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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
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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，卢马·安瓦尔和她的母亲凌晨3点就来到了护照申领办公室。
这还不够早。她们排了12个小时的队后，前面的队伍还是很长。
这已经是安瓦尔母女第三次申请为安瓦尔办理护照了。安瓦尔打算先开车去安曼（约旦首都），然后再飞往底特律去见她的未婚夫。但是要想拿到护照，她还得再排队等一天。
24岁的安瓦尔说：“如果能拿到护照的话，我就是世界上最幸福的女人了。”
萨达姆·侯赛因政权倒台后，获得（出境）旅游的权利成为伊拉克人最向往的自由之一。
在萨达姆政权统治时期，申请旅游护照需要长达一年的时间，而且绝大多数情况下只有政府官员及其家庭成员才有出国旅游的特权。
从6月22日起，普通人也可以申请护照了，到目前为止大约发放了50万个护照。但是忙得焦头烂额的职员仍不能满足人们大量的需求。每天都有人排长队，也有很多人失望而归。
灯光点点的巴格达国际机场候机大厅装修一新，美国公民为此花费了近3900万美元。但是萨达姆政权倒台一年多以来，只有一对包机使用了这个机场。即使是民用飞机在着陆时也采用躲闪策略避免地对空导弹的袭击。
伊拉克航空公司原计划从周六（9月18日）起恢复巴格达到约旦安曼和叙利亚大马士革的航班。从1990年伊拉克入侵科威特，联合国对伊拉克实行制裁以来，周六的航班是伊拉克第一次商业性质的国际航班。
然而，到目前为止，航班仍未起飞，它还没有获得以美国为首的联军批准的空中许可权。
（中国日报网站译） |
Updated: 2004-09-21 10:24