CYPRUS: SPANISH MILITARY AIRCRAFT EXPECTED TO ARRIVE TO PICK UP AND DISPERSE 12 PALESTINIAN MILITANTS AROUND EUROPE
Record ID:
644546
CYPRUS: SPANISH MILITARY AIRCRAFT EXPECTED TO ARRIVE TO PICK UP AND DISPERSE 12 PALESTINIAN MILITANTS AROUND EUROPE
- Title: CYPRUS: SPANISH MILITARY AIRCRAFT EXPECTED TO ARRIVE TO PICK UP AND DISPERSE 12 PALESTINIAN MILITANTS AROUND EUROPE
- Date: 22nd May 2002
- Summary: (W5) LARNACA,CYPRUS (MAY 21 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV FLAMINGO HOTEL EXTERIOR WHERE PALESTINIANS STAYING; SLV SECURITY AROUND HOTEL; LAS PALESTINIANS ON BALCONY (3 SHOTS) 0.18 2. LAS PALESTINIAN SPEAKING ON MOBILE PHONE; PALESTINIAN TURNING PRAYER BEADS IN HIS HAND; MV PALESTINIAN WATCHING TELEVISION (11 SHOTS) 1.19 3. MV SECURITY TALKING TO PALESTINIANS / PALESTINIANS MOVE OFF BALCONY (6 SHOTS) 1.57 4. SCU LARNACA AIRPORT SIGN; SLV SECURITY AROUND AIRPORT; SLV CONTROL TOWER OF AIRPORT; AIRCRAFT FLYING OVER SEA AND BEACHES (16 SHOTS) 3.24 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 6th June 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LARNACA, CYPRUS
- Country: Cyprus
- Reuters ID: LVA4D9WJR8KEDSF8ZWUY6PJJAE4G
- Story Text: A Spanish military aircraft is expected to arrive in
Cyprus to pick up and disperse 12 Palestinian militants around
Europe in the last leg of their journey into exile.
The plane was to arrive on Tuesday (May 21, 2002)
after a deal was clinched late on Monday (May 20),
ending days of European Union wrangling on the fate of the
gunmen on Israel's most wanted list.
A Cypriot security source told Reuters the plane would
remain overnight and fly the Palestinians out early on
Wednesday (May 22).
Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique said on Monday that
the military plane would stop in several European countries to
drop the Palestinians off.
Under the terms of the deal, Italy and Spain would take in
three each, Greece and Ireland two each and Belgium and
Portugal one each.
"(The Palestinians) shall be received on a temporary basis
and exclusively on humanitarian grounds (by the six member
states)," the EU Council of Ministers said in a draft
statement.
The Palestinians will be subject to the law of their host
country, which will be responsible for housing, social
security, work permits and family reunions, EU diplomats said.
Their residence permits will be issued for a provisional
12 months. The situation will be reviewed thereafter.
The men will remain under police surveillance and
protection and will not be able to travel outside their host
country.
A thirteenth militant, among a group freed from
Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity after a five-week Israeli
siege, was to remain in Cyprus until a country is found to
host him, government officials said. The identity of the man
was not immediately known.
The 13 Palestinians have been held at a hotel in the
coastal resort of Larnaca since May 10, when Cyprus said it
would temporarily host the gunmen in an EU-brokered deal which
ended the siege of the Church of Nativity, which Christians
revere as the birthplace of Jesus, in the West Bank town of
Bethlehem.
They have been confined to the fourth floor of the hotel
restricted from travelling outside or communicating with
anyone in the hotel, visited only by their Palestinian
representative and political officials.
They have been permitted to use mobile telephones to speak
with their families and have television sets in their rooms.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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