European activists defy Iraq embargo

Italian MEP Vittorio Sgarbi arrives in Baghdad

A small group of European activists has broken the air embargo on Iraq by flying from Jordan to Baghdad without permission from the United Nations.

A French Catholic priest and three Italians, including a member of the European parliament were on board.

We consider that the massacre of these innocent children is an infanticide

Protesters' statement

They said their aim was to defy the 10-year old embargo because they felt compelled to act against an policy that was killing children and destroying Iraq's infrastructure.

Their plane was the first non-Iraqi aircraft to fly to Iraq in defiance of the sanctions.

Flights to and from Iraq have been banned since 1990 by UN Security Council resolutions imposed to punish Baghdad for invading Kuwait.

Avoiding Western fighter planes

The plane touched down at a military airport near Baghdad on Monday evening.

The passengers were Italian Member of the European Parliament Vittorio Sgarbi, French Catholic priest and filmmaker Jean-Marie Benjamin, and two other Italians, businessman Nicola Grauso and journalist Massimo Santo Paolo.

Mr Grauso, the pilot, said he flew at low altitude on entering Iraqi airspace to avoid detection by Western fighter planes imposing no-fly zones in southern and northern Iraq.

'Embargo kills millions'

On arrival they issued a statement calling for the immediate and total lifting of the embargo, and for rapid and effective aid for the country's reconstruction.

Father Benjamin receives a warn welcome from an Iraqi official

"The UN embargo has caused more than 1.5 million deaths, of which 500,000 were children. We consider that the massacre of these innocent children is an infanticide," the statement also said.

The campaigners were given a warm welcome by the Iraqi authorities.

"We welcome the delegates and recognise their courage," said Abdul-Razzaq al-Hashimi, a senior member of the ruling Baath party.

Mr Grauso and Mr Sgarbi are veterans of this type of protest. They landed two small planes in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in April 1998, when the country was under a UN air embargo, to seek the release of an Italian businessman being held there.

Breaking the Embargo

Iraqi planes have in the past broken the air embargo to transport pilgrims to Mecca. The UN has since accepted this breach of the embargo.

In January this year, a Jordanian convoy of trucks broke the embargo by transporting millions of pencils across the border to Baghdad.

The convoy was a protest against the ban on the import of pencils by Iraq. At the time it was reported that the ban was in place because of the possible military applications of pencil lead. The UN later denied that such a ban existed.

In recent months, non-government delegations from the US, Britain and Spain have visited Iraq with permission from the UN to distribute aid or conduct fact-finding missions.