At Dead Sea Forum, Incongruities Abound

DEAD SEA, Jordan, Dec. 1 -- The official purpose of the third annual session of the U.S.-promoted Forum for the Future was to promote rule of law, press freedom and greater attention to nongovernmental organizations in the Arab world. But the official co-host of the meeting was Russia -- which under President Vladimir Putin has backtracked on democracy, curtailed the news media and cracked down on NGOs.

This uncomfortable irony was apparent to many people who attended the meeting set in a vast conference center with a spectacular view over the Dead Sea. But with the Bush administration's push to promote democracy in the Middle East facing setbacks in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, irony was not in short supply.

"The whole scenario is full of contradictions and a lot of double standards," said Salam Mansour, executive director of a Cairo-based democracy youth group who took part in a presentation at the meeting. "Some people don't recognize the U.S. as a full democracy."

Russia became co-host because the forum is officially sanctioned by the Group of Eight major industrial democracies, and Moscow this year was host of the annual G-8 meeting, despite objections that it doesn't belong in the group. The forum was launched at the 2004 G-8 meeting in Sea Island, Ga., and the United States has pushed for the fledging organization to take root.

Arab nations have been skeptical from the start. The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, told the gathering here that democracy cannot be imposed and cited Africa as an example of where Western notions of democracy have led to turmoil and conflict, according to a Saudi official.

Last year's meeting, held in Bahrain, dissolved into bickering over the wording of the final communique, so organizers this year decided to dispense with such a statement.

By all accounts, Jordan -- a moderate Arab monarchy eager to curry favor with the United States -- took responsibility for organizing the conference. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in her remarks to the conference, cited King Abdullah as a "champion of reform and tolerance" but did not mention Russia.

"There are enormous problems and there have been real setbacks in terms of Russian democracy," Rice acknowledged to reporters traveling with her. But she said it would be a mistake to think that "we were going to be better off by isolating Russia somehow from democratic fora."

ITAR-Tass, the Russian news agency, never mentioned democracy in a report on the meeting, quoting Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin as saying, "The forum plans to discuss key regional problems, such as the Middle East settlement, the situation around Iraq, the situation in Lebanon."

Khalil Gebara, co-executive director of the Lebanese Transparency Association, a group that tries to promote good government, said: "The Russians are the least interested in this conference. They are hard to reach and are just not talking to anyone."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov seemed to spend most of his time out of the main hall, smoking on a sunny terrace surrounded by a retinue of aides.

Rice also held a series of bilateral meetings -- for instance, with a Sudanese official for a tough talk on the crisis in Darfur -- and skipped the final news conference to fly back to Washington when the sessions ran late.

Mansour, an 18-year-old activist, said the youth groups had met for two days to brainstorm ideas to present to ministers to encourage greater participation by young people in promoting good government.

But she said that the ministers had arrived with prepared remarks and that they did not engage in any real discussion. "It was typical," she said. "They applauded our presentations. But there were no promises -- as usual."