Saudi Arabia: Rape, Human-Trafficking + Slavery
"Roughly five and a half million foreign workers play an important role in the Saudi economy, for example, in the oil and service sectors. Priorities for government spending in the short term include additional funds for education and for the water and sewage systems. Economic reforms proceed cautiously because of deep-rooted political and social conservatism.Saudi Arabia is a destination country for workers from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, an indeterminate number of whom are subjected to conditions that constitute involuntary servitude. There were reports that victims are subjected to physical and sexual abuse, non-payment of wages, confinement, and withholding of passports as a restriction on their movement. Domestic workers are particularly vulnerable because some are confined to the house in which they work, unable to seek help.
Saudi Arabia is also a destination country for Nigerian, Yemeni, Pakistani, Afghan, Somali, Malian, and Sudanese children trafficked for forced begging and involuntary servitude as street vendors. There were also reports that some Nigerian women were trafficked into Saudi Arabia for commercial sexual exploitation. "
- U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2006 [full country report]
+ Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005
+ Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2004
+ An Indonesian woman who was kept as a virtual slave and who was also a key witness against a Saudi Arabian couple, Homaidan Al-Turki and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, is missing. A modern day slavery case where the victim was forced cook clean and was sexually abused.
+ Saudis Import Slaves to America +++ Saudi sheik: 'Slavery is a part of Islam'
+ Guest Worker May Lose Digits, Toes After Being Tied Up in Bathroom for a Month
+ Forced-Labor Charges For Saudi Prince's Wife
+ Slavery still exists in a host of majority-Muslim countries
+ 100,000 black chattel slaves in Saudi Arabia
+ American women who have married Saudi nationals are held captive in Saudi Arabia
+ Is it marriage or is it rape in Saudi Arabia?
+ Giuliani rejects $10 million from Saudi prince
+ Saudi prince moved roughly two tons of cocaine from Colombia to an airport outside Paris, using his diplomatic status +++ Saudi Prince Accused of Drug Smuggling Avoids Prosecution
An A-10 Thunderbolt II, like this one, is among the various U.S. Central Command Air Forces air assets available for providing close-air support for International Security Assistance Force troops in contact with enemy forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The A-10 is specially designed for close air support of ground forces and can be used against all ground targets.
Iraq: A family comes out to greet Spc. David Shrauger, who is providing security for his platoon during a cordon and search operation
posted by FreeCyprus at 6:39 PM
13 Comments:
long time i haven't been here
well SA is certainly a disgusting country, where the majority of people have little respect for the concept of human dignity.
like you said there's rape, slavery and human-trafficking but also physical abuse of anyone considered "lower" than a pure-bred saudi
hiya FC!...ah how tragic ..the stats are staggering but not surprising..sigh..thank u for this important read!:)
Terrible. The way some people are treated in this world, and by people who claim to believe in God!
well I wouldn't say "the majority" but there is something wrong with the social framework of a country where rape, slavery and human-trafficking is "accepted"
Angel and bpwfh - thanks for visting
Donors pledge $7.6 billion for Lebanon
By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press Writer (© 2007 The Associated Press)
PARIS — International donors pledged $7.6 billion in aid and loans at a conference Thursday to raise money for Lebanon's U.S.-backed prime minister and his economic reform program for the war-scarred country.
The dollar figure was announced by the conference host, French President Jacques Chirac, after the more than 40 nations and financial institutions took turns in announcing their contributions.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said his country would channel $1 billion in development funding and an additional $100 million grant for the Lebanese government.
The U.S. said it plans to more than triple its economic aid. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on the eve of the meeting that the Bush administration is seeking $770 million in new aid for Lebanon. The money, which must be approved by Congress, would finance long-term redevelopment and immediate rebuilding from last summer's war.
More: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4498235.html
This country needs to read this:
Love is patient, Love is kind, It does not envy, it does not boast, It is not proud, It is not rude, It is not self-seeking, It is not easily angered, It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.
Love Never Fails
(Corinthians 13 : 4 - 8)
anon 10:10am...I hope you mean Saudi Arabia when you say "this country" and NOT Canada
US Military's Ray Guns Pack Heat:
New weapon shoots a beam that makes victims think they're on fire. It's the latest in crowd control (January 25, 2007)
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga.–The U.S. military showed off the future yesterday, and it burns.
The ray gun for crowd control goes by the unwieldy name of "active denial system" but it sounds like science fiction: its beam makes people feel as if they are about to catch fire.
More: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/174729
The reason this is so prevalent in Muslim countries is because the Koran and Hadiths explicitly allow slavery and outlines how those enslaved may be treated.
Great roundup of articles, FC!
Relax, it's OK because they are our friends!
brooke is right, the Koran allows for this type of behavior. Were ever you find Islamic rule, you will find slavery and exploitation.
"and Sudanese children trafficked for forced begging and involuntary servitude as street vendors."
Hello my friend!What a world we live in, isn't it? And here I am drawing books for children.And when I imagine a child I allways imagine a well nourrished child near her father and mother under a safe roof. What kind of book would I draw if I had in mind Sudanese like children?!
Thank you for visiting me!:-)
My apologies for any confusion!
I mean SAUDI ARABIA and every other country that does these disgusting things should read Corinthians! You doing a great thing here!
Long but an interesting read:
I feel silly talking about my war zone because I don’t hear tanks and planes. My neighborhood is not a killing field, full of amputated limbs. I don’t wail or bury my loved ones day after day. Bombs do not shatter my neighborhood.
I am blessedly American. I drive my kids to school Monday to Friday so they can learn spelling and computers. On weekends, we sip frozen cappuccinos and watch Saturday matinees. We surf the net and sign off at bedtime.
At first glance, life holds no tangible terror. However, in the quiet moments, we feel short of breath, as if we’re slowly suffocating.
How did this happen?
I blame myself for not paying attention. Still, things shifted so quickly. I remember sitting on my couch watching over and over as buildings and bodies crumpled to the ground. I wrote letters, marched and called my representatives. I thought I was protecting our freedom and safety.
Unfortunately, I dropped the activist ball as I settled back into my daily routine. There was work, soccer games and homework. So I left it up to “them” to handle in a sensible way, but while I was clocked out, the bosses took liberties. They constructed an invisible terror.
I can’t put my finger on what “it” is because “it” is in an imperceptible fog. Sometimes I stop dead in my tracks and spin around to see what’s watching me. Usually, it’s just a camera or uniform that’s there for my safety. This should be fine, since I asked and paid for this security in a roundabout way. But it doesn’t feel right.
In a bizarre example of this trigger-finger patriotism, an American citizen was arrested in a suburban mall for wearing a t-shirt that said “Peace on Earth” and “Give Peace a Chance.” Most of us laughed at this caricature of overanxious mall cops, but deep down, we felt a twinge of terminal illness, a shortness of breath.
What was once considered a basic freedom of speech can now be deemed anti-US. Protesting against government machinery could be considered sympathizing with terrorists. Worse, the laws are open-ended – purposely ambiguous, they cover any conceivable scenario.
Our incessant need for home comforts and paternal protection has birthed a police state of sorts. We’ve become a republic of jumpy guardians, anxious to perform our patriotic duty at all costs. I thought I was just being paranoid, but then I looked at the Patriot Act, which essentially says that anyone could be arrested for being a member of any group that at anytime might be considered anti-US.
That scared me because I’d been working on a fundraising campaign for an international environmental group described on its website as anti-war. Did this mean that I, a mother of two who does nothing crazier than burn toast and drink Sangrias, could be considered anti-US? Was I on a list?
Are we all on a list? When did we give permission for this carte blanche tapping of computers, accounts and memberships? Were we absent at voting time?
America grew strong on a foundation of personal freedoms because the elected were the sum of us, but at some point the collective “we” became diminutive as “they” became kings. Now we’re afraid to rail against them for fear of being labeled traitors.
Few will stand up and say: “I hate this war, this tax, this media. I do not agree with this president or that prime minister.”
Sure, there are the scattered brave, but they’re dismissed as a wacko fringe, while the state-friendly media sugarcoat newscasts with pretty people and patriotic imagery. I hear that we lost soldiers, but I never saw a coffin. Did you? Whatever happened to both sides of the story?
Maybe when we got scared we asked for this. We wanted to stay free, but now our freedoms are being leached away.
So I live in a terror zone. I fear that my children will learn to bite their tongues. I fear “they” will arbitrarily delete library books and websites. I fear this essay will be held against me in a giant database somewhere in DC, or wherever it is “they” hide these things. Most of all, I fear we will ignore the erosion until there is nothing left to breathe but dead air.
(from AdBusters, issue #52)
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