Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

I appreciate the Minister raising it with the United States embassy but I also asked about the degree to which he is satisfied with the response and where we go from here on this issue. Apart from the convention banning the use of chemical weapons, there are clear breaches of international law, including breaches of the protocol to the Geneva Convention regarding the protection of civilians. Will the Department follow up that matter? In regard to Protocol III of the 1980 United Nations Convention on Certain Weapons, which is a more general convention, it is frankly unacceptable that one can say there were 300,000 civilians, we asked them to leave, 30,000 remained and therefore we broke international law straightforwardly in using these horrific weapons against a population that was overwhelmingly civilian. The final part of my question concerned the satisfaction or otherwise of the Minister, his Department and the Government with the reply they got and whether they intend, for example, to pursue the issue of other clear breaches of international law, specifically the Geneva Convention and the protection of civilians.

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