Communist Web Friday 31st March 2000 9.30pm gmt Britain: Government bans Iraq relief flight The British government has blocked attempts by campaigning Labour MP George Galloway to fly a shipment of three tons of vital vaccines and medicines directly to Baghdad. The mercy flight was forced to halt at the Jordanian capital of Amman and its vital cargo for the people of beleaguered Iraq made to take the thousand mile desert route by lorry to Baghdad. "I am bitter and angry", Galloway told the Arab media as he prepared for the overland trip. "The medicine includes expensive and sensitive medicine, such as vaccines for rabies, diptheria and typhoid." Although this is the first time that the British government has given permission for the export of such medicine (collected by the Mariam Appeal charity) to Iraq, the Labour MP had harsh words for the obstructions put in the way of the mercy flight by the Blair government. The Mariam Appeal had chartered a plane to take 209 supporters, journalists, aid workers and doctors along with the medical aid directly to Baghdad. After British government objections this was scaled down to 29. Even this was too much for the Foreign Office to swallow. The government eventually referred it to the notorious Anglo-American dominated UN Sanctions Committee - which imposed a virtual veto on the flight. The Sanctions Committee demanded precise details on the purpose of every single person travelling on board this mercy flight - giving Galloway just three hours to comply with the request. As the majority of the 29 passengers left were journalists the Marian Appeal saw this "as a wrecking manoeuvre designed to ensure media exposure of the suffering in Iraq remains beyond the gaze of the general public". On Friday 10 March a leading London peace activist started a death-fast in protest at the continuing blockade of Iraq. Richard Crump, a leading member of Voices in the Wilderness and Ex-Services CND, said: "I don't want to die, but I am willing to risk my health and my life. "A fresh millennium has dawned, with a good deal of hype, flashing lights, etc. But the... http://www.billkath.demon.co.uk/cw/britaingovernment/britaingovernment/-.html
