Jordan Times
Sunday, August 22, 1999
Jordanian plane given permission to transport
students to Kiev
By Tareq Ayyoub
AMMAN – A Jordanian chartered plane carrying university students took off from Amman on Saturday and headed to the Ukrainian capital Kiev following a ban on their entry to the former Soviet republic for fear that they would join Islamic fighters in Daghestan, an aviation official said.
The Royal Wings Amman-Kiev trip came 24 hours after Armenian authorities denied departure permission to a RW plane carrying 80 Jordanian students, who were scheduled to take a transit flight from Yerevan to Kiev, Director General of Arab Wings Ahed Quntar said.
Quntar said Armenian authorities declined to give permission to the Jordanian students to take a transit flight to the Ukrainian capital. No reason for the Armenian decision was given.
“The problem is over and we received assurances from Ukrainian government that they will let these students to enter Kiev,” Quntar told the Jordan Times.
“There was a misunderstanding. These students were holding visas to enter Ukrainian territory, but they were banned for no reason,” he added.
“It seems that some people have leaked information that these students might go to fight with Islamic fighters in Daghestan, which is baseless information,” Quntar said.
Quntar said that following contacts with Ukrainian authorities, Jordanian students were allowed to travel to the Ukrainian capital.
Several hundred Jordanian students are stuying in Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics.
Fighting erupted in the Caucuses region of Daghestan when Islamic fighters crossed the border with Chechenya to fight Russian troops to claim the region as an independent Islamic republic.
Russian government dispatched troops to the region to fight against the Islamic separatists.
Fears were high that an Afghanistan-like situation could recur in Daghestan if Muslim fighters were allowed to join the fighters in their independence war against Russia.