egypt pharmacists boycott u.s., uk firms over iraq
December 21, 1998
CAIRO, Reuters [WS] via NewsEdge Corporation : Egypt's Syndicate of Pharmacists said on Saturday it would temporarily boycott the products of three major American and British drug companies in a protest at U.S.-led air strikes on Iraq.
In a statement, the syndicate said it would refrain from buying medicines produced by Pfizer (PFE.N), Glaxo Wellcome (GLXO.L) and Bristol-Meyers Squib (BMY.N) because of the ''brutal U.S. aggression against the brotherly people of Iraq.''
The boycott would last throughout the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan, which begins in Egypt on Sunday, it said.
Students at several Egyptian universities demonstrated again on Saturday to condemn the air raids on Iraq and call for a boycott of U.S. products.
''Where is the United Nations? Where are human rights? Arabs Unite,'' read the banners of students in the Sadat Academy for business studies who protested outside the campus before police persuaded them to return inside.
Security sources said around 4,000 students in the Faculty of Commerce in Benha, 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Cairo, burned American and Israeli flags on their campus.
Students at the universities of Alexandria, al-Azhar and Ein Shams also rallied, demanding a firm reaction to the attack.
The United States and Britain unleashed missiles and bombs on Iraq in response to a report by U.N. chief weapons inspector Richard Butler accusing Iraq of obstructing his U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) despite renewed promises to cooperate.
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