French plane heads for Iraq despite sanctions

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- A plane chartered by French anti-embargo activists left Paris bound for Baghdad on Friday despite objections from the United States and Britain that it may be violating United Nations sanctions against Iraq.

A spokesman for Paris Charles de Gaulle airport said the 184-seat Boeing 737, chartered from the Euralair-France airline, took off at 8:35 a.m. (0635 GMT).

Some 80 doctors, young artists and other activists were aboard the direct flight to the Iraqi capital.

Organizer Jihad Feghali told Reuters by telephone from the plane as it was about to take off that the group wanted to show that a flight ban imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait did not apply to non-commercial flights.

In the background, the pilot could be heard announcing a 4 hour 45 minute flight, with the temperature in Baghdad 35 degrees Celsius. He wished his passengers a pleasant flight.

"We want to show that there must not be any abuse within the United Nations sanctions," Feghali said.

France, which opposes the strict U.S. interpretation that the sanctions ban all civilian flights to and from Iraq, says they ban freight and commercial passenger flights.

Paris notified the U.N. Security Council's Iraqi sanctions committee about the flight late on Thursday without asking for permission.

The United States and Britain said agreement by all members of the sanctions committee was needed for such flights.

Passengers carry only personal belongings

Feghali said the trip was not breaking the sanctions as passengers only carried personal belongings.

He said the passengers were thoroughly searched by French custom officers and declared everything they had, including cellphones, in order to show that they would not sell or leave anything behind in Iraq.

A Russian company last week sent a plane carrying 11 oil experts and five tons of medicine to Baghdad after obtaining permission from the U.N. sanctions committee.

A group of politicians is also planning a flight from Paris to Baghdad on September 29.

On board Friday's flight were some 25 doctors, surgeons and nurses who planned to spend a few days in Iraq helping the local doctors. The young artists and some members of a Paris roller skating club would give an exhibition and take part in Iraq's Babylon Festival, Feghali said.

"They are young French people who want to meet young Iraqis and bring them a message of joy."

An advance party travelled to Baghdad overland from Beirut, and the whole party would drive to the Jordanian capital Amman next week on their way back to France.

Feghali said the flight, organized by an ad-hoc "Council for Development and Cooperation," was privately funded and cost two million francs ($259,100).

British ambassador to the U.N. Sir Jeremy Greenstock told reporters on Thursday that the flight needed clearance from the sanctions committee. "If flights from abroad are not (submitted) to the sanctions committee, that is a contravention," he said.

The U.S. deputy permanent representative, James Cunningham, also said it needed clearance, like Sunday's Russian flight.

Both Russia and France want the sanctions, imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, eased and eventually lifted. But they have adhered to them over the past decade.

No one is certain how far the United States and Britain will take the dispute with France.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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