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KABUL, Aug 14 (AFP)-The U.N. Security Council has given Afghanistan's Taliban-owned Ariana airlines permission to fly 135 disabled children to Germany for treatment, an aid official said Monday. Ronald Gegen Furtner, director of the German-run charity Peace Village, said Bonn had secured the Security Council's clearance for the flight to Dusseldorf. "The U.N. gave the permission late Friday," to the German foreign ministry after the charity approached them, Furtner said. "They applied to the Security Council and at last they received the permission," he said in Kabul. According to Ariana chief Mulla Hamidullah, the flight from Kabul will leave Wednesday morning with 93 disabled Afghani children aboard. It will also pick up 10 from Tajikistan, 13 from Armenia and 19 from the Georgian capital of Tiblisi. Adding that the Ariana flight would return Sunday. The Security Council banned Ariana's international flights last November as part of financial and aviations sanctions over the Taliban's refusal to hand over suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden for trial. Washington wants bin Laden for allegedly masterminding the 1998 twin U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa which killed more than 200 people. The Taliban argue their Islamic beliefs do not allow them to turn over a Muslim "holy warrior" to non-Muslims for trial. The U.N. sanctions, under which member countries cannot allow Ariana to use their airports, exclude humanitarian and religious flights, but those still require special permission. Last week, the Taliban foreign ministry criticized the U.N. and Bonn for banning Ariana's flights for disabled children to Germany from Afghanistan and some Central Asian countries. The permission received Friday is only for one flight. The charity is aiming to fly another group of young patients to Germany in February, and will likely have to again apply for permission from the Security Council. The German aid group, which is currently treating war-wounded children in different countries, has been operating in Afghanistan for 12 years, Furtner said. |
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