Thursday August 16, 2007
Australian Defense Department boycotts Air New Zealand over Iraq
WELLINGTON (AP) - Australia's Defence Department said Thursday it would not use New Zealand's national airline after a row erupted following a revelation that Air New Zealand had been used to carry Australian troops part of the way to Iraq.
New Zealand Cabinet ministers blamed the country's foreign affairs and defence officials for failing to alert them that Air New Zealand was chartered twice in June to fly Australian troops, some headed for Iraq, to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
New Zealand staunchly opposes the Iraq war and has refused to send troops to fight it, although it did send about 100 engineers for one year to aid reconstruction in the south of the country.
Australian company Strategic Aviation had been contracted to take the troops to Iraq. But because of maintenance on one of its planes scheduled for June, the company chartered Air New Zealand to make the flights.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said he was not aware of the flights until Wednesday, even though Air New Zealand had asked Foreign Ministry officials in mid-January about the foreign policy implications of the Australian troop charters planned for June.
"A mistake was made here,'' Peters said, adding that he and other Cabinet ministers should have been given a "heads-up'' in January.
The Australian government responded Thursday by barring the airline from any future Defense Department business anywhere in the world.
"In light of this controversy, the Australian Defense Force will no longer use Air New Zealand in any circumstances,'' Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.
"We'll find plenty of aircraft in the world to charter. I'm quite relaxed about it,'' he added.
Australia said it would ban its 50,000 defence personnel from flying Air New Zealand's scheduled and chartered flights.
Strategic Aviation executive director Michael James said New Zealand had overreacted, adding that most of the troops went to Afghanistan.
"At the end of the day, it was a commercial decision,'' James said.
The Australian Defence Department refused to disclose details about troops on the flights.
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