Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)

I am so annoyed at the response that I had to make a statement on that aspect of the issue. Does the Minister share my abhorrence at the hypocrisy of the US authorities when they lecture the world about terrorism yet have nothing to say about the 2,000 people killed and the 3,500 people maimed by terrorists based in Miami, Florida? Will the Minister call on the US Government to investigate the terrorist activities of groups infiltrated by the five Cubans known as the Miami Five with a view to ensuring there will be no repeat of these actions?

Does the Minister agree with Amnesty International that the denial of family visits is a form of torture? Will he call on the US authorities to permit Olga Salaneuva and Adriana Perez O'Connor to visit their respective husbands, Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez, who are both incarcerated in the USA? Does the Minister consider this a bilateral issue beyond his competence to address? Why was his predecessor willing to comment on another bilateral matter when 75 so-called dissidents were arrested for mercenary activities in Cuba? This is not about politics. It is a simple matter of the denial of the human rights of five prisoners. Can the Minister not bring himself to acknowledge the injustice involved and call for the wives to have permission to visit their husbands?

In May 2005, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion finding that the USA had failed to guarantee the Cuban Five a fair trial. I call on the Minister for Foreign Affairs to support the UN working group on this issue. I urge the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, to raise this case, about which many people have major concerns. The Minister and the Minister of State should support the Miami Five campaign in Ireland. We are joined in Leinster House today by Eleanor Lanigan and Simon McGuinness, who are very active on human rights issues. I ask the Minister to assert Ireland's authority as an independent, neutral country and campaign for the human and civil rights of these five people.

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