LAW COMMISSIONER and President of Ethnopad, the National Organisation for the Protection of Human Rights, Leda Koursoumba yesterday warned of the fine line between terrorist fears and racism after two Pakistani men were kicked off a Larnaca-Manchester flight last week.
For the third time in 12 months, passenger fears resulted in Muslim or Asian travellers being left behind in Cyprus when one of two Pakistanis on an Excel Airways flight was reported to be behaving suspiciously.
He had spent around 10 minutes in the toilet before take-off, prompting terrorist fears amongst the flight’s 228 British passengers. The pilot, after consulting with the authorities decided it was in the interests of the flight’s safety that they be removed. The plane was grounded until it was cleared and the two men were questioned and later released.
Last September, a Cyprus Airways (CY) flight to Moscow was delayed for over two hours when Russian passengers refused to fly with what they described as “a suspect-looking” fellow passenger who was “dark skinned”.
CY staff told the passengers they could not offload the man just because someone didn’t like his looks, but some passengers began searching his bags irrespective and in the end the pilot ordered everyone and their baggage off the plane for checks. The Russian passengers were still not satisfied and CY had no option but to offload the suspect.
Earlier the same month, a Canadian citizen was left behind at Larnaca airport after an Aeroflot crew member said he looked like a Chechen.
“Because you see someone with dark skin, it does not mean he is a criminal,” said Koursoumba. Commenting on the Excel incident, she said her position would depend on what the airline and the authorities were actually faced with at the time. “But this is a prime example of xenophobia and racism, provided there was no other evidence to make the assumption,” she said.
“Certainly you have to be careful because of terrorists attacks, and it is a great responsibility to go ahead with a flight if there is suspicion someone might be a terrorist. On the other hand there is this generalisation (that all Muslims are terrorists).”
Koursoumba said this attitude, which was particularly strong amongst Britons and Americans, was a product of terrorism and also of anti-terrorism measures taken worldwide. “The British and Americans are much more racist in this respect because they are more afraid due to the fact that it has happened to them,” said Koursoumba.
“It’s the times we live in. Human rights and liberties are something people have gained after struggles for centuries and now people are prepared to give them up or have them compromised because they are afraid of terrorism.”
Koursoumba said when human rights activists nowadays attempted to raise awareness of liberties at threat from new security measures, most notably in the US, the standard response was that the suspects are terrorists.
“This is in fact a flagrant violation of human rights where people are supposedly innocent until proved guilty by a court of law,” she said. “This only leads to a presumption of guilt. We’ve reached this anomaly where instead of having the people behind you in advocating for these rights, you have them almost against you because they are so afraid of terrorism.”
Cyprus Airways spokesman Tassos Angelis said that when faced with passengers’ terrorism fears, the final decision rested with the pilot, but he would also consult with the authorities and the company.
“A pilot will never take a decision to go ahead with a flight if passengers are panicking about something. He would never take a decision that would jeopardise the safety of the flight,” Angelis said.
A spokeswoman at British Airways echoed the CY spokesman.
Angelis agreed that the threat of terrorism had increased the frequency of such incidents, which were based on passengers’ fears. “People are suspicious of everyone around them,” he said.
Angelis said CY had not experienced any such incidents involving Cypriot passengers. He said last year’s incident involved scared Russian passengers, and that the Cypriots on the plane had not caused any fuss.
A Nicosia-based political analyst said yesterday this was perhaps because Cypriots had remained relatively untouched by terrorism. “People here seem to believe Cyprus is immune to terrorism,” he said.
