Israel fighting prevents protester coming home for father's funeral
Ananova 2nd April 2002
Ananova :
Israel fighting prevents protester coming home for father's funeral
A British protester injured in Bethlehem when Israeli soldiers fired
on a peace march has been stopped from flying home to attend his father's
funeral.
Kunle Ibidun, 30, from Bristol, one of four Britons
injured in the march, was said to be trapped in his hotel because a consulate
car will not be allowed to accompany him through the fighting to the airport.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said consular officials
had spent several hours in armoured vehicles outside Bethlehem, waiting
for permission to enter the town and take out any of the trapped Britons
who wanted to leave.
She said that although the issue had been raised
at civil and military levels with the Israelis, the message had not got
through to those on the ground and the vehicles had been unable to enter
the town. She added officials would keep trying to get permission.
Mr Ibidun, originally from Glasgow, was said by
his sister Billie to be devastated by news of their father's sudden death
yesterday from a stroke.
Mr Ibidun was hit by shrapnel in the chin, elbow
and arm after troops fired near the group of around 200 protesters from
the International Solidarity Movement as they made their way from Bethlehem
to the nearby town of Beit Jala.
His sister said that he had been through a terrifying
experience which had left him shocked, but that his priority now was to
get home and be with his family.
She said: "He is just really devastated about what
has happened in our family and desperate to come home. He said he is very
glad that he went out and that he will be going back but at the moment
he is just thinking about coming home to be with the rest of us and to
help me organise the funeral."
Miss Ibidun said that her father James, 60, from
Manchester, had been proud of his son and what he was doing and called
on the authorities in Israel to allow their family to be together.
She said: "It is not humane. People there know what
loss is like. My brother needs to be home. He needs to bury his father."
Story filed: 17:25 Tuesday 2nd April 2002
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