The Lafayette Times
By: Zach $elby
December 3, 2004
A couple months ago there were some record-setting horse sales out at Keeneland before the track even opened for races. A man by the name of Sheikh Mohammed bought a single horse for approximately $9 million and spent a total of around $28 million at the sales total. Sheikh Mohammed had four straight Kentucky Derby entrees a few years back. But he isn’t just a horse man; he is the crown prince of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates Minister of Defense. The UAE is a small oil-rich nation on the Persian Gulf. He is ridiculously rich: he had a $540 million expansion plan for the United Arab Emirates airline and airport. Sheik Mohammed’s family also owns camels and all the luxuries for them. They own a camel hospital, training facility, track, and even a pool just for the camels.
Camel races are rather popular in the Middle East, especially in the UAE. Camels are worth millions and the leaders of the UAE fancy the camel races and wagering. The thing is that the UAE and other countries have had problems with child camel jockeys. Back in 1993 the United Arab Emirates was pressured to enforce a ban stating that no children under 100 pounds or 15 years old were aloud to race the camels. But problems continued in the following years and in 2002 the United States of America backed off the UAE a bit, around the same time we were looking for allies in the Middle East to cushion us for our own “war on terrorism.” In June of this year our State Department said the UAE was a “model for the region” and offered “excellent” protection for child jockeys.
Around August of this year, just a couple months after the State Departments statements on the UAE, the problems emerged again.
Ansar Burney played part in getting a Television camera into the camel tracks. Ansar Burney is a human rights activist and is involved in many programs helping human rights. He was actually the first person to introduce real human rights into Pakistan over 24 years ago. In the track, they saw many boys suited up looking ready to ride--extremely small boys. The camera was quickly confronted by security and the boys were taken away. Ansar has made many trips to this track and others trying to save these boys, who are slaves. Ansar later took back a man with a hidden camera and caught a lot of amazing footage.
The boys would train all day in 110 degree heat then go down the road to their desert camps. In the camps there is no electricity or furniture, one boy said he slept out on the open sand at night. Theses kids were as young as 3 years old. They were starved and beaten. They would only be fed dry biscuits and water. If their weight got above 50 pounds or so, then their trainers would feed them less. If they were already not eating much then they were forced to work to lose weight. If the boys cried or even got tired then they would be beaten. When the boys first got there they would cry for their mothers of fathers like anyone would do. They would be tied up by the wrists with their feet dangling and beaten. Their masters would tell them to forget about their homes. One boy even spoke of being raped. The boys do all the work. They prepare dinner and tea for their masters and must do it right. A young boy was cleaning up camel dung with his hands in the camp.
You can only imagine how bad it must be for these boys. One boy was trampled to death by camels. The young boy was sent home in a box. Where would home be for these boys? Who would let their own child be involved with such abuse? Many of these boys come from Pakistan and Bangladesh. These countries are very poor and can’t afford basic necessities. Some boys are bought from their families or in the slave trade for as little as 500 dollars. One boy said his father sold him for alcohol. Some boys might even be stolen, just picked right up off the side of the road and taken away to be a slave. One mother sold her first three sons in hope of work and money.
How could someone let this go on when they know that it is wrong and can get in trouble for it? Sheihk Mohammed is just one of many important political figures seen at these tracks. But it has been released that Sheikh Mohammed was unaware of these violations. He denied an interview with the Lexington Herald Leader on these subjects though. So who is actually at fault? It’s hard to tell, really. Colin Powell’s top deputy on human trafficking, Ambassador John Miller, saw some of the footage caught by these camera crews. He said “the fact that a government is an ally government won’t keep this government from speaking out and won’t keep me from speaking out.” Apparently there are only about five or six people in the State Department actually monitoring human trafficking, a small number for such a large populated planet. All that can be said is that someone must start enforcing these camel jockey restrictions because what is happening is inhumane. Ansar Burney ended up saving around 23 boys out of the camps.
Press Back on your browser to Return
|
