State Dept. trashes UAE rights record

[brooklynite]

BY RICHARD SISK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - The State Department's human rights report ripping the United Arab Emirates landed with near-perfect bad timing for the White House yesterday in the middle of the ports sale debate.

Opponents of the deal quickly seized on the report as yet another strike against the sale of terminals at six major U.S. ports to a firm owned by the government of Dubai, one of the seven emirates.

...snip...

The section on the UAE in the State Department's annual survey of human rights worldwide cited UAE abuses ranging from the flogging of prisoners to international trafficking in prostitutes and in young boys used as jockeys in camel races. The report also charged, "There are no democratically elected institutions or political parties. There are no general elections."

http://www.nydailynews.com/03-09-2006/news/wn_report/story/398065p-337325c.html