Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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I welcome the witnesses. This is not the image of Africa we wanted or thought we were achieving. We pride ourselves in recognising the economic growth in certain countries in Africa and the development and maturity of Africa as a continent. The witnesses expose to us again the horrors and somebody used a comparison with the Ethiopian famine. The irony of that is that Ethiopia is on the doorstep. While it might beg all kinds of interesting questions about why it has come to this, Sudan has suffered an unmerciful many years of conflict. The witnesses have obviously witnessed the joy of the South Sudanese people getting their independence after a vicious war with their friends in Sudan. South Sudan has been admitted to the United Nations as a full member and now they divide and tear each other apart, so it is another human tragedy.
May I ask a few direct questions as I am not familiar with the area. South Sudan is broken from North Sudan in that Sudan comprises the north while South Sudan is in the south, the oil is somewhere in the middle and there is much border conflict between north and south. What does Sudan think of the conflict in South Sudan? Does it aid, abet, assist or open corridors? They were one people at one stage. My second question is one we do not like to raise, that of tribalism, a conflict between two former fighters for South Sudan's independence. Since they have divided it would appear they are divided on ethnic grounds. If they have divided on ethnic grounds what is the composition of the ethnicity between the Dinkas and the others? Is the ratio 50:50, is it religious or cultural or what are the differences between them that make fight such a vicious war? The reports from the region are disturbing. Ms Anne O'Mahony mentioned the viciousness and the brutality and how it is affecting workers on the ground., and the range of brutalities in which they are engaged.The brutality involves not only killing, raping but recruiting young child soldiers, all of which are very disturbing.
If anybody was looking in here, they would see many white people from Ireland speaking about aid again to Africa. Yes, we are going to provide humanitarian aid but on the political front, Africa is a mature continent. Who is carrying the burden of political responsibility for these outrages in South Sudan vis-à-vis the African Union? I understand the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, IGAD, is probably the African Union's tool. So far as we can, we will provide humanitarian aid but the who carries the political consequences? In fairness, it would seem to me that the Ethiopians are playing a rather progressive role so far as they brought the two leaders together who had not spoken since the war broke out. They have signed a new agreement but whether it will be lived up remains to be seen. The tragedy would be - the Ethiopians know this only too well - that what Ethiopia suffered and to which Irish people responded to an incredible degree in the support it gave to the Ethiopian famine, could ironically be replicated across the border from Ethiopia. The witnesses have all our support. We will raise the issue at all possible levels, with the Tánaiste, MEPs and in the European Union.