ITALIAN FILM MAKER JEAN-MARIE BENJAMIN ARRIVES IN IRAQ, 2000 (photo)

Italian film maker Jean-Marie Benjamin climbs out of an Italian-made B-86 aircraft upon arrival in Baghdad April 3 in violation of sanctions on Iraq. The direct flight from the Jordanian capital Amman to Iraq landed at Baghdad airport, breaking the 10-year-old U.N. embargo on flights to Iraq, witnesses said. Aboard the aircraft were European Parliament member Vittorio Sgardi, French Catholic priest and filmmaker Jean-Marie Benjamin, who is also secretary general of Deato Angelico Foundation, Italian Nicola Grauso and Massimo Santo Paolo, an Italian journalist. They said in a statement they did not ask the United Nations for authorisation. Their aim was to defy the stringent sanctions imposed on Baghdad by the U.N. in 1990, when Iraq invaded its neighbour Kuwait. The sanctions ban international flights from and into Iraq. FK/JDP