Air blacklist
Sir: 'Blacklist these states' August 11, was a tonic, for you very rightly took the issue of hijacking out of the context of any dispute between states or groups of states. Clearly the best answer to hijacking would be the 'World Convention' which you envisage, involving handing over hijackers for punishment by the nation whose aircraft has been attacked. But it would, to judge by the antics of the UN, seem to be impossible to secure such a World Convention — the UN Commission which was to recommend appropriate measures has now spent nine months in useless deliberations and has made it clear that it has no concrete proposals to make.
Would, perhaps, a 'European Convention' be at least a start? If a great many nations of the world are unwilling to take steps to protect their citizens, there is no reasons -why the countries of Europe shoud not do so. Of course, they cannot provide a complete answer to hijacking: but they can at least limit it to some extent., and they can consider sanctions against countries which continue to put politics before people and thus encourage violence in the air.
Terence PH ttie Travellers Club, Pall Mall, London SW I
Previous page
