By: TAIEB MAHJOUB Agence France Presse Qatar is rolling out the red carpet to host the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference, confident that security will not be an issue, despite war in nearby Afghanistan which almost forced a last-minute change of venue. "We will ensure the security of everyone taking part and we have the means to do so," boasted organising committee spokesman Sheikh Abdullah bin Ahmed al-Thani. "Qatar has already successfully organised regional and international meetings," the member of the royal family told AFP. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference held its ninth summit in Qatar last November, bringing togther some 5,000 people. However security has never been in doubt for such meetings in the Gulf monarchies where demonstrations are a rare occurrence. The WTO is different as riots in Seattle showed in December 1999, spawning repeat performances at nearly all major world gatherings which have followed. The fourth ministerial conference from November 9-13 gathers some 4,500 people, including 2,000 government delegates, 700 journalists and representatives of 600 non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The small Gulf emirate has only a few thousand policemen and 12,000 troops, but says it will manage security with its own resources. "Security will be 100 percent Qatari," Abdullah said, denying western reports that foreign security men would be brought in to assist. "Our police officers are trained in the internationally renowned, major specialised academies of the West and the Orient and are as competent as their colleagues in the countries where they studied," he added. However the task may prove arduous. "With delegations from the 142 member states of the WTO, including Israel which is blacklisted by the Arab World, anti-globalisation NGOs and a war in Afghanistan which is opposed in the region, the job will not be easy," said a diplomat in Doha. Since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States and the unleashing of air strikes on Afghanistan three weeks ago, several incidents have been reported in neighbouring Gulf monarchies. An American and another foreigner died in a bomb in the Saudi city of Khobar, a Kuwaiti has been accused of shooting dead a Canadian, protestors tore up and stamped on the American flag in Bahrain and Omani students marched against the war on the Taliban Islamic militia in power in Kabul. Qatar has remained calm, even if anti-American sentiment is heard on the streets and particularly in the mosques. And Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite television channel has stirred up a storm of protest in the United States where its stands accused of broadcasting the propaganda of prime terror suspect Osama bin Laden and the Taliban who harbour him. Security fears quickly surfaced about the Arab emirate, suddenly too close to Afghanistan for the comfort of some, who had originally picked the country because western anti-globalisation protestors could not get in. Singapore was ready to step in, Geneva was mooted, along with Davos and Mexico. WTO director general Mike Moore finally ended speculation about the venue when he turned up in Doha last Monday to voice confidence in Qatar. Moving could have been seen as a victory for terrorism, something the US superpower resolutely opposes. Qatar has repeatedly stressed that peaceful protests will be allowed and the environmental group Greenpeace will anchor a ship outside the hotel to get its message across. "Any peaceful demonstration will be tolerated," Abdullah told AFP, adding that "security forces will intervene if there is disorderliness or violence." However entry to Qatar is strictly by sponsored visa only during the conference and those who upset the last ministerial meeting in Seattle would simply not be allowed in. Some NGOs have decided not to bother with Doha and rather make a noise elsewhere, particularly in Europe.:
