CV of Mr. Karklins, President of WSIS Preparatory Committee for the Tunis Phase

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Janis Karklins and the Lella Baya House Band

Late last night, civil society representatives had the opportunity to chat with Ambassador Janis Karklins of Latvia, who has been nominated to become president of the Prepcom of the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society. Karklins, who literally arrived at the Lella Baya Hotel five minutes prior to the meeting at 10:30pm, quickly joined the group of 15 civil society representatives, hosted by Renate Bloem of CONGO.

Sitting outside by the pool as a rather obnoxious Spanish dance band performed 100 meters away, Karklins described the basic procedures that had been adopted unanimously by the Prepcom bureau in Geneva. As the dance music throbbed in the background, the group asked questions on a variety of issues, including press freedoms during the Tunis phase, ensuring adequate speaking time for civil society representatives, human rights in the hot country and various procedural issues. Because of the extraordinarily loud music vibrating everyone to the bone, sometimes it was rather difficult to hear what was said; nonetheless, civil society representatives seemed to appreciate the 45 minutes he gave to the group at such a late hour.

Find out more: WSIS CS Plenary list=x-663-21698]