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A
British friend of mine, who worked in Dubai for decades,
inherited a modest sum in 1996. To her surprise, once
the formalities of probate were over and the funds were
finally forwarded, her bank in Bur Dubai froze her
account even though she had been a customer for many
years. It wasn’t until she turned up in person with
documentary proof as to the origin of the windfall that
the monies were released.
Imagine my astonishment, therefore,
to read an Associated Press (AP) story that “Al Qaeda is
still using Dubai as a main centre to transfer money
despite the UAE strict measures since 9-11”.
Banking in the United Arab Emirates
has long been strictly controlled by the Central Bank
with draconian banking laws coming into effect at the
beginning of 2002. Account holders must have U.A.E.
visas and letters from sponsors before an account can be
opened. Suspicious accounts are regularly frozen.
Abdul Rahim Al Awadi, Executive
Director of the Anti-Money Laundering and Suspicious
Cases Unit of the Central Bank said: “The U.A.E. Central
Bank does not open secret accounts and gives firm orders
to banks and financial institutions not to do so.”
In March, the Emirates’ anti-money
laundering law was selected by the United Nations as a
model, which should be adopted by other states. During a
two-day workshop on terrorism Michael A. DeFeo, a U.N.
consultant on terrorism, drugs and crime described the
U.A.E. as a leader in addressing the hawala money
transmitting system.
A report last year by Britain’s
Foreign Office Select Committee on terrorism says
US$121.5 million in financing for terrorists has now
been blocked in Western banks, without bothering to
explain what so much dirty money was doing in those
banks in the first place. If those sums had turned up in
Arab banks, an orgy of media finger pointing would have
ensued.
Further, the report indicates that
terrorists are using “organised crime – things like
credit card fraud, using front companies and then
establishing the smuggling of various commodities as
another lucrative means of bringing in money.”
The Committee goes on to say,
however, that much work remains to be done in stopping
terrorists’ access to funds especially those who avoid
Western banks by sending money through the informal
system of transfers in the Middle Eastern banking system
[hawala]. This was described as a “big
loophole”.
The hawala system exists
outside of traditional banking channels. Conceived in
South Asia, this method of transferring and receiving
currency is based on trust. It is used around the world
and in many countries it is legally and openly operated.
Although hawala is a fast and
efficient method of remitting funds, no actual money is
moved and, often, there is no paper trail. The vast
majority of hawala transactions are above board
consisting of expatriate workers sending money home to
their families, but it is conceivable that criminal
gangs and terrorists have misused hawala. Since
the entire method rests on a single communication that’s
easy to do. Naturally, the system provides law
enforcement officers and intelligence personnel with
numerous headaches as they strive to find the source of
terrorist funds.
When it comes to money laundering,
the U.S. State Department cites the United Arab Emirates
as “a cause for concern” but the U.S. itself appears on
the same list, as does the United Kingdom, Australia,
Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Israel, Italy,
Hong Kong, Singapore, and many others.
Returning
to the AP article, which for some strange reason has
sought to depict Dubai as some sort of terrorist hotbed,
it claims that: “Bin Laden’s followers are still making
use of the travel laws that facilitate easy entry into
Dubai. It is known that GCC nationals can enter Dubai
without visas. Besides, many others can have a visa on
entry.”
Until last year Britons were the only
visitors apart from GCC nationals who could get a visa
upon arrival. On March 31st 2003 a new law
was implemented allowing 33 nationalities to receive a
one-month, non-renewable visa at the airport.
Is the Associated Press writer
advocating the U.A.E. should pull up the drawbridge and
erect a ‘keep out’ sign in the hope that one or two
undesirables will be held at bay? If so, what would be
the effect on the economy, which is heavily reliant on
commerce, trade and tourism? Furthermore, if the U.A.E.
were to seal itself up, wouldn’t this be playing right
into the terrorists’ hands by handing them the power to
alter government policy?
And while he author of the commentary
appears to blame the U.A.E. for its liberal entry rules,
he fails to mention that the 19 September 11 hijackers
all had legitimate U.S. visas and authentic passports.
Furthermore, they had little trouble entering Spain,
Britain or, indeed, Germany, where the alleged
ringleaders and pilots Mohammed Atta (Egyptian) and Ziad
Jarrah (Lebanese) studied for many years.
Perhaps the AP scribe should hot foot
it down to the border between Mexico and the U.S. where
hordes of illegal immigrants cross over each day, or to
American container ports, lacking enough immigration
officers to effectively police incoming shipments.
The article then goes on to say “the
cosmopolitan nature of the city [Dubai] remains an
element of attraction for those who are active in
dubious areas”. The same could, surely, be said of
London, New York, Berlin, Frankfurt, Mexico City and
most of the world’s capital cities.
Cities not considered particularly
cosmopolitan often have their own problems too, such as
Belfast during the heyday of the IRA; Athens, which
recently rounded up a gang of home grown terrorists
responsible for gunning down a British diplomat and
planting bombs, and Vitoria capital of the Basque
region, long terrorised by ETA.
Has “cosmopolitan” become a dirty
word when I wasn’t looking? The U.S. is currently
condemning much of the Arab world for being closed and
secretive? The Bush administration wants to remake the
region in its country’s image. Since America is a nation
of immigrants from every corner of the planet, it can
hardly criticise the U.A.E. for being proud of its
melting pot status. It is one place where people of
different nationalities, cultures, colours and creeds
truly coexist in friendship and harmony. You only have
to visit one of the country’s malls; sip on a latte
while watching shoppers go past and register the smile
count to know how true this is.
The article then goes on to highlight
the fact that two of the 19 September 11 hijackers held
U.A.E. passports, while overlooking the fact that
Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber is British;
Zacarias Moussaoui, also known as the 20th
hijacker, French, while 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh
Mohamed is a Pakistani. We should also remember that
John Walker Lindh, who met with Bin Laden, sympathised
with his cause and fought alongside the Taliban, is as
American as apple pie.
This doesn’t mean to say that
Britain, France, Pakistan and the U.S. should take the
rap for its criminal elements. And neither should the
U.A.E. Each country suffers its share of bad eggs, some
more than others. Britain, for example, has long been
criticised by the Egyptian government for harbouring
terrorists wanted in Egypt and refusing to allow
extradition proceedings.
The extremist Egyptian-born sheikh
Abu Hamza Al-Masri currently faces 11 terrorism charges,
including hostage taking and trying to set up a
terrorist training camp in the U.S. Britain’s Home
Office is attempting to strip him of his British
citizenship while the U.S. queues to begin extradition
proceedings.
Yet Abu Hamza has been preaching
freely for years in London’s Finsbury Park mosque and on
the capital’s streets in a seeming attempt to drum up
warriors for terrorist groups. If Abu Hamza had
attempted that in the U.A.E. he would have been
incarcerated or deported long ago.
In short, the AP article presents a
misleading and biased picture, especially to those who
have never visited the Emirates. As someone who lived
and worked in Dubai for 16 years, I can truthfully
attest to the fact that it is one of the safest places
on the planet. It is one of the few countries where a
woman can feel safe walking alone at any time of the day
or night.
It wasn’t so long ago that residents
left their car doors unlocked and bags were left on
tables in restaurants while their owners helped
themselves to the buffet. Why was this so? Not because
offenders get their hands chopped off as I have heard so
many ignorant detractors of the region say. It is due to
the fact most people living and working in the Emirates
enjoy a comfortable to high standard of living and very
often a lifestyle to be envied. There are no bag ladies
here. No homeless camping out under bridges. No estates
where the elderly are afraid to leave their homes due to
gangs of antisocial youths or drug addicts desperate to
steal a few bob for their daily fix. Sadly, this cannot
be said for most Western cities.
Just recently, a 14-year-old
schoolgirl was gunned down on the streets of Liverpool.
Earlier, in that same city, a grandfather was randomly
shot in the face. In London, a torso of a young African
child was found in the Thames, while a French teenager
was murdered on a lonely common. Switch on to Fox News
and you will hear about the trials of two men in
separate U.S. states accused of elaborate premeditated
schemes to murder their pregnant wives. The day those
crimes are a daily, weekly, monthly or even annual
occurrence in the U.A.E. will be a dark one.
The leaders of the U.A.E. have always
striven for excellence. They didn’t green the desert,
turn fishing/pearling villages into 21st
century cities, and provide cutting edge medical and
educational facilities, airports, ports, free zones and
a plethora of leisure activities, for the benefit of
money launderers, drug dealers, terrorists or criminals.
At the same time, just as in any
country in the world, there will be a few who escape the
net. In 2003, some 18 million passengers passed through
Dubai International Airport alone - a regional hub.
One thing is for sure. The U.A.E. has
a responsible government, which will always use its best
endeavours to weed out the rotten apples without turning
the country into a police state reminiscent of the
former Soviet Union or go the way that the U.S. is today
with its invasive and intrusive Patriot Act. UAE police
aren’t hanging about libraries recording what books its
citizens are reading or encouraging repair men to spy on
the activities of their customers.
If a few no-good characters slip by,
as they eventually will, let’s try to keep things in
perspective. It behoves the mainstream and respected
media to do just that. Sensationalism and distortions of
the truth may sell copy in the short term, but their
overall credibility will end up being destroyed.
Try telling U.A.E. citizens and
foreign residents on the way to the golf course, the
racecourse, the beach, the dunes or spoiled for choice
as to where they might shop or dine, that the country is
seething with extremists and terrorists and they will
rightly laugh in your face.
Where that AP article does damage is
far away from its shores. In this post-9-11 climate, the
gullible and the xenophobic are open to believing the
worst about an Arab country, without ever having visited
one or even knowing where they appear on a globe.
On October 19, the U.A.E. renewed its
commitments to UN Security Council resolutions concerned
with combating terrorism. In a statement read out before
the Sixth Committee on “Measures to Eliminate
International Terrorism” the U.A.E. delegation
reiterated the country has adopted a firm and steady
policy towards combating terrorism, based on
condemnation of all of its forms and manifestations.
“The U.A.E.”, it said, “considers
terrorism as one of the most dangerous crimes against
humanity”, contradicting the principals of Islam and
other religions, as well as human rights, Arab
traditions, and the principals of sovereignty of states
and their territorial integrity.
As a French friend exclaimed on first arrival in the
Dubai, “C’est un petit paradis sur terre!” (It’s
a little paradise on earth). There is absolutely no
doubt that its caring and visionary rulers will continue
pulling out all the stops to ensure it remains that way. | 
