Inspections on Iraq-bound Ships Denounced: Report

Crewmen of Iraq-bound cargo ships docking in Dubai of the United Arab Emirates denounced the actions of the arbitrary U.S. warships, under the name of so-called UN's Interception Force, as "piracy."

The crewmen are now reluctant to sail for Basra, south of Iraq, because they fear intensified U.S. naval inspections, according to a report on the web site of Dubai based Gulf News on Sunday.

Ship owners have to put off departure dates, fearing the confiscation of their ships by U.S.-Britain-run naval forces from the United Nations Sanctions Committee. Traders lament the rotting of their merchandise due to excessive delays in arrival, the report said.

"The ships are not only delayed by inspections while loading, but also in mid-journey," complained Sabah Abbas, an Iraqi marine agent whose company, Sumar Shipping, has been transporting whatever the U.N. allows to Iraq for eight months.

Sabah, who usually works with an average of 10 ships a month, claimed that none ships have docked in Dubai or set sail for Basra in April.

"We have commodities here waiting to be transported to Iraq - sugar, oil, tea, rice - but there are no ships ready to take them. Either they are under surveillance in Iraq, or too scared to leave Dubai just yet," said Abbas, adding that he has lost more than 15, 000 dirhams (4,100 U.S. dollars) in the past two weeks.

"The problem is mainly due to the (U.N.) sanctions against Iraq," the businessman noted.

Following the sinking of the ill-fated Iraqi tanker Zainab on April 14, which caused a 30-kilometer oil slick along the UAE coast, the U.S. navy took more severe inspecting actions against all ships heading for Iraq.

Accusing Iraq of smuggling 600 million dollars of oil in 2000, the inspectors from the U.S. and Britain halted all ships bound for Iraq in their mid-journey and made inspections.

Iraq, which has been under international sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, is allowed to sell oil in return for U.N.- monitored imports of humanitarian supplies under an oil-for-food deal adopted in 1996.






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