‘New danger’ in hijacking

Press, 2 July 1985, Page 8

‘New danger’ in hijacking

The hijacking of the T.W.A. jet is the eighth aircraft hijacking to be perpetrated by Lebanese Shi’ite terrorists, but it involves a dangerous new element: for the first time, a Government Minister — Mr Nabih Berri, the Minister of Justice in the Lebanese Government — is directly involved, according to the Israeli Embassy in Wellington.

The Lebanese Government thus not only failed to take action against the hijackers on board the aircraft, but allowed Beirut to serve as an operational

headquarters and a haven for the hijackers with a Government Minister personally in charge of these operations during much of the time, the embassy said.

Two additional countries directly involved in the hijacking were Syria, which wields effective control in Lebanon and has given direct support of various kinds to the hijackers, and Algeria on whose territory the plane was landed twice without the Algerian authorities making any attempt to detain the hijackers and the plane, said the

Israeli Embassy. These three states . — Lebanon, Syria and Algeria — were thus in direct violation of their undertakings, in the 1963 Tokyo Convention, the 1970 Hague Convention and the 1971 Montreal Convention to prosecute and extradite hijackers.

Similar offences had been committed in the past, by these and’other states (notably Libya and Iran), in aiding and abetting hijackers and other terrorists in the course of such operations, as well as preceding and following them, said the embassy.