SPECIAL MEDIA REACTION: HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ON UAE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 000206

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARP; NEA/PPD; NEA/RA; INR/R/MR; PA; INR/NESA; INR/B;
RRU-NEA
IIP/G/NEA-SA
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE; NSC
SECDEF FOR OASD/PA
USCINCCENT FOR POLAD
LONDON FOR SREEBNY

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPAO OIIP KMDR TC
SUBJECT: SPECIAL MEDIA REACTION: HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ON UAE


1. Summary: The Department's Report on Human Rights Practices
received prominent media coverage, led by a statement from the UAE
Foreign Ministry rejecting the report as failing to portray a
comprehensive picture of the UAE and calling the methodology of the
report into question. End Summary.



2. Headlines:

-- Dubai-based English daily Khaleej Times (circulation 60,000),
headline: "UAE: "US Rights Report does not portray true picture'."


-- Dubai-based English daily Gulf News (circulation 95,000),
headline: "US report has unsubstantiated statements, says UAE
Ministry; it does not portray full picture of open society
established here"

-- Abu Dhabi-based English daily The National (circulation 65,000),
front page: "UAE criticizes human rights report"

-- Abu Dhabi-based Arabic semi-official daily "Al-Ittihad"
(circulation 65,000),front-page headline: "In response to US State
of Department's report, the UAE confirms its continued pursuit of
Human Rights report and calls all concerned parties to commit to
scientific and accurate methodology"

-- "Al-Khaleej" (circulation 90,000),headline: "Ministry of Foreign
Affairs: 'Those who issue reports should follow an accurate and
scientific methodology'"

-- Dubai-based Arabic daily "Al-Bayan" (circulation 85,000),
headline: "Ministry of Foreign Affairs refutes U.S. report on Human
Rights in the UAE"



3. Under the headline "America and Human Rights", the 02/28
editorial in "Al-Khaleej" opined:

"People in glass houses should not throw stones at others. Every
year, the U.S. issues a Human Rights report, based on an American
perspective, in which it convicts each and every country of
violating Human Rights and international law principles. How ironic
of America to give itself the right to defend Human Rights and
freedoms, and to issue certificates of good or bad conduct here and
there, while it is America that herself needs a certificate of good
conduct in respecting human rights and nations' sovereignties. A
country that practices blind political and military aggression
against the world has no right to accuse others of violating human
rights. A country that waged a war against Iraq, occupied it,
killed and injured Iraqis and displaced millions of them should not
put itself in a position of condemning others. A country that
supports Zionist aggression and applauds its massacres and
holocausts is itself guilty of violating human rights and is an
outlaw. The country that built Guantanamo and Abu-Ghraib and other
flying and floating prisons where it violated human rights in the
worst forms should not be allowed to defend human rights."


4. Under the headline "Human Rights in the UAE", Dr. Mohammed
Salman Al-Abboudi, UAE University Professor, wrote 03/01 op-ed in
Dubai-based Arabic daily "Al-Bayan" (circulation 85,000):

"The UAE announced that it rejects the U.S. Human Rights Report as
based on generalized and undocumented statements. This report,
even if untrue or exaggerated, negatively impacts our country's
reputation. Our country has embraced everyone and given them the
opportunity to live in security, something they wouldn't even dream
of in their own homelands. Job opportunities have been swept from
our citizens' feet and given to those expatriates. We wonder whether
human rights organizations have ever analyzed Western companies, the
majority of whose employees are Asians and Westerners, and inquired
about the rights of UAE employees. [We do not need] this surplus of
employees.... Reducing the surplus in employees might also cut down
on traffic jams. Who knows? Maybe tomorrow a Human Right
organization will demand that our country compensate Asians and
Westerners for the psychological effects of traffic and reaching
work late!"


ABU DHABI 00000206 002 OF 002



5. Under the headline "Missing the Point on Human Rights", Abu
Dhabi's semi-official English daily "The National" published the
following editorial on 03/01 (circulation not yet measured):

The annual report on human rights by the US State Department
contains some negative observations on the UAE. Should we take the
report seriously? On the one hand, yes, if only because it is
produced by the foreign affairs department of the world's most
powerful nation. While it does not determine US policy, its verdict
can shape perceptions among leaders and thinkers whose support is
vital to our development. But the report, rigidly templated in its
methodology, provides no political or social perspective or context,
and ignores the tremendous progress made by the UAE in the 37 years
of its existence.

It would be hard to find a better example of an inclusive and
tolerant society in a region where extremism too often reigns. This
is a country going about its business of building institutions,
promoting transparency and accountability, and embracing diversity.
Many of the report's criticisms derive from a western, thoroughly
secularised mindset that is unforgiving towards local belief-based
customs. Taken against the broad and fruitful backdrop of
US-UAE-global relations, this latest report acts as a kind of
drive-by, uncontextualised reprimand - patronising and unhelpful.

It would be easy to respond with retorts about Guantanamo, Abu
Ghraib, rendition and so on: but we would rather ask that these
well-meaning researchers in Washington understand that it takes time
and commitment to build a culture of human rights, and that here
such commitment abounds. Our government is neither ignorant nor
dismissive of its obligations. It is precisely to meet international
norms and standards that the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,
Anwar Gargash, is coordinating a working group on devising
strategies and responses. He has briefed and listened to the
recommendations of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, noting
that this process "has served as an opportunity for us to take into
account the progress made and for them to be recognised by the
international community, as well as a reminder of our shortcomings
and challenges that need our attention in the future".

That is what the report should have considered, but did not.

OLSON