Monday, February 23, 2004
US firm to conduct crash course in democracy for Iraqis
Agence France-Presse Baghdad, February 22
A private US think-tank hired by the US Government has designed a crash course in democracy across Iraq as a way of preparing people for the US-led coalition's handover of power to Iraqis by June 30.
The "Democracy Dialogue" programme, drawn up by the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) -- a North Carolina-based, not-for-profit research body -- will run from April to mid-June, one of its initiators told AFP in Baghdad.
"It can happen in a mosque, in a town hall, or in somebody's home. The programme is intended to be more or less informal sessions of people coming together in their communities to discuss topics related to democracy," the civil society expert said.
RTI's 18 offices in Iraq are in the process of hiring a total of 550 local "facilitators" who will conduct the events throughout the country over a period of around 10 weeks, he said, on condition of anonymity.
"We are hoping that no less than 500,000 people will be reached by this programme," said the RTI contractor, tasked with training the regional and local programme managers.
Some of the 15 topics to be discussed in the workshops are: "What is a Constitution?", "Women's issues", "What is a judiciary?" or "Can Islam co-exist with democracy?".
© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2004.