Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for choosing this matter. I hope we will be able soon to address this issue substantively at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs in the presence of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Our next meeting is a select committee one and after that we have other business. However, I hope that in a fortnight's time we might be able to accommodate a substantive discussion because many of the issues will not wait, in particular the vulnerability of children and the civilian population in the province of Vanni in northern Sri Lanka.

Many civilians have lost their lives since 2006 when the 2002 ceasefire brokered by the Norwegian Government fell apart. At least 7,000 people have been killed and more than 300,000 have been displaced. This long running conflict between the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil Tigers is one for which an incredible price has already been paid in terms of loss of life and displacement.

An immediate unconditional ceasefire is necessary, as is an acceptance by both sides that there is no military solution to the conflict and that there is a need to return to the circumstances of the 2002 agreement and ceasefire. That ceasefire was achieved on the basis of mutual respect and parity of esteem. The tragic part of all of this is that the Tamil Tigers are suggesting to their civilian population, in particular children, that they must not move out of the area which they are in. Where they have moved into government controlled areas, they have been subjected to aerial bombing and immense loss of life. Civilians are at risk and have died in the area regarded as government controlled, which is unsustainable. However, they are also at risk in the Tamil controlled areas.

Another aspect which is very worrying is that the international press does not have access to the zones of conflict. For example, organisations as different as CNN and al-Jazeera are not able to cover what is taking place. Perhaps more importantly, some time ago all humanitarian agencies other than the International Red Cross and the United Nations World Food Programme were expelled from the areas. The international community cannot see the conflict in its totality and the humanitarian agencies cannot go where they are most needed.

What is needed at this stage and the reason I appreciate the opportunity to raise this matter is for the Minister for Foreign Affairs to join with the German and the British foreign ministers to seek to have this matter addressed immediately at UN level and at EU foreign minister level to try to create circumstances where an unconditional and an open-ended ceasefire could come into being. In raising this matter, I express my gratitude to those citizens in Ireland who have addressed this issue, in particular the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka which contacted me. I hope the Minister of State will communicate with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and regard this matter as urgent so that we put an end to the loss of life and the great vulnerability of the children in question.

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