Clinton urges accountability across Mideast

MUNICH (Agencies)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Saturday for progress toward open and
accountable governments across the Middle East as the way to long-term stability, despite short-term risks. Referring to mass protests in Egypt, Tunisia and other Arab countries, Clinton told a security conference in Germany that the “challenge is to help our (Middle East) partners take systematic steps to usher in a better future.” On Friday U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a clear hint that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak should step down now and make way for a political transition amid mass protests calling for his ouster and democratic change.

	This generation is rightly demanding that their governments become more effective, more responsive, and more open
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

In an update of a warning speech she gave last month in Qatar calling for reform in Arab countries, Clinton said the Middle East was being battered by a “perfect storm of trends.”

She spoke of too many young people seeking too few jobs in countries with depleting water and energy resources — and expressing their frustrations on social-networking sites.

“This generation is rightly demanding that their governments become more effective, more responsive, and more open,” the chief US diplomat told leaders and senior officials from Europe, Russia and Afghanistan.

“This is what has driven demonstrators into the streets of Tunis, Cairo, and cities throughout the region. The status quo is simply not sustainable,” Clinton said.

“Across the region, there must be clear and real progress toward open, transparent, fair, and accountable systems,” she said.

She said changes were occurring at different speeds in different countries, but each must undertake the journey toward democracy.

“There are risks with the transition to democracy,” she said, adding it can be chaotic and can cause short-term instability.

“Even worse, the transition can backslide into just another authoritarian regime,” she said.

“Revolutions have overthrown dictators in the name of democracy, only to see the political process hijacked by new autocrats who use violence, deception, and rigged elections to stay in power, or to advance an agenda of extremism,” she said.

There have been a rash of dire warnings in US-ally Israel that a post-Mubarak Egypt, free to choose its own destiny, would likely become another radical Islamic theocracy like Iran.

“The transition to democracy will only work if it is deliberate, inclusive, and transparent,” Clinton said.

Clinton on assassination report

Clinton said on Friday unconfirmed reports of an assassination attempt on Egypt’s vice-president put into “sharp relief” the challenges of the standoff between government and protesters.

The U.S. Fox television news network reported late on Friday that there had been an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Vice President Omar Suleiman, with two bodyguards reported killed. A senior Egyptian security source denied the report.

“That news report brings into sharp relief the challenges we are facing as we navigate through this period,” Clinton told a security conference in Munich after being told of the report.

But a U.S. official said the secretary of state’s comments did not constitute a confirmation of the news report, which was denied by the senior Egyptian security source.

Suleiman, the former Egyptian intelligence chief, was appointed by Mubarak a week ago, the first time the 82-year-old leader has named a deputy in three decades in power. Suleiman has promised to hold to account those responsible for the violence against protesters in Cairo, widely blamed on security forces in plain clothes and Mubarak loyalists.

West fear hasty election

European powers Germany and Britain urged Egypt on Saturday to change leaders rapidly but take its time holding elections, saying traditions of tolerance and fairness had to be built to make democracy work.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and European Council President Herman van Rompuy reiterated demands for a rapid “transition” — a phrase that has become a diplomatic codeword for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak after 30 years of military-backed autocracy.

But they said caution would be needed in the aftermath.
“I don’t believe that we solve the world’s problems by flicking a switch and holding an election … Egypt is a classic case in point,” Cameron told a security conference in Munich.

“I think a very quick election at the start of a process of democratization would be wrong,” Merkel told the same meeting, citing her own experiences as an East German pro-democracy activist at the time of the 1989 collapse of the Berlin Wall.

“If there is an election first, new structures (of political dialogue and decision-making) don’t have a chance to develop.”

Mubarak, who has pledged to step down in September, said on Thursday he believed Egypt would descend into chaos if he were to give in to almost two weeks of demands by an unprecedented popular revolt that he quit immediately.