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Article: Oily tale: sanctions-busting.(sunken oil barge sullies Umm al-Qaiwain beaches; Iraqis suspected of causing spill with illegal oil shipment)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- January 17, 1998
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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UMM AL-QAIWAIN
LIFE was pretty relaxed for the 40,000 inhabitants of the smallest of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Umm al-Qaiwain does not have its own oil industry but the fishing is good, and tourism was set to take off. Now the statelet has all the oil it ever wants to see. Over the past week, a slick of 4,000 tonnes of fuel oil has leaked from a ruptured barge.
Skeins of noxious bunker-fuel have washed up on the hitherto unsullied beaches and clogged the emirate's picture-postcard harbour. Russian tourists, who had sought sun, sea and sand in the the chalets of the Beach Hotel, have left in droves. On the harbour-front, ...