Gulf | Yemen
Saleh accuses US of double standards over rights
Yemen’s president, irked by US charges that Sanaa violates human rights, accused Washington yesterday of double standards after his premier said Washington used “two voices” over terrorism and rights.
- By Nasser Arrabyee, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 00:00 March 17, 2005
Yemen’s president, irked by US charges that Sanaa violates human rights, accused Washington yesterday of double standards after his premier said Washington used “two voices” over terrorism and rights.
“Why do they [US], who violate human rights, not engage in self-criticism [instead of] hurling accusations at the Third World, particularly the Arab world?” President Ali Abdullah Saleh asked at a public ceremony.
Saleh’s outburst was sparked by the release of the US State Department's latest annual report on human rights that charged that Yemeni security forces "arbitrarily continued to arrest, detain and torture people”.
“We are astonished by these human rights reports. Are rights being violated in Guantanamo [where the US holds suspected Islamist militants] and in Abu Ghraib [prison in Iraq], or in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian territories?” he asked.
Saleh demanded the United Nations be reformed and called for the abrogation of veto power.
“As they demand reforms in the region, we also demand reforms in the United Nations … the veto power should be abrogated, it is an outdated system,” Saleh said, while addressed a gathering in Sanaa to announce the preliminary results of the country’s 2004 census.
“Why aren’t resolutions referred to the UN General Assembly to be taken in a democratic way … why aren’t the five continents represented on the Security Council, then the veto could be used mutually every four years. “Why are there all these double standards, why is it only us [Arabs and Muslims] who should respond to their demands, why don't they respond to our demands for UN reforms to end dictatorship and totalitarianism when taking decisions?” he asked.
Saleh declared the preliminary results of his country’s census for 2004 as 19,721,643, including 10,016,137 men.
Prime Minister Abdul Qadir Bajamal earlier suggested that Washington was being hypocritical by criticising Yemen’s rights record while itself delaying terror trials and holding presumed militants in legal limbo at its naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Had such criticism come from another country, Yemen would have been able to “deal with it”, Bajamal said.
“But it is really strange that it should come from [Washington] ... because the main target of the Bush administration is the fight against terrorism,” he said, alluding to Washington's praise of Sanaa for combating terror.
The prime minister said the Americans were speaking in “two voices” — “one is speaking about human rights and the other about the war against terrorism under any circumstances”.
Bajamal added: “I am asking them: under [what] law, under [what] international or local law ... are people still in Guantanamo?”“I can [affirm] that human rights in Yemen are more [respected] than in the United States itself,” Bajamal said, without responding to the charges of torture.
Yemeni officials say they find US charges of human rights abuse bizarre, coming from a country which now views Yemen as a partner in the war on terror.
The writer is an Arab journalist based in SanaaWith reports from agencies.
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