Serle IMO, US/Britain have different objection...Among few it is naive
view of even-handiness with Middle-East...
Middle East
Gulf Arabs aid Kosovo
refugees
UAE servicemen are helping with the humanitarian airlift in Albania
By Frank Gardner in Dubai
In the latest tragedy to beset the
Balkans, there is little doubt where
the sympathies of the Gulf Arab
states lie. Watching the sufferings of
their fellow Muslim Kosovars on television, Gulf Arabs
have rushed to send donations through local Islamic
charities.
In Saudi Arabia, a country still in the grips of an
economic downturn, citizens have donated more than
$20m in cash as well as food and medical supplies.
Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) have all sent plane
loads of aid while the Saudi Red
Crescent Organisation has appealed
to hospitals for medical volunteers.
The UAE has also sent a mobile
medical team to the region to treat
exhausted Kosovo refugees, using
mobile clinics equipped with X-rays.
The head of the UAE's mission in Albania said that work
was beginning on renovating a disused Albanian airport
so it could take planes carrying up to 15 tons of
supplies.
The Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Conference has
been urging its 55 member states to increase their
humanitarian support for the refugees.
Anger at Serb attacks
So far, all the public
assistance to Kosovo
Albanians in the Gulf has
been strictly humanitarian.
But many here in the Gulf are
dismayed and angered by
the continued attacks on
Muslim civilians by Serb
forces.
When the Nato attacks on
Yugoslavia began a month
ago, they were roundly
praised by some of the local
Gulf press.
As the Kosovo refugees continue to suffer, many here
would now welcome an intervention on the ground.
But with the US and Britain already seen by some as
the aggressors in Iraq, there is also a reluctance to
support a unilateral Western action that would lack the
backing of the UN. |
