KIGALI, Sept. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- The Rwandan based Silverback Cargo Freighters, which was blacklisted by Belgium and prohibited from using airports in the European country, has threatened to sue the Belgian government, an official said here Friday.

"We have instructed our company lawyer to study the merits of the case and notify them of our intentions to sue for damages. Silverback has all along complied with the requisite aviation standards and paper work," the managing director of Silverback, Innocent Mupenzi, said.

France, Belgium and Switzerland this week issued blacklists of airlines barred from using their airports, a move derided by European media as not going far enough to address aviation safety.

The privately owned Rwandan airline, which has two cargo planes,appeared on the Belgian blacklist of seven African and two European airlines on Monday, in the wake of recent air crashes that killed over 300 people in a month. However, Silverback didn't appear in the French nor Swiss list.

"It is... very unfair. We have flown several times to Brussels.We have flown more than fifty times to France and we have not had any technical problems whatsoever," Mupenzi added. Enditem

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-09/03/content_3434003.htm