Saturday January 13 10:16 AM ET
U.S. Nationals Organize First Airlift to Iraq

By Hassan Hafidh

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An airlift of humanitarian aid which organizers said was the first such
American move to defy U.N. sanctions since the 1991 Gulf War arrived in Baghdad on Saturday.

Aboard the plane, chartered from Royal Jordanian airlines, were U.S. peace activists representing
American humanitarian and human rights organizations.

The organizers said they were in Baghdad to defy the U.S.-led United Nations sanctions on Iraq.

Aboard the plane were some $150,000 worth of medicine and medical equipment and school supplies
for Iraqi children.

``We are here to show as Americans that we are sorry for the damage the American bombs are
doing,'' said James Jennings, one of the organizers of the trip and head of an American relief
group called Conscience International.

``There are many thousands of American people who are concerned about the devastating effects of
sanctions on the Iraqi people,'' Jennings told reporters at Saddam International Airport, 15 km
(nine miles) west of Baghdad.

Jennings said the supplies and the flight had been organized without U.S. government
authorization.

``By not applying for a U.S. permit to take the humanitarian aid to Baghdad, the group claims it is
exercising its First Amendment rights,'' he said.

The United States led the multinational force which ejected Iraqi troops from Kuwait in 1991.

U.S. and British forces led a four-day extensive air and missile attack against Iraq in December
1998.

U.S. and British warplanes patrol two no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq set up soon after
the Gulf War. The zones, which Baghdad does not recognize, are to protect a Kurdish enclave in the
north and Sh'ite Muslims in the south from possible attacks by Baghdad troops.

Humanitarian aid to Iraq has been gaining momentum during the last few months. Dozens of
humanitarian flights have landed in Iraq since August last year, but this was the first one
organized by U.S. nationals.

Baghdad says that around 1.5 million Iraqis have died because of the shortages in medical and food
supplies since the imposition of the U.N. embargo, and blamed continuation of sanctions on
Washington.

Under a special deal with the United Nations, Baghdad is allowed to sell oil to buy food, medicine
and other humanitarian needs for the Iraqi people.