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Jordan Won't Let Italian Plane Land!!!




A truly shameful response from Jordan!
-Rania

 Jordan Won't Let Italian Plane Land 
By Waiel Faleh
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, April 5, 2000; 9:08 a.m. EDT

BAGHDAD, Iraq €  '¶'¶ A small plane carrying European activists took off
from Baghdad on Wednesday destined for Italy, a violation of U.N.  
sanctions that prompted Jordanian officials to refuse the plane stopover
permission in the kingdom.

Iraqi officials saw off the Italian-made P68 at Rasheed air base, where
the plane landed Monday in violation of the sanctions, the official Iraqi
News Agency reported. Four passengers were aboard.

In Jordan, Information Minister Saleh Qallab said the plane had entered
Jordanian airspace, but "we will not allow it to land in any of our
airports."

If it was to land anyway, Qallab told The Associated Press that Jordan
would ground the plane, arrest crew members and deport passengers from
Jordan in line with international law.

International flights to and from Iraq were banned under U.N.  sanctions
imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which led to the Gulf War.
After the war, allied forces began patrols over northern and southern
Iraq.

While in the capital, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and other officials
received the visitors, who said their journey was a symbolic move meant to
highlight Iraqi suffering caused by the sanctions.

Sanctions can be lifted only once U.N. inspectors verify Iraq no longer
has weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles or the ability to
produce them.

€  © Copyright 2000 The Associated Press 

--------------  

> 
> http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20000403_2664.html
> 
> 04/03/2000 14:41:00 ET
> Rights campaigners break Iraq flight embargo
> 

> BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A direct flight from the Jordanian  capital 
Amman to> Iraq landed at Baghdad airport Monday, breaking the 10-year-old
U.N.> embargo on flights to Iraq, witnesses said.> The small plane, an
Italian-made B-86, landed at 7:45 p.m.  local time,> carrying three
Italians and a Frenchman.

> Aboard the aircraft were European Parliament member Vittorio  
Sgardi, French> Catholic priest and filmmaker Jean-Marie Benjamin, who is
also secretary> general of Deato Angelico Foundation, Italian Nicola
Grauso and Massimo> Santo Paolo, an Italian journalist.
> 
> They said in a statement they did not ask the United Nations  for
> authorization. Their aim was to defy the stringent  sanctions 
imposed on> Baghdad by the U.N. in 1990, when Iraq invaded its neighbor
Kuwait. The> sanctions ban international flights from and into Iraq.
> 
> "We request ... the secretary-general of the U.N., the  member 
states of the> Security Council and the (U.N. human rights commissioner)
to intervene as> soon as possible for the immediate and total lifting of
the embargo ... and> to implement rapid and effective aid for the
country's reconstruction," the> statement said.
> 
> International human rights organizations have increasingly  
criticized the> impact of the sanctions on the Iraqi people.


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