 |
|
Iraqi Airways resumed international commercial flights for
the first time in 14 years, flying between Amman, Baghdad and
Damascus, although with few passengers on board.(AFP
) | |
Luma Anwar and her mother arrived at the passport office at 3 a.m. one
day last week.
It wasn't early enough. After 12 hours in line, they were nowhere near
the front.
It was their third attempt to get a passport for Anwar, who plans to
drive to Amman before flying to Detroit to meet her husband-to-be. The
passport will have to wait for another day.
"If I could just get my passport, I'd be the happiest woman in the
universe," says Anwar, 24.
The right to travel was one of the most enticing of the freedoms Iraqis
looked forward to after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Under Saddam, getting permission to travel could take up to a year and
was mostly reserved for privileged members of the government or their
families.
Since they became available June 22, about 500,000 passports have been
issued. But harried clerks
can't keep up with demand and every day there are long lines and
frustrated people.
Baghdad's gleaming international airport terminal has been renovated by U.S.
taxpayers at a cost of nearly $39 million dollars. But more than a year
after the fall of Saddam, only a couple charter flights use the airport.
And even the civilian planes use evasive tactics to avoid surface-to-air
missiles when landing.
Iraqi Airways had planned to resume flying this Saturday from Baghdad
to Amman, Jordan and Damascus, Syria. Saturday's flight would have been
the nation's first international commercial flight since 1990, when U.N.
sanctions were imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
The airline remains grounded, unable to secure airspace permission from
the U.S.-led coalition.
(Agencies) |
上星期的一天，盧馬·安瓦爾和她的母親凌晨3點就來到了護照申領辦公室。
這還不夠早。她們排了12個小時的隊后，前面的隊伍還是很長。
這已經是安瓦爾母女第三次申請為安瓦爾辦理護照了。安瓦爾打算先開車去安曼（約旦首都），然后再飛往底特律去見她的未婚夫。但是要想拿到護照，她還得再排隊等一天。
24歲的安瓦爾說：“如果能拿到護照的話，我就是世界上最幸福的女人了。”
薩達姆·侯賽因政權倒臺后，獲得（出境）旅游的權利成為伊拉克人最向往的自由之一。
在薩達姆政權統治時期，申請旅游護照需要長達一年的時間，而且絕大多數情況下只有政府官員及其家庭成員才有出國旅游的特權。
從6月22日起，普通人也可以申請護照了，到目前為止大約發放了50萬個護照。但是忙得焦頭爛額的職員仍不能滿足人們大量的需求。每天都有人排長隊，也有很多人失望而歸。
燈光點點的巴格達國際機場候機大廳裝修一新，美國公民為此花費了近3900萬美元。但是薩達姆政權倒臺一年多以來，只有一對包機使用了這個機場。即使是民用飛機在著陸時也采用躲閃策略避免地對空導彈的襲擊。
伊拉克航空公司原計劃從周六（9月18日）起恢復巴格達到約旦安曼和敘利亞大馬士革的航班。從1990年伊拉克入侵科威特，聯合國對伊拉克實行制裁以來，周六的航班是伊拉克第一次商業性質的國際航班。
然而，到目前為止，航班仍未起飛，它還沒有獲得以美國為首的聯軍批準的空中許可權。
（中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2004-09-21 10:24