BAGHDAD -Iraq on Monday said it was closing the southern Basra airport after stringent security measures imposed by British forces led to a strike by airport employees. “We are closing the airport because the excessive security measures of the British who do not care even for Iraqi people working in the airport,” Iraqi Transport Minister Salam Al Maliki told reporters.The Basra airport was paralysed since Sunday after the local employees went on strike leading to cancellation of flights on Monday. The employees of Iraqi Airways, who are responsible for handling passenger luggage, did not report to work since Sunday following which two scheduled international flights and one flight from Baghdad to Basra were cancelled Monday. There were no flights scheduled on Sunday.
The British forces are responsible for the overall security of the airport, a crucial commercial link for IraqÂ’s southern region with passenger flights coming from Amman and Dubai to Basra.
British military spokesman Major Peter Cripps confirmed that the workers were on strike since Sunday. He said the employees held a peaceful demonstration on Sunday morning and since then have been absent from work. But he said the airport was open. “The airport is open as military flights are arriving. It is the commercial civil flights that have been affected,” he said.
Cripps, however, maintained that the security measures are just ”to make Basra a truly international airport like Heathrow.”
“The minister is hearing the voice of the southern people but he does not realise that the strike affects the economy of those very people of the south.”
The order to close the airport is the latest example of confrontation between Iraqi and British authorities. Relations between the British forces and the southern Iraqi police have deteriorated in the past few months after the troops detained a group of policemen for alleged corruption.