Middle East News
BRUSSELS (AFP)
Thursday March 10, 2005

Belgian authorities were negotiating with several dozen passengers who have refused to leave a German airliner in what appeared to be a protest against the EU's conciliatory policies towards Iran.


A Boeing plane of German Lufthansa is parked alongside Pier A at Brussels National airport
AFP

The negotiations, led by the foreign ministry, were taking place in a "calm atmosphere", a ministry spokesman said.
Earlier a correspondent for ZDF German television who spoke with one of the passengers by telephone said he had been told that no arms were aboard the plane and that no hostages were being held.
The reporter said he was informed that there were 73 people aboard the Lufthansa plane, which had arrived from Frankfurt, but a Belgian police spokesman said there were 59 people of various nationalities.
"It is a small group who don't want to come off. The other passengers were able to leave calmly and are inside the airport, unharmed," said Wencke Lemmes, a spokesman for Lufthansa in Belgium Belgium.
The situation was calm, and federal police officers were on board the aircraft negotiating with those inside, said police and the airline.
The remaining passengers "all have passports from the European Union," but "they say they are of Iranian origin," said federal police spokesman Els Cleemput.

"We don't know the nationalities (of the passengers still on board) and we don't know for the moment what they are demanding," she said, adding that they had given police a document of about 20 pages containing their demands.
She denied rumors that some of those on board had begun a hunger strike.
A young Iranian based in Brussels who identified himself as Ramin and said he was speaking on behalf of the passengers, said the action had been under preparation for five months by a London-based Iranian monarchist group, "Azarakhsh".

"We all ask the leaders of the European Union (not to) support the regime in Iran Iran. We don't ask nobody, no country, nor any power in the world to help us to change the regime. We can do it ourselves," he said.
But the RTL-TVI television station said they were "political demands" linked notably to the European Union's policies with regard to Iran Iran.
"Contacts are under way between foreign ministry and the people on board," said a ministry spokesman.

The TV station said the atmosphere was relaxed, and meals had been offered to those still on board.
The German magazine Der Spiegel said it had received a letter from the group, described as Iranian men and women protesting against a Tehran regime responsible for "torture and terror."
In Berlin, a Lufthansa spokesman said the protest "had nothing to do with our company.

"They have chosen without a doubt a strange place to demonstrate," said the spokesman, Thomas Ellerbeck
He said the plane was carrying 120 passengers, all of whom except the demonstrators had left the plane.
Television images showed two police cars next to the aircraft, which was parked at a gate at Brussels' Zaventem airport. Air traffic was not disrupted by the situation.

Perhaps a light at the end of the tunnel

Here's the one thing about dealing with authoritarian countries that I can never actually be sure of. Do you

a) as in the case of the USSR, completely shut out the country and wait for it to implode?
b) or go at it through the way the west has dealt with China in the past 16 years or so, and lean more towards a policy that tries to open up the country to foreign influence (i.e. capitalism), or
c) blow it all up and hope that there will be a strong will to move on by the locals, as in the case of Iraq?

I think the situations are so different it is impossible to compare. USSR, with Stalin, we were looking at a psycho, but a psycho just as capable of destroying us as we were of destroying him. With each succesive leader, they became a bit more communicative. With China, initially we were dealing with a complete nut, but they have made some positive strives. With Iraq, we could defeat them without the idea of mutual destruction, and they also had a dictator who was passing the torch to two sons who were equally as nutz. When it comes to how you handle one ass hole or another, there are very specific factors to take into account.

I bet if it were a U.S. plane, security would have never let 59 Arabs onto one plane.

No offense to any Arabs on the board ... that's a knock on the TSA, not Arabs ... I mean individuals of Middle Eastern descent.