Vietnam: Support to meet Iraqi people's demand A flight 'For Iraq' with political and religious leaders on board and conducted by Russia and France, two member countries of the UN Security Council, has ignited a worldwide drive for 'friendship' flights to Baghdad and has sparked a movement against the out-dated embargo against the Gulf country, commented the national daily Nhan Dan (people) on October 2. People the world over had also seen the recent flights to Iraq, the first since the outbreak of the Gulf war, as an expression of global support for the Iraqi people in their struggle against a decade old embargo which had caused untold suffering in famine and disease to millions of Iraqi people, mostly women and children. The flight 'For Iraq' had had a massive response from the Arab world, the commentary pointed out. Jordan launched a flight 'In friendship with the Iraqi people' as the first of a regular airlink between capital cities of the two countries, and Yemen had conducted a flight of its own, carrying both government figures and supplies to Baghdad. Syria for its part, said that for "no reason should the embargo against Iraq be maintained" and had demanded "an early end to the embargo" while the Foreign Minister of another Arab country, Iran, announced that he would visit Baghdad soon to discuss ways to improve bilateral relations. While Marocco and Holland would reportedly conduct their own Friendship' flights soon, India, which had signed more than 150 contracts worth over US $280 million with Iraq within the framework of the 'oil for food' programme, had expressed its desire for further development of bilateral relations in political, economic and cultural fields, and had demanded an end to the embargo against Iraq. Some western countries were dissatisfied with these flights of friendship to Iraq and were trying to prevent them. People on the Iraq Sanctions Committee might be able to force Morocco and Holland to postpone their flights to Iraq by several hours, but they would never be able to suppress the strength of diplomatic feeling behind the flights, stressed the newspaper. Furthermore, they could not prevent humanitarian activities and operations which were not violating international law which, on the contrary, were in conformity with the just aspirations of those supporters of the Iraqi people. The 'oil for food' programme, which allowed Iraq to export crude oil in exchange for necessities under UN supervision has been reconsidered and extended every six months, helping ease the effects of the embargo the commentary said. However, Iraq is still facing many of attempts to block implementation of the programme. Of US $271 million in equipment and spare parts committed under contracts but yet to be disbursed in Iraq, more than 45% was blocked by the Sanctions Committee because of a lack of the required technical details and another 21% because they were "facilities of duel use." "The Iraqi people and the global community have strongly urged the UN to ease and gradually lift the embargo, so as to end numerous sufferings to the Iraqi people. "The international community has expressed belief that there will be more and more flights carrying delegates from countries the world over to Baghdad in search of better ways to speed up the struggle for a total end to the current embargo against Iraq," the commentary pointed out in conclusion.
