{"id":17381,"date":"2024-04-01T19:19:15","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T16:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=17381"},"modified":"2024-04-01T20:09:42","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T17:09:42","slug":"why-the-uaes-unchecked-impunity-demands-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/01\/why-the-uaes-unchecked-impunity-demands-sanctions\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the UAE\u2019s Unchecked Impunity Demands Sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Amgad Fareid Eltayeb<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the outbreak of the civil war in Sudan, there have been allegations that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been providing support and weapons to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia.
\nThe RSF has been accused of perpetrating a multitude of atrocities and crimes against the Sudanese population during this ongoing conflict. The details of this support were disclosed in a report by the UN panel of experts on Darfur. However, the UAE\u2019s actions on the global stage were not limited to this single wrongdoing.
\nThe UAE made use of its non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, which it held from January 2022 to December 2023, in a way that sought to divert attention from its violations of UN resolutions and to retaliate against the investigators and journalists who played a part in exposing such infractions.
\nIt went so far as to undermine the work of these committees and panels.
\nCongressional leaders accuse Hemeti\u2019s RSF of genocide in Darfur
\nDiverting attention
\nFor instance, in July 2022, Dubai Airport officials detained Dinesh Mahtani, a British national, and questioned him for several hours before stopping him from continuing his trip, citing security concerns. Later, British authorities confirmed there were no police reports or crimes regarding Mahtani. It became obvious that the matter was related to Mahtani\u2019s participation in the UN panel of experts to monitor sanctions on the al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab group in 2013-2014.
\nHe and his team discovered 161 commercial coal shipments from Somalia, most headed for Port Rashid in the UAE. These activities funded the Al-Shabaab, including unloading 1.6 million bags of coal in the UAE.
\nThis action goes against the Security Council Resolution 2036 (2012) that prohibits the import of Somali charcoal because it funds the activities of Al-Shabaab. The charcoal ban remains in force and was renewed in resolution 2662 in November 2022. A 2022 UN panel of experts report revealed that these activities are still ongoing.
\nSudan checkmates UAE, expelling diplomats amid RSF allegations
\nFurthermore, on 11 March 2024, the US Department of the Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed new sanctions on entities and personnel for funding Al-Shabaab. Sanctions included the Dubai-based Haleel Group which is a key financial enabler of Al-Shabaab and UAE-based Qemat Al Najah General Trading, which functions as a significant node for money laundering for Al-Shabaab, facilitating the management and transmission of funds for the terrorist group.
\nOther UAE-based individuals and businesses were identified and designated as part of this extensive financial support network, providing Al-Shabaab with a net value of more than $100m per year.
\nThis conduct not only revealed the UAE\u2019s disregard for the framework of international legitimacy, but also disproved its claims concerning its position against political Islam.
\nGagging whistleblowers
\nThe UAE is using similar claims to justify supporting the RSF militia in Sudan\u2019s war, despite providing support to the Al-Shabaab terrorist group.
\nThe Emirates has a history of denying entry to human rights campaigners, especially those advocating for workers\u2019 rights.
\nIn 2015, James Lynch, an expert from Amnesty International, was denied entry to Emirates at the airport without any explanation, similar to what happened to Mahtani.
\nBut such actions were not the sole act of bullying in the UAE\u2019s track record.
\nIn 2022, the UAE blocked investigative journalist Maggie Michael, a Pulitzer Prize winner for her work in Yemen and current Reuters correspondent in Cairo, from being selected as a regional expert in a UN committee focusing on Yemen. This was in retaliation for her previous work that exposed the UAE for operating secret detention centres in Yemen where detainees endure torture and sexual assaults.
\nSudan: With RSF backers UAE absent at peace talks, hope is dim
\nMore recently, Michael shared disturbing information about the atrocities committed against civilians in Darfur by the UAE-backed RSF militia.
\nIn November 2022, the UAE blocked the appointment of Canadian researcher Shawn Blore \u2013 known for his extensive research on the illicit gold trade in the UAE \u2013 from serving as a UN expert on a committee examining mineral exploitation in the DRC.
\nBlore contributed to writing \u2018Dubai\u2019s Role in Facilitating Corruption and Illicit Global Financial Flows\u2018, published in 2020 by the Carnegie Center for International Peace. Blore exposed the UAE\u2019s involvement in smuggling gold from Sudan, Congo, the Central Africa Republic and the Sahel region.
\nInternational impunity
\nWith all those infractions, the UAE seems to enjoy a certain impunity in international affairs. On 23 February, the UAE was removed from the Financial Action Task Force\u2019s (FATF) \u2018Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring\u2019 list, popularly known as the grey list.
\nThe UAE was added to the list on 4 March 2022 over the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, amid reports that it helps Russia and Iran avoid economic sanctions and embargoes.
\nThe Emirates has leveraged considerable political and economic power to get its name removed from the list, sparking fierce disagreement within the FATF\u2019s inner circles. This became especially relevant when considering why the FATF decided to delist the UAE based on data given by the UAE without independent verification.
\nHow UAE is getting around international sanctions against Russia
\nIn a letter sent before the delisting decision to FATF President Raja Kumar, Transparency International urged FATF not to remove the UAE from the grey list, contending that there is little evidence that the country has implemented the announced reforms to combat money laundering and other financial crimes.
\nAccording to Transparency International, there is evidence that the UAE has failed to address several known cases involving sanctioned entities and individuals. The US Department of the Treasury\u2019s recent decision validates these allegations by Transparency International.
\nThe delisting of the UAE conveyed the wrong signal to those implicated in financial crimes, namely that one can elude accountability so long as one has the right friends.
\nWhy Abu Dhabi is implicated (discretely) in the Sahel
\nUAE championing the Abrahamic Accords to normalise relations with Israel and its efforts to force many countries in the Arab region to join it was also a tool to ensure strengthening this diplomatic relevance and enhancing its impunity.
\nHowever, the enforcement and blackmailing tactics adopted for that end, which ignored the realistic cultural and social burden that needed to be accounted for, led to the explosion of Gaza in the worst possible scenario and killed any prospects for peace in the coming extended period.
\nGaslighting guises
\nPresently, the UAE manages the most extensive commercial enterprise globally, disregarding all domestic, regional and international legal frameworks. Positions such as opposing political Islam or terrorism, for instance, serve as gaslighting guises that can be easily abandoned for the sake of financial gain.
\nBy utilising its accrued political and economic influence, the UAE ensures that neither it nor its allies are held accountable, and their impunity is maintained. Its operations in the Middle East and globally resemble those of the Mafia\u2019s Godfather in that it delegated direct nefarious tasks to agents, such as the RSF in Sudan or the Hafter government in Libya. Atrocities in Yemen, Libya or Sudan are being overlooked for that sake.
\nThe time has come for the world to awaken to a truth long forgotten: law cannot reign nor achieve its lofty goals of justice without universal application. Punishing mere tools of crime, endlessly recycled by perpetrators, yields no fruit but rather deepens the mire.
\nIt is time to confront the UAE as a rogue state, a prime instigator of global instability, and compel its compliance with international law through targeted sanctions. To continue accepting the UAE\u2019s impunity is to sow the seeds of an epoch laden with instability, war, financial crimes, and their attendant human suffering, displacement and irregular migration.
\nA dismal period in human history is unfolding in the 21st century, particularly due to the collapse of unipolar world order systems and the rise of international competition via direct and proxy disputes and wars. However, it is only in the dark shades of courage that we can break this curse.
\nPosted on April 1, 2024 08:40<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Amgad Fareid Eltayeb Since the outbreak of the civil war in Sudan, there have been allegations that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been providing support and weapons to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia. The RSF has been accused of perpetrating a multitude of atrocities and crimes against the Sudanese population during this …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17385,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17381\/revisions\/17385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}