only enhance the Civil 
Society Dialogue's performance, but might also make it harder 
for Arab governments to dismiss the Dialogue.  They did not 
offer any suggestions for how to develop the right mix of 
participants, but noted that coordination and communication 
among civil society groups tended to be difficult. At the 
Rabat Forum, they called for the development of an 
"institutionalized" body that could represent civil society 
in the region.  The Egyptian activists did not elaborate on 
how such a body might resolve the issue of participation. 
 
6.   (SBU)  None of the Egyptian activists was aware of plans 
for the Democracy Assistance Dialogue (DAD).  (Note: The DAD 
will bring together willing governments, civil society 
groups, and other organizations to improve and expand 
programs and projects that support the region's own efforts 
on democratization and public participation. Italy, Turkey, 
and Yemen will hold conferences on different themes in the 
coming year, with the first to be held in Istanbul at the end 
of June.  End note.)  They stated that they had assumed the 
DAD had never gotten off the ground and that this was a sign 
that the G8 was not serious about the whole BMENA process. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Comment: Need to Get the Word Out 
--------------------------------- 
 
7.  (SBU)  Our Egyptian interlocutors' remarks are, from what 
we can tell, representative of the lack of understanding 
within Arab civil society of the BMENA process.  This is 
particularly troubling since two of the three Cairo 
interlocutors were part of the process in December.  With 
less than six months before the Bahrain Forum for the Future, 
we need to get the word out about the BMENA and bilateral 
events that we and other G8 partners are undertaking to 
support the process, as well as our expectations for the 
Civil Society and Business Dialogues in November.  End 
comment. 
 
 
Visit Embassy Cairo's Classified Website: 
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GRAY 
 
#4174