LIBYA COMMITTEE: PROCEDURE FOR HAJ PILGRIMAGE FLIGHTS

8 February 1999

Press Release
SC/6639

LIBYA COMMITTEE: PROCEDURE FOR HAJ PILGRIMAGE FLIGHTS

19990208 Following is the text of the statement issued today by the Chairman of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 748 (1992) concerning the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, on behalf of the members of the Committee:

In line with its previous practice, and in accordance with paragraph 19 of its "New Consolidated Guidelines of the Committee for the Conduct of its Work" (S/AC.28/1994/CRP.2/Rev.3, 16 February 1994), the Committee will continue to apply a "no objection" procedure, on a case-by-case basis, for the pilgrimage flights to and from Saudi Arabia (same procedure applies for other humanitarian flights).

Annual Haj pilgrimage could be considered as a case.

The Committee could therefore approve flights for a given annual Haj pilgrimage in advance, for a specified:

-- period of time (Haj season);

-- number of flights (dependent on number of pilgrims);

-- destinations (to Tripoli and Benghazi and on to Jeddah and back).

The Committee would approve these flights with the following conditions:

(i) the Government where the air-carrier is based will communicate to the Committee, in advance the exact schedule, routing and aircraft registration number for each flight; (ii) all flights shall be direct, non-stop between the authorized destinations; (iii) none of the aircraft shall be owned by, leased from or controlled by Libya or any Libyan entity; (iv) neither the Government or public authorities of Libya nor any Libyan undertaking shall, directly or indirectly, benefit financially from such flights, pursuant to paragraphs 3 (a) and (b) of Security Council resolution 883 (1993); and (v) pursuant to the Guidelines approved by the Committee, the aircraft must be inspected to ensure that they are operating exclusively for the declared humanitarian purposes and in accordance with the relevant provisions of Security Council resolution 748 (1992). Accordingly, these inspections will be

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effected with the participation of the competent authorities of the Government concerned and/or United Nations officials at :

-- airport (home airport of air-carrier) immediately before departure to Libya;

-- at Tripoli, Benghazi and Jeddah, on both the inbound and outbound flights; and,

-- at airport (home airport) upon return from Libya.

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