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Fw: Sanctions-busting plane from Britain lands in Baghdad



There follows a press release from the Mariam Appeal.

Yousef Ghazi-Tabatabai

***********************************************************
Co-ordinator, Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq
www.casi.org.uk                      fax 0870 063 5022
***********************************************************

Trinity College
Cambridge
CB2 1TQ

----- Original Message -----
From: Tricia Meehan <trish@mariamappeal.com>
To: <soc-casi@lists.cam.ac.uk>
Sent: Friday, November 10, 2000 11:13 AM
Subject: Sanctions-busting plane from Britain lands in Baghdad


> PRESS RELEASE FROM THE MARIAM APPEAL:
>
> SANCTIONS-BUSTING
> PLANE LANDS IN BAGHDAD.
>
>
> THE FIRST PEACEFUL BRITISH FLIGHT
> IN MORE THAN A DECADE DEFIES THE GOVERNMENT
> AND TOUCHES DOWN IN IRAQ.
>
>
> At around 8am local time (5am GMT) the first British flight since
sanctions
> were declared against Iraq more than 10 years ago landed successfully at
> Baghdad's international  airport - without permission from either the
> British government or the UN Sanctions Committee in New York. The party of
> eight included the Labour MP for Glasgow Kelvin, George Galloway,
hereditary
> peer Lord Rea of Eskdale and Catholic priest Father Noel Barry, who is the
> former press secretary of Cardinal Thomas Winning.
>
> The plane was an Air Dassault Falcon 50 which flew under the cover of
> darkness and subterfuge from Manston airfield in Kent. The
sanctions-busting
> flight was paid-for by private donations to the Mariam Appeal, the
> campaigning organisation which is fighting to stop the embargo on Iraq
which
> has caused the deaths of more than 1 million Iraqis, the majority of them
> children. The flight was deliberately not a humanitarian one - no drugs or
> medicine were on board - but was intended to focus world attention on the
> plight of the people of Iraq.
>
> "We don't accept that there are any UN sanctions against passenger flights
> into Iraq - as the British and American governments maintain - but I do
> accept that we have committed an offence in Britain by not informing the
DTi
> of our flight plan or allowing the department's inspectors to check out
the
> plane" said George Galloway. "I hope that the government won't take action
> against us but if they do then we'll relish our days in court."
>
> At the same time as the plane landed a letter giving details of the flight
> was being handed in to Foreign Office minister Peter Hain. The letter
says,
> in part: "We have made this journey to demonstrate the widespread and
> growing opposition in the United Kingdom to the continuing embargo.As you
> know my view is that there is not requirement for any UN Sanctions
Committee
> approval for this flight and there is no breach of any international legal
> requirement."
>
> Fr Barry said: "I have written and campaigned against sanctions for some
> time now and it is time to add action to the rhetoric. Children are dying
in
> Iraq and as a committed Christian I find it impossible to walk past on the
> other side of the street."
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Trish Meehan
> Mariam Appeal
> t: 0044 (0)207 403 5200
> f: 0044 (0)207 403 3823
> e: trish@mariamappeal.com
> w: www.mariamappeal.com
>
>

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