[asia-apec 1826] Food First: The Doha Report - November 9th, 2001

[Anuradha Mittal]

Anuradha Mittal , Co-Director of Food First, is in Doha, Qatar attending 
the WTO Ministerial Conference and representing 
the voices of people from developing nations. Anuradha also
plans on speaking to Bay Area demonstrators via cell phone
patch on Saturday, November 10, at the Richmond Chevron
Refinery WTO Protest. We look forward to seeing you there!

Daily Doha Reports can be found at:
http://www.foodfirst.org/progs/global/trade/wto2001/updates.html

----------------------------------------------------
THE DOHA REPORT
by Anuradha Mittal
November 9, 2001

I arrived in Doha yesterday at 10 pm and was taken directly to the
Ritz Carlton hotel. The skeleton U.S. delegation had reduced
from over 200 in number to some 45-50 delegates, as the delgates
took the option of not attending given the security concerns.
The Congressional delegation and even the Secretary of Commerce
and Agriculture had opted out. This resulted in the USTR inviting
US NGOs and the press to stay at the fancy Ritz Carlton to fill
the rooms.

This morning was the security briefing for the US delegates.
Once they realized that I am an Indian national, I was unceremoniusly
escorted out of the room. The USTR representative that had called the
Food First office to invite me to stay at the Ritz exclaimed,
"I had no idea that you are not a US citizen." The others were
given a security briefing including an emeregency cell phone
in case they had to be evacuated.

The security is heavy with Qatari security officials heavily
armed in blue camoflauge.The NGO center looks empty--very different
from Seattle, where voices of the working poor, family farmers,
unions, faith-based groups, women activists and other civil society
representatives from around the world had sent a loud and clear
message to the WTO--Your unaccountable and unparticipatory practices
that have unleashed economic warfare on the poor are unacceptable.

Few of us who are here, met yesterday and this morning, to challenge
this unparticipatory process and to strategize against muscle
flexing by the US and the Washington Consensus in action in Doha.
About 50 of us gathered outside the entrance of the hall at 4:30
pm where the inaugural session was to be held this evening. While
the delegates walked in and press gathered around us, we all
held the sign of "NO VOICE IN THE WTO," and had masking tape
covering our mouths. The delegates had found the most interesting
moment of the conference as they flashed their cameras at us.
Jose Bove, the French farmer, then decided to carry our message
inside, but was immediately stopped by the security who wrestled
with him.

Almost spontaneously, I started the chant, "What do we want?",
and our demand "DEMOCRACY!" boomed across the hallways of the Sheraton
Hotel, where the WTO is meeting in secrecy in  the state of Qatar,
known to be unknown, so the economic forces can push through
policies which hurt millions across the world.

Soon I was surrounded by cameras and media and the secretive,
undemocratic policies of the WTO were being carried across the
airwaves around the world. 

At the inaugural session, Mike Moore, the Director General of
the WTO proclaimed, "The transparency and inclusiveness, which
is to say the legitimacy, of the Geneva process has been universally
acknowledged." He credited Chairman Stuart Harbinson and ambassadors
and delegates in Geneva, who he said have worked in an open process,
marked by honor, integrity and good humor.

This contrasted sharply with what the delegate from Ghana based
in Geneva, Lawrence Yaw Sae-Brawusi said to me. As we talked during
our flight from Bahrain to Doha, he explained to me that since
Seattle there had been a change in process.  "It was more accountable,
open and democratic. But the way the final draft was presented
by Harbinson, it completed violated the spirit of the whole process.
All the praise that has been showered on him is now wasted. The
process needs guidelines of engagement by the Third World countries
and cannot depend on the benevolence of chairpersons like Harbinson."

Message from Kofi Annan to the inaugural session claimed that
since Sept. 11, the world has two choices: First, a mutually
destructive clash of civilizations or second, a world united through
a global economy. As the economic heads meet to discuss international
economy, they do so without discussing international politics.
They are like ostriches with their heads in the sand who are
not acknowledging the ongoing war in Afghanistan. They do so
without acknowledging the Third Choice--not Tony Blair's Third
Way, but a choice based on viable alternatives that the international
civil society has offered that make the possibility of a better
world a reality.

>From Doha,
Anuradha

(Read Anuradha's Bio: http://www.foodfirst.org/who/amittal.html)

For more information, to order Food First Books,or to join our member-supported organization, go to:
http://www.foodfirst.org.  
Or send your tax-deductible check to:
Food First, 398 60th St. Oakland, CA 94618

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