Khori: U.S. not a judge, only an observer [Archives:2006/940/Local News]
By: Yasser Al-Mayasi
SANA'A, April 19 ) In cooperation with the Civic Democratic Initiative Support Foundation, the U.S. Embassy in Sana'a held a symposium Wednesday on the recently released U.S. State Department human rights report on Yemen. The event was attended by many interested personalities.
At the symposium, Nabil Khori, the vice-ambassador of the United States to Yemen, stated that the U.S. State Department issues human rights reports like this in various countries throughout the world. “The report is one of U.S. local affairs, as the Senate council orders the State Department to prepare reports on human rights worldwide, particularly countries having relations with the U.S.,” he explained.
“The American community and U.S. policies have not reached perfection. Nobody is infallible in the world, as human beings have positive and negative aspects. The U.S. attempts to acclimatize with new circumstances,” Khori said.
The reports do not intend to magnify or beautify the image of the U.S.; rather, they aim to respect human rights worldwide. “We utilize these reports in setting U.S. policies. Above all, such reports improve foreign policies and relations between countries,” he continued.
Khori mentioned that the State Department's human rights report intends to support civil community in the Middle East and human rights principles. “We welcome your comments. We hope our friends will accept our criticism in the spirit of cooperation and correcting each other's mistakes,” Khori added.
He pointed out that such international reports lower Yemen's status on the list of countries and that this report is not the only one. “The U.S. is not a judge, it only observes,” Khori noted.
He indicated that his Sana'a-based embassy is obliged by the U.S. government to release a report on human rights and Yemen's government, which disliked the report's content, as well as on Yemeni opposition, which considered the report as lacking harsh criticism.
Despite the fact that the report was not entirely positive, nor entirely negative, Khori said it faced criticism. He emphasized that Yemen's government must protect journalists, pointing out that the U.S. Administration backs press freedom, although it faces harsh criticism by the media.
Yemen's government considered the report as serving U.S. policies in the Arab region and labeled it as containing unauthentic information. It said the report promotes concepts of the opposition, which plans to shake security and stability by confusing public awareness.
——
[archive-e:940-v:14-y:2006-d:2006-04-24-p:ln]
