Comorans gather to show anger and sadness at Yemeni jet crash

(30 Jun 2009)
1. Pan of people in prayer room in Paris suburb La Courneuve
2. Various of Comorans reading passengers' list
3. Wide of of meeting
4. SOUNDBITE (French) Abdallah Mirghane, Comoros Islands ambassador to France:
"For us the most important thing is that the transport contract of people who leave Paris for the Comoros have only one transport contract, a single one. Not two different contracts, we don't have one transport contract from Paris to Yemen, and then a second transport contract from Yemen to Moroni."
5. Mid of audience
6. Comoran girls crying after finding out about the loss of friends
7. SOUNDBITE (French) Friend of crash victims, No name given:
"We just saw the list and that's it, it's over (inaudible)"
(Q: did you see their names on the list?)
"Yes."
8. Zoom into girls hugging in grief
9. Girls leaving meeting
10. Various of Comorans reciting prayer
11. Pan of Comorans outside prayer centre
12. SOUNDBITE (French), Idris, Vox pop:
"The Comoran government has known about this masquerade for ten years, ten years. Every year entire families, Comoran families go to the Comoros, stopping in San'a. They treat us like dogs, we change planes... Every year it's the same thing, every year, and they've never done anything (the Comoran government)."
13. Set up shot of La Courneuve mayor, Gilles Poux
14. SOUNDBITE (French) Gilles Poux, Mayor of La Courneuve:
"We can't accept that a plane is banned from Europe but still allowed to fly in Africa. It's the proof that our world isn't fair and that human beings don't weigh the same depending on which side of the Mediterranean they are."
15. Wide of Comorans gathered in front of prayer centre
STORYLINE:
About hundred members of the Comoran community gathered at a prayer centre in a Paris suburb to commemorate the victims of a Yemeni jetliner carrying 153 people that crashed in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday.
The plane went down as it came in for a landing on the island nation of Comoros.
Yemeni officials said a teenage girl survived.
The crash came two years after aviation officials reported faults with the plane, an Airbus 310, flying the last leg of a journey from Paris and Marseille to Comoros, with a stop in Yemen to change planes.
Most of the passengers were from Comoros, a former French colony. Sixty-six on board were French nationals.
Members of the Comoran community in La Courneuve met with local authorities and Comoran diplomats to get the latest information about the Airbus 310 crash.
The meeting ended with a prayer.
Outside the building, a large number of Comorans showed their anger against the lack of action on the part of Comoran authorities in the past years regarding flight safety.
Some French Comorans insisted that their earlier warnings about the airline's safety weren't heeded by authorities.
"The Comoran government has known about this masquerade for ten years, ten years," said one man.
"Every year it's the same thing, every year, and they've (the Comoran government) never done anything."
Stephane Salord, the Comoros' honorary consul in Marseille, called Yemenia's aircraft "flying cattle trucks."
"It's the proof that our world isn't fair and that human beings don't weigh the same depending on which side of the Mediterranean they are," said Gilles Poux, Mayor of La Courneuve.
In France, school vacations began this week and many on the plane were heading home to visit.
The head of Yemenia airline's public relations office, said a 14-year-old girl survived the crash.
And Yemen's embassy in Washington issued a statement saying a young girl survived and was taken to a hospital.
It also said five bodies were recovered.
There were earlier reports that a 5-year-old boy survived.
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