VZCZCXRO6245
OO RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHDIR
DE RUEHAD #0206/01 0610705
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 020705Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2200
RHMFIUU/SECNAV WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NSC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1303
RHBVAKS/COMUSNAVCENT

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