The following are excerpts from articles which appeared in the
Egyptian English weekly, "Al-Ahram" of Al-Ahram Weekly 12 -18
February 1998

+++MENA's incidental victims" by Mona El-Fiqi

[Heading:] Hundreds of Egyptian labourers are returning jobless
from Qatar -- victims of the recent Egyptian-Qatari political rift.EGYPT:
QATAR PUNISHES EGYPT, IRAQ CRISIS

The following are excerpts from articles which appeared in the
Egyptian English weekly, "Al-Ahram" of Al-Ahram Weekly 12 -18
February 1998

+++MENA's incidental victims" by Mona El-Fiqi

[Heading:] Hundreds of Egyptian labourers are returning jobless
from Qatar -- victims of the recent Egyptian-Qatari political rift.

More than 700 Egyptian labourers have returned home in the past
month after having been dismissed by their Qatari employers -- the
latest round of mass Qatari firings in the ongoing Egypt-Qatar
political staredown.

...The mass firings are part of an ongoing Egypt-Qatar political
chill that started with Egypt's boycott of the Middle East/North
Africa(MENA) economic conference in Doha in November -- due to the
stagnation of the Middle East peace process. President Hosni
Mubarak and Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa II acted to patch
up differences between the two countries in a meeting in Riyadh in
November, but the dismissals have continued.

A total of 17,000 Egyptians are currently working in Qatar,
according to the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration.

...The Qatari decision cause great hardship to Egyptian families.
Many had to sell their houses, cars and furniture at half price
because they were pressured to leave quickly.

..."Laying off of Egyptian labourers in Qatar is considered a
violation of the labour agreement signed between Egypt and Qatar in
1975," El-Assar said.{El-Assar is a counselor for international
-cooperation at the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration.} The
Federation of Trade Unions presented a memorandum to both the ILO
and the ALO asking the Qatari government to compensate Egyptian
labourers dismissed before the end of their contracts.

+++"The Arab impasse" by Salama A. Salama

For seven long years, the Arabs clearly have been reluctant to
solve the Iraqi problem or to contain the Iraqi regime themselves,
thus leaving the U.S. to formulate such policies alone. Blind to
the way global and regional developments have been shaping their
future, the Arabs gave the US a free hand. This is the error for
which they must now pay. They must now accept the arbitrary
solutions dictated by the US, which take no account of
international legality or Security Council resolutions. Under the
pretense of maintaining world peace and protecting states in the
region from Iraqi weapons, The US can simply ignore the Arab will
which is opposed to military action against Iraq, as the Arab
leaders continue to point out. But the US has never cared about
the Arab will. It probably never will.

Dr. Joseph Lerner, Co-Director
IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-9-7411645
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
pager 03-6750750 subscriber 4811

Reproduced by permission of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, Israel.
 
http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=1248