Yemen's president, irked by US charges that Sanaa violates human rights, accused Washington on Wednesday of double standards after his premier said Washington used "two voices" over terrorism and rights.
"Why do they (US), who violate human rights, not engage in self-criticism instead of hurling accusations at the Third World, particularly the Arab world?" President Ali Abdullah Saleh asked at a public ceremony.
Saleh's outburst was sparked by the release of the US State Department's latest annual report on human rights that charged that Yemeni security forces "arbitrarily continued to arrest, detain and torture people".
"We are astonished by these human rights reports. Are rights being violated in Guantanamo (where the US holds suspected Islamist militants) and in Abu Ghraib (prison in Iraq), or in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian territories?" he asked.
Calling for the abrogation of veto power in the UN Security Council, Saleh added: "Why shouldn't we turn to the UN General Assembly to take decisions in a democratic way? We wonder about these double standards.
"Why should the Third World obey them while they do not heed our demands for reforming the UN?"
Prime Minister Abdel Kader Bajammal earlier suggested that Washington was being hypocritical by criticizing Yemen's rights record while itself delaying terror trials and holding presumed militants in legal limbo at its naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Had such criticism come from another country, Yemen would have been able to "deal with it", Bajammal said.
"But it is really strange that it should come from (Washington)... because the main target of the Bush administration is the fight against terrorism," he said, alluding to Washington's praise of Sanaa for combating terror.
The New York Times reported on March 13 that a US judge had blocked the government from transferring 13 Yemeni prisoners from Guantanamo until a hearing can be held on whether they would face torture back home.
The prime minister said the Americans were speaking in "two voices" -- "one is speaking about human rights and the other about the war against terrorism under any circumstances".
Bajammal added: "I am asking them: under (what) law, under (what) international or local law ... are people still in Guantanamo?"
About 540 detainees from 40 countries remain at the heavily guarded US facility in Cuba.
Most were detained in Afghanistan following the US-led campaign in late 2001. Washington has faced strong international criticism for keeping the prisoners in Cuba without access to legal representation.
"I can affirm that human rights in Yemen are more respected than in the United States itself," Bajammal said, without responding to the charges of torture.
Yemeni officials say they find US charges of human rights abuse bizarre, coming from a country which now views Yemen as a partner in the war on terror.
During a visit to Sanaa in February, US Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs Paula J. Dobriansky "praised Yemen's success in fighting terrorism, describing it as an effective partner with the international community" in combating the scourge, a Yemeni official said at the time.
And last June, Saleh was one of a handful of Muslim leaders to be invited by President George W. Bush to a G8 summit to discuss the US plan to promote political and economic reform in the Middle East and North Africa.
This did not, however, give Yemen a free hand at home, said a Sanaa-based diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"The fight against terrorism is extremely important ... but that doesn't give any government the right to abuse its citizens," he said.
"There have been cases in Yemen where the government has detained individuals for a long period of time without pressing charges," the diplomat added.
"Who has been stopping the Yemeni government ... from sending (detainees) to the courts?" retorted Bajammal. "The Americans! ... Because they need more time, they have some information."
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