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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Russian PM Urges Sudan to Free Helicopter Crew

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov urged Monday the Sudanese authorities to immediately release a Russian transport helicopter and its crew being seized by them since July 21.


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Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov urged Monday the Sudanese authorities to immediately release a Russian transport helicopter and its crew being seized by them since July 21.

During a telephone conversation with his Sudanese counterpart Mustafa Osman Ismail, Ivanov expressed his serious concern about the detention of the Russian helicopter crew in Khartoum, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said.

Ivanov expressed the hope that the Sudanese authorities will doeverything possible for immediate release of the Russian crew and the helicopter, and allow them to fly to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Sudanese foreign minister said this request will receive the most serious attention in the spirit of friendly relations between the two countries, Yakovenko noted.

The telephone talks between Ivanov and Ismail came after Russian Foreign Ministry again summoned Sudan's charge d'affaires to its headquarters and announced the protest, demanding the immediate release of the Mi-26T helicopter and its crew earlier onMonday.

The ministry last Thursday summoned a senior Sudanese diplomat to its headquarters for the first time since the detention occurred last Monday.

Russia "insists that the crew be immediately freed so it can fly to the point of destination and fulfill its contract with the UN," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying on Monday.

The detention of the helicopter and its crew "is absolutely inexplicable. We cannot receive any coherent explanations," he noted.

He expressed hope that the Sudanese authorities "will draw proper conclusions and not allow the incident to spoil Russian-Sudanese relations".

The helicopter on a UN humanitarian mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo was detained by Sudanese military authorities inthe city of al-Fasher last Monday, according to the Russian company that owns the helicopter.

The Sudanese military authorities claimed the helicopter was performing a military mission and that a permit to fly through Sudan had not been obtained with observance of the established procedure.

The Sudan last Friday released the crew and sent it to the country's capital of Khartoum, but is still holding the crew in custody.


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