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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wayners who wrote (684545)	6/4/2005 1:36:29 AM
From: Nikole Wollerstein	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

""'Credit goes to the Arabs "" The only credit that you can give to Arabs is that after they overrun ancient centers of Jewish, Christian, and (partially) Indian civilization they did not immediately destroy everything but let science and culture develop for 5-6 cent under their military protection.

To: Wayners who wrote (684545)	6/4/2005 2:19:30 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

US criticizes Gulf allies on human trafficking By Saul HudsonFri Jun 3, 2:35 PM ET news.yahoo.com The United States criticized four Gulf Arab allies as among the world's worst offenders in permitting human trafficking on Friday in a rebuke Washington hopes will promote improved human rights in the Middle East. The State Department downgraded Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the lowest level of compliance in a report that evaluates countries' efforts in fighting the trafficking of roughly 800,000 people forced into servitude or the sex trade every year. Victims in the region were mostly from Asia and were generally forced to be domestic servants and laborers but also included women prostitutes and boy camel jockeys as young as three, according to the annual report. It cited the case of a 17-year-old orphan, Lusa, who was kidnapped from Uzbekistan and sold into a slavery ring in UAE. She was eventually "no longer usable" as a prostitute and the emirates' immigration service said she should serve a two-year prison sentence for entering the country illegally. "Nowhere on Earth is it allowable to systematically abuse children for sport, or to stand up while household help is trapped and exploited with no resource to help, or to look the other way while sex traffickers seize young women," said John Miller, head of the State Department trafficking office. Officials from the Gulf countries were not immediately available to comment on the one-step downgrade, which ranks them with such countries as Burma, North Korea and Sudan. The four allies gave logistical support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and have oil resources vital to Washington. With high oil prices affecting the U.S. economy, critics say the Bush administration has complained too mildly about its allies' rights record too mildly for fear of triggering a backlash from the OPEC members. The trafficking criticism came after President Bush urged Saudi Arabia this year to be a leader of reform in the Middle East and said he would make rights and democracy a central plank of U.S. relations with countries in the region. MORE STIGMA THAN SANCTIONS Human rights groups have highlighted trafficking problems in the Gulf for years but Miller said the United States downgraded them this year because the Bush administration had gathered more information than before. Many governments, particularly those rebuked in the State Department's annual rights reports, complain the United States has little credibility in criticizing other nations because of scandals in recent years involving U.S. abuse of prisoners. The lowest category in the congressionally mandated trafficking report is called Tier 3, which lists countries that "do not fully comply with the minimum standards (laid down by U.S. law) and are not making significant efforts to do so." Bolivia, Jamaica, Cambodia and Togo also were downgraded to Tier 3 this year. Cuba, Ecuador and Venezuela were already there. Nations in the lowest category may be subject to sanctions, including the withholding of U.S. aid that is not for humanitarian or trade purposes, if they do not improve their records in three months. But Bush has the right to waive sanctions, which, even if applied, would not likely have much practical effect on the wealthy Gulf oil exporters. Only Equatorial Guinea and Venezuela have ever been sanctioned due to the annual report. U.S. officials also say the main impact of the blacklist is to create a stigma that raises awareness of trafficking in the countries and prods governments to tackle the problem. Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited.