XINHUA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE | November 7, 2001
DOHA - Armed police in camouflage are deployed in main intersections and some streets are closed off here Wednesday, two days before the opening of the fourth World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in the Qatari Capital.
After cutting the ribbon to open the press center for the meeting, Hamad Bin Faisal Al Thani, chairman of the organizing committee, told Xinhua that he was "200 percent confident" that Doha is safe for the large gathering. Thani, assistant of Qatari Finance, Economy and Trade Minister Yousuf Hussein Kamal, said that some 5,000 security police, nearly half of the country's 12,000 military force, have been deployed in and around the city, and a security zone has been designated.
"There is no place for terrorists in the Gulf state," he stressed, without specifying increased security measures.
Police with assault rifles were seen posted around a large apartment complex accommodating foreign journalists, and parts of the roads leading to the beachfront Sheraton Hotel, venue of the biennial WTO meeting, were closed.
Doha, with a population of some 300,000, will host the WTO ministerial conference on November 9-13 as scheduled, despite security concerns raised by some WTO members after the start of the U.S. military campaign against Afghanistan last month.
There had been suggestions to switch the conference venue to other cities, but WTO Director-General Mike Moore insisted that the event should go on in Doha.
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