The Arab League chief warned the region’s leaders yesterday to heed economic and political problems that sparked Tunisia’s upheaval because Arab citizens’ anger had reached an unprecedented level.
It was the first meeting of Arab heads of state since former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced out of the country on Friday after weeks of protests sparked by the self-immolation of an unemployed man.
The death has sparked a rash of copycat attempted suicides in Algeria and Egypt, where two men set themselves on fire on Monday as foreign ministers met in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheik to prepare for the summit. One of the men succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday.
A woman in Algeria yesterday became the sixth person in a week in the country to set herself on fire, media said.
The woman, in her 50s, soaked herself with an inflammable product and tried to set herself on fire when a local official convinced her to stop, the El Watan daily reported, adding that she wounded only her hand as a result.
She was protesting in front of the townhall in Sidi Ali Benyoub, southwest of Algiers, after being denied housing aid, the paper said.
Arab populations across the Middle East and North Africa complain about the same issues that beset Tunisia and have been mesmerized by TV images of an autocrat being flung from office by street action — events not seen in the region for decades.
“What is happening in Tunisia in terms of the revolution is not an issue far from the issues of this summit which is economic and social development,” the league’s Amr Moussa told the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
“The Arab citizen has entered a stage of anger that is unprecedented. I am certain that achieving full development that is tangible to the Arab citizens will relieve our societies of these challenges,” he said.
“It is on everyone’s mind that the Arab self is broken by poverty, unemployment and a general slide in indicators,” he said.
Arab officials have played down the prospects that events in Tunisia could spread. Egypt’s president did not directly mention Tunisia in his speech although he broadly called for economic development. Kuwait’s emir called for national unity in Tunisia.
Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Mohammad al-Sabah reminded his counterparts of the challenges the region faces.
“Countries disintegrate, people conduct uprisings ... and the Arab citizen asks: ‘Can the current Arab regime meet these challenges dynamically?’” he said. “Can the regime address the humanitarian suffering of the Arab citizen?”
The meeting was expected to implement the resolutions of its predecessor, which was held in Kuwait in 2009, and which included setting up a US$2 billion fund to finance small and medium sized businesses.
Delegates from one of the countries said that they expected the summit’s pledges to lead to nowhere, as previous promises had. However, the economic aspect of the Tunisian revolt, which is mirrored in other countries in the region, may add to the urgency of taking measures to alleviate poverty in the region.
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