New US Ambassador speaks in favor of press freedom

Yemen Observer: http://www.yobserver.com

New US Ambassador speaks in favor of press freedom

Posted in: Front Page
Written By: Zaid al-Alaya’a
Article Date: Sep 11, 2007 - 11:52:50 PM

Steven Seche, the new US Ambassador to Yemen, supports Yemen’s efforts to develop and democratize.

Press freedom, education, health care, and supporting Yemen’s economy to alleviate poverty are the focal points of the United States Government’s work in Yemen, said the new US Ambassador Steven Seche in his first meeting with the Yemeni press.

“In regard to our view of the right of all citizens to be able to express freely their opinion of their government’s performance and the right of journalists to be able to inform the public regarding the government’s performance, we believe in the right of journalists to conduct themselves in a responsible, fair and factual manner and do their professional work in a way that will inform the public which is a critical component of a democratic system,” he Seche.

It is the United States’ intention to speak honestly to the government of Yemen as friends are expected to do and we believe that the statement issued last week [about freedom of the media in Yemen] was within the framework of the friendship that the US has established with the government of Yemen, said Seche.

The US Ambassador talked to the Yemen Observer about the importance of finding ways that people from different religions, cultures and civilizations can co-exist peacefully.

“We are trying in the States to show the tolerance that we have developed—that Muslims, Christians and other religions can live together and practice their religions freely,” said Seche.

He said that the US knows that acts of terrorisms in the Muslim world have little support. The US is also proud of the experience of Muslim Americans, who take every opportunity to explain to the world the freedom that they have to practice their beliefs, said Seche.

Seche also said that in his meetings with officials in Yemen that the US is continuing its work with Yemen in the fields of counter-terrorism, political, economical and social reforms and that they hope and believe that Yemen is on the route to progress and human development.

“The Yemeni government has earned a great deal of support both in the United States and else where in the world for the very significant steps forward it has taken in the democratization process,” he said.

He then pointed to the positive steps Yemen has taken such as the establishment of the National Anti-Corruption Supreme Authority and the passing of the Procurement Law, which Seche described as “admirable steps.”

Yemen’s was suspended from the Millennium Challenge Threshold Program in November 2005, but since then made significant progress in reforming the country and government, and was included again.

The measures that Yemen took have enabled many corporations to put Yemen back on the track toward poverty relief and economic development. Yemen has received a grant of about twenty million dollars from the Millennium Challenge Program to develop and improve. This grant will continue to increase if Yemen continues in its course in the democratization process.

The Board of the Millennium Challenge Threshold Program will meet soon to discuss Yemen’s participation and progress. Seche said that he is optimistic about what the Board will decide for Yemen because of the country’s progress in improving security and democracy, which he considers inseparable in any developed society.

“We recognize that a nation like Yemen faces very significant challenges and there will be times when progress slows down and we, as friends, are there to support Yemen and to speak the truth to Yemen about what we believe the process of democratization requires,” said Seche.

Referring to the demonstrations, which recently took place in certain governorates, he said that the US wishes that any demonstration should be free of any sort of violence and that the underlying causes of such demonstrations require effective solutions, not recriminations between the government and the opposition.

He also said that there are a large number of congressmen who are interested in what is happening in Yemen and concerned with US-Yemen relations and expects that there will be a number of visits by some congressmen to Yemen in the future.

Finally, he spoke about the talks that Yemen and US have been holding to enhance investment in Yemen and what the US is doing about the Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo. He reiterated President Bush’s intention of seeing the Guantanamo detainment camp closed.

Seche arrived in Sana’a on the 24th of August. He is a career foreign-service officer who has spent most of the 27 years with the Department of State engaged in public diplomacy. He was appointed to the position of Charge d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Damascus in February 2005, when the Ambassador was recalled to Washington for consultations in the wake of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Seche has taught courses at the University of South Carolina’s new public diplomacy master’s program and advised graduate students interested in pursuing careers in the Foreign Service.

Seche received his B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the alma mater of previous US Ambassador to Yemen, Thomas Krajeski. After graduating, he spent four years as a journalist before entering the Foreign Service. He speaks Spanish and French. Accompanying him here in Yemen is his wife.