Home > Rachel Corrie: Gaza aid organisers lose contact with ship, blame sabotage

Rachel Corrie: Gaza aid organisers lose contact with ship, blame sabotage

by Open-Publishing - Friday 4 June 2010

Humanitary Wars and conflicts International

The Gaza flotilla organisers lost contact with the Gaza-bound MV Rachel Corrie today. Although the Free Gaza movement decided to pull the aid-laden cargo ship into a port to add more high profile people and journalists, the organisers said they couldn’t communicate the decision to those aboard the vessel.

“The situation is we lost contact with the boat. We assume this was sabotage by the Israelis, “ said Audrey Bomse of the Free Gaza Movement.

On Thursday, the aid-laden cargo ship, which carries 15 people including Nobel Prize winner Mairead Maguire and former UN official Denis Halliday, was about 400 kilometres from where the Israeli raid took place last Monday, killing nine activists.

In a statement released by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), Halliday said “their aim is not provocation but getting their aid cargo into Gaza”.

The former UN official also called on the UN to inspect the cargo and escort them into the exclusion zone.

Meanwhile the ship has now set course for a Saturday arrival in Gaza.

“We’re hoping communications get turned back on so we can inform them of the decision,” said Bomse of the Free Gaza Movement.

http://www.english.rfi.fr/middle-east/20100604-gaza-flotilla-organisers-lose-contact-their-ship