Hiho,
that, what is positive on that homepage, is that it settles all the
rumours
about that incident,
but the conclusions drawn, in my opinion at least, are somewhat
strange.
My regret is to John Blennert, who obviously blames with this homepage
a
whole country for him having been unable to inform himself accurately
before
he was going there.
To me it seems like travelling to a tropical country, returning ill
from
malaria and afterwards blaming a whole nation, because one didn't care
for
a
prophylaxis.
Some points:
Can't see, why normal travellers, who will visit Oman for tourism,
should
ever come in a situation like you was in, to get in conflict with
written
or
unwritten laws, as they are going there not for hunting minerals,
rocks,
meteorites.
In my humble opinion, I'd say, if you were able to organize and to plan
the
logistics of that trip, a part of these preparations should have
comprised
to check, whether there are any legal obstacles to hunt or to remove
meteorites from there.
At those times, it already was known by several hunters, that a license
for hunting and a permission for export is necessary, some already were
avoiding Oman, because
of the difficulties to get one.
That other hunters were not prosecuted, is no argument. You should have
spoken to them before.
To rely on a 4 years old book (Guba: Stone Treasures) regarding the
actual
laws is naive.
A very important sentence I find on the top of your homepage:
"Do not trust tourist information about Oman that you may have received
from
official sources."
In reading the rest of your site, I suggest, that you should modify it
to
"...official US-sources".
You enquired at the American embassy in Muscat, they gave you the
information, that they are "unaware" of any laws restricting rock
hunting
or
exporting. I recommend for retrieving your property, which was
confiscated
by the Omani, to file a lawsuit against them.
As at the US-embassy they were obviously not informed about the laws in
Oman
("unaware" means not, that there do not exist any laws, only that they
don't
know it) it would have been necessary to enquire an embassy of Oman or
even
better to address to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in Muscat,
whether a permission for mineral prospection and exportation is
necessary
and how to apply for.
As undelightful the treatment you had to experience there has been and
as
glad we are, that you're all back at good health, to blame the whole
Omani
people for your insufficient preparations for the trip and you
incomplete
knowledge,
is ridicolous.
"Tourists.....without being charged with any crime or misdemeanor."
Besides the incorrect treatment, that you were not allowed to contact
your
consulates, that you were not told the reasons for your arrest ect.
is this assertion contradictory to that, what one can read on your
homepage
in the official Omani document, you present on your site, where it's
said,
that you violated those laws: Article 279 of the Penal Code; articles
(3/2 - 10/1 - 21/A) of Law 27 of 2003 on mining; articles (9/1 - 30 -
54)
of
law 30 of 2002 on regulation of communications.
The consequences you had to suffer, happened according: Article (101)
of
the Criminal Procedures Law, Article (29) of the Foreigners Residence
Law,
Article (125) of the same mentioned law.
I guess those laws exist somewhere in written form. That you didn't
know
them before, is not the fault of the Omani officials. Whether your case
was
correctly subdued under this laws, is another question,
but be assured, that you'll get also problems in democratic countries,
let's
say - if you remove a column from the Akropolis in Athens, it won't
help
you
neither, if you'll state, that you didn't found in a book any hint,
that
it
might be illegal, nor that your embassy was "unaware" about that being
a
not
so good idea.
- terrorism. I can't find any clue on your webpage, that could lead
someone
to the opinion, Oman could be a terroristic country.
John, your site is very helpful for those, who planned a hunting trip
to
Oman and can now avoid to come into similar troubles, you were in.
Therefore my thanks,
but to claim that tourist travels to Oman are extremely dangerous,
is so silly like it would be to cry for a boycot for travels to U.S. as
it's
to dangerous, because the human rights are not respected in Guantanamo
or
that
underage and mentally ill persons were sentenced to death.
My 2 buckleboos.
Martin
----- Original Message -----
From: "JKGwilliam" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 2:57 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Fwd: To all interested Parties
Hello List members,
My good friend John Blennert has asked me to post the following to the
List
as he has been unable to post it successfully himself. Any comments
should
be directed to John Blennert at:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Best,
JKGwilliam
From: "John Blennert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "John K. Gwilliam" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: To all interested Parties
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 17:07:15 -0700
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180
Hi Johnny Q
I again cannot post on the list ?? Can you forward this letter with
links
to the meteorite list !! Please don't change anything !!
Thanks
John
To All Interested Parties
I would like to announce the first of several web pages that is up
and
running. The address is www.dontvisitoman.com . We still have work to
do
on it to get the translators fully functioning and many more
countries/languages to add. I also have lots of work to do on
priority
placement of certain key words (tourist, tourism, travel, traveling,
sights, sightseeing, bird watching, diving, fishing, business,
boating,
hotels, off road, car rentals, swimming and of course rock hunting
and
geology in conjunction with Oman) on the various internet search
engines.
If anyone has any additional ideas as to where to link this sight for
maximum tourist exposure I would welcome any and all suggestions!! I
take
full responsibility for this web sights accuracy and content. We kept
meticulous logs of the daily events while being detained in Oman.
Only
the
pertinent information was used to develop this page and it's all 100%
true. There was also a $50,000.00 US payoff that was paid to an Omani
government official to release us from prison that was reported. But
I
have no first hand knowledge of that since it didn't originate in the
US.
My only regret is to the honest and friendly citizens of Oman that
will
be
affected by the loss of tourist dollars caused by this sight and the
other
web sights I'm working on. I welcome any and all comments good, bad
or
indifferent and suggestions and can be reached through email
at [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Please take this travel warning serious
this
is not meant as a joke or to be humorous.
It's great to be home!!
Warmest Regards
John B.
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