Those Zany U.S. Allies Honoring "American" Values

Dubai Ruler Sued in U.S. over Enslaving Small Boys
September 14, 2006 3:36 PM

Vic Walter Reports:

The ruler of Dubai came to Kentucky to buy race horses but ended up being served with a lawsuit alleging he enslaved thousands of small boys as camel jockeys.

Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum was served Monday with the court papers while attending a horse show in Lexington, Ky., where he spent an estimated $30 million on thoroughbred yearlings.

The lawsuit, brought as a class action, alleged Sheikh Mohammed and his brother were part of a conspiracy "to buy boys in the slave trade, hold them in bondage in brutal camps in the desert" as part of a flourishing camel racing sport among Arab sheikhs.

The lawsuit calls it "one of the greatest humanitarian crimes of the last 50 years," involving thousands of boys as young as four who were prized because they weighed less than 44 pounds.
The Sheikh's personal 747 aircraft was seen parked this morning at the Bluegrass Airport in Lexington, Ky. There was no immediate comment from the Sheikh or from a spokesman at the United Arab Emirates embassy in Washington, D.C.

The United States State Department in a report on human trafficking last year cited the practice of using young boys as camel jockeys.

"Children trafficked to the Gulf states in the Middle East are forced to race camels of the entertainment elite. These children were training under the shadow of Dubai's skyline in early 2005," the State Department report said.

The State Department report, while not specifically naming the Sheikh, says the trafficking of young boys as camel jockeys "has burgeoned in the Gulf states, which, with the discovery of oil and the associated surge in wealth, transformed camel racing from a traditional Bedouin sports pastime to a multi-million dollar activity."

The report says the government of the United Arab Emirates, "has failed to take significant action to address its trafficking problems and to protect victims."

Read an excerpt of the lawsuit against Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum.