Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

We would all agree with the sentiments of the Tánaiste in welcoming the democratic revolutions that are sweeping across the Arab world in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Jordan, and which are beginning to impact in other states also. They are to be welcomed because for the most part those regimes were brutal dictatorships that engaged in the systematic denial of the most basic democracy and civil rights to their citizens, and using torture against political opponents and dissidents as a matter of course. To see those revolutions take place, and ordinary people demanding democracy and succeeding in overthrowing dictators, is truly inspiring.

I do not agree with the Tánaiste, however, that the response of the major western powers or the current military intervention in Libya is in any way motivated by genuine concern for the ordinary people of Libya or any of the other countries in the Arab world or by genuine support for those democratic revolutions. The contrary is the case. This military intervention is a cynical manoeuvre by western powers to shore up their strategic interests in a region where the regimes they have colluded with for decades in Libya and in the other despotic states in the Arab world are coming under threat. They are desperately trying to control the situation and secure their strategic interests.

While it is perfectly understandable that desperate Libyans faced with the brutality of the Gadaffi regime would look anywhere they can for assistance, this military intervention will not work to the benefit of ordinary Libyan people because it is not motivated by an attempt to help those people. One only has to look at the lead players in this assault to see that that is clear. It defies any sort of credibility for Italy, France and the United Kingdom to suggest that they are intervening in Libya because of a concern to protect the Libyan people from the brutality of Gadaffi when they have worked hand in glove with Gadaffi for years.

The biggest sellers of arms to the Libyan regime are those very states - Italy, France and Britain. Hundreds of millions of arms have been sold to Gadaffi which he is now using against his own population. These European states were more than happy with the profits bonanza to sell the weapons Gadaffi has used against his own people for decades, and is continuing to do so. How can those states have any credibility? Is it not the case that they are moving to intervene in that region because these countries have oil deals with Libya and major oil interests in Libya ?

Ireland has some questions to answer in that regard. We have had oil arrangements with Libya. I understand 23% of our oil comes from Libya. I do not expect the Minister to be able to give immediate answers to this but I would like the Government to look into the contracts we had with the Gadaffi regime, and the other trade arrangements and contacts we have with the Libyan regime, because I believe we will find many connections between business and Government in this State and the Gadaffi dictatorship.

The evidence of the double standards of those involved in the military intervention in Libya extend across the region. Those states that are now bombing Libya did nothing to support the democratic movements in Tunisia and Egypt when they first erupted. The United States in particular could not bring itself to call for the overthrow of the Mubarak regime until it was effectively an accomplished fact as millions of Egyptians took to the streets and forced Mubarak out. It was only at the last moment that the United States could bring itself to support the call to overthrow Mubarak. There should be no confusion as to the reason the United States was so mixed in its feelings about the movements to overthrow Mubarak; it was the major arms supplier and financial supporter to the Mubarak regime.

Where the double standards in all of this process are most apparent is in terms of what is happening in Bahrain currently and in the despotic nature of the Saudi, United Arab Emirates and Kuwaiti regimes. They are brutal dictatorships that we are still arming and financing. David Cameron, whose forces are involved in this attack on Libya, met with leading figures in the Saudi regime in recent days. Why are they not screaming from the rooftops about the brutality being meted out by the Bahraini regime, with the assistance of the regimes of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in crushing the democratic revolt in Bahrain? The west says nothing about it and continues to maintain normal economic and political relationships with these dictatorships. How can we seriously give credence to the benign intentions of the western powers in view of their cynical record of collaboration with brutal dictatorships in that region?

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