THE hijacking of a Sudanese airliner to London via Cyprus was "an incident waiting to happen", an Iraqi exile told The Irish Times. "It is a by-product of the sanctions" imposed in Iraq in 1990. The world "cannot just put 20 million people on ice indefinitely. They are bound to react".
Iraqis living at home are not the only ones to suffer, he continued. The situation of hundreds of thousands of the three million Iraqis living outside their country is also desperate.
"Many professionals have found employment in Sudan and Libya," he said. "But conditions in these countries are very difficult and wages are too low to maintain their families. Because of the UN air embargo against Libya, many Iraqis have died in traffic accidents on the journey by road from the Sudanese or Egyptian borders to Libyan airfields, where they catch internal flights to Tripoli and Benghazi. Many do not have secure employment and are forced to move from one place to another in search of jobs. They feel more and more helpless."
Until last year, Jordan provided refuge for many Iraqi exiles. The community, which waxes and wanes according to the flow of refugees through Amman, is normally about 40,000 but may swell to 60,000. Since August, 1995, however, when the Jordanian government gave sanctuary to the renegade sons-in-law and daughters of President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, relations between Amman and Baghdad have deteriorated.
Tension was exacerbated this year when King Hussein offered hospitality to an opposition movement, the Iraqi National Accord, which is actively engaged in trying to overthrow Mr Saddam's government. Two such attempts have, reportedly, been made in the past two months.
Relations between the two capitals fell to a new low this week when four Iraqi diplomats were expelled from Jordan for, allegedly, encouraging demonstrations in the south of the country against a rise in the price of bread.
The slide in relations has caused Jordan to restrict work and residence permits for Iraqis. The hijackers of the Sudanese plane may have feared they could be pushed across the frontiers to an uncertain future in Iraq, where millions of people are suffering from privations produced by six years of economic sanctions and, according to UN agencies, 750,000 children have died as a direct consequence of" malnutrition and the lack of medical supplies.
If Iraqi exiles are to avoid being part of "this human tragedy", The Irish Times informant said, "they have to find refuge elsewhere" than in Jordan. But few countries are prepared to admit Iraqis. "Ia Amman," he asserted, "foreign embassies stop Iraqis at the gates. The few who gain entry wait many months to get visas." Their visas for Jordan often expire before they can secure admission to other countries.
He said he believed the hijackers chose London because it has a large Iraqi community and Britain had been generous to Iraqi exiles.
Furthermore, the refugees could count on the support of their countrymen. Indeed, the hijackers only agreed to leave the aircraft when a leading figure from the London-based Iraqi Community Association appealed to them from the tower of Stanstead airport. The hijackers, who are expected to apply for political asylum, may also seek assistance from the Iraqi National Congress, the umbrella group of Iraqi opposition parties in exile. It was formed in London during the Gulf crisis of 1990 and has close relations with both the British authorities and US intelligence agencies which are believed to provide funding.
The hijackers were on their best behaviour at Stanstead in an effort to create a favourable impression on the British public. The police said the hijackers had issued no threats during the eight hours it took to negotiate an end to the incident.
The source feared this hijacking might encourage other Iraqi exiles to "seek desperate measures to alleviate their impossible plight. The only solution is for the exiles to receive reasonable treatment from countries which now regard Iraqi passport-holders with suspicion and consider them as pariahs".
The Iraqi situation could be resolved if the sanctions regime were to be lifted and Iraq was allowed to rebuild its infrastructure and economy, wrecked more by sanctions than the 1991 40-day US-led military campaign. However, because of US and British determination to maintain sanctions, there is no end in sight to the punitive regime.
Instead, in May, Baghdad and the UN concluded an agreement involving the sale of $4 billion worth of oil a year to provide Iraq with funds to purchase food and medicines. Washington acquiesced to Iraq's proposal only in July. Baghdad is now concluding export and purchasing arrangements under UN guidance.
But the oil-for-food deal cannot solve Iraq's economic problems. Only about half of the $4 billion will be available for supplies for the 18 million people who live in the government controlled areas (while the other half is to be divided between war reparations, UN expenses and the 2.5 million Kurds who dwell in the Western protected "safe haven" in the north).
An annual infusion of $2 billion can meet only the most basic needs of the general population. The food situation is particularly desperate this year due to a large shortfall in the grain harvest. Because of this, more Iraqis may be compelled to seek refuge abroad, compounding the difficulties of those already living in exile. And driving desperate men and women to commit desperate deeds.
