Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

On Friday last I met Mr. Hussein Hamed Buhidma and a colleague of his, Mr. Adam Argaig, in Buswells Hotel. Mr. Buhidma ran as a candidate in the Dublin South constituency in the recent general election. He was born in Libya but moved to this country in 1983. Since then, he has raised a family here. He is extremely grateful for the welcome and support he received from Ireland and her people when he arrived here. I got to know Mr. Buhidma because with a week to go to polling day, I decided to telephone the Independent candidates in Dublin South to wish them well and salute them for being courageous enough to put their names forward for consideration. When I telephoned Mr. Buhidma, he informed me that his brother in Benghazi had been killed by anti-aircraft fire. That brought home to me, in a very real sense, what I had been reading about in the newspapers. I found it difficult to comprehend that the brother of a fellow candidate in the general election had been shot and killed in Benghazi.

At that time a number of people said to me that it was a shame that Ireland, whose people enjoy democracy and huge freedoms - relatively speaking - sometimes hesitates in respect of those in other countries who are struggling to survive in the face of tyranny and despotism. In the days following my telephone call to Mr. Buhidma, I discovered a number of facts about Libya of which I was not previously aware. For example, after the Second World War it took some years for Libya to be established under a constitution. The constitutional model lasted from 1951 to 1969, when Colonel Gadaffi stole power from the Libyan people. He has held them in a vice grip of fear and subjugation ever since.

When we were having a cup of tea together on Friday last, Mr. Hussein Hamed Buhidma asked me to bring to the attention of the Dáil the plight of the people of Libya. He specifically requested that we express our encouragement as overtly and strongly as possible. I am of the view that his request was reasonable. On Monday last, I met Dr. Ibrahim El Sherif and his friend, Mr. Mohamed El-Hagagi, who are both also from Libya. Dr. El Sherif is a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and also at the Beacon Clinic in Dublin. He has been in Ireland for 20 years and he and his Libyan friends have come together to express their solidarity with the people of their home country in their moment of need. Totally independently of Mr. Hamed, he contacted me and asked if we could lend our voice to that of their people. He explained that Libya has a total of almost 7 million people, something I did not know. Its population is spread in two main directions, from Tripoli to the west to Benghazi to the east and across other towns and cities in between. Those who have expressed the desire for liberation are in towns under the control of the National Council. They were on the point of being obliterated when the United Nations stepped in with the no-fly zone resolution.

It is to the credit of France that it took the lead in this regard. It was explained to me how Muammar Gadaffi extends his vice-like grip of fear. His army is about half mercenary and half native Libyans. The native Libyans are controlled by Gadaffi, who has a hostage mentality. He keeps the families of the people who head up the administration and the army in compounds under a very strict grip of fear. We do not get a clear picture of what support he has, even in the normal understanding of support. The situation is similar to a tiger kidnapping. It is ugly and unacceptable.

I will read an e-mail I received from Mr. Hussein Hamed following our meeting on Friday. He said:

Dear Mr. Mathews, I would like to express my gratitude towards you for giving me and my colleague, Adam Argaig, the time to speak to you about Libya and what is going on there last Friday. We, the Libyan people in Ireland, would like to thank you and your Government in relation to your stand regarding the UN Resolution 1973.

I watched His Excellency An Taoiseach, Mr. Enda Kenny, in the "Oireachtas Report" on RTE and noted his statement, "Gadaffi and his family should surrender power and allow the Libyans to peacefully determine their own shared future". I have told you that the Gadaffi regime has lost any legitimacy of representing the Libyan people. The United Nations, the Arab Union and many heads of states around the world stated, either by statement or decisions, that this regime lost the legitimacy to represent the Libyan people.

Mr. Mathews, thank you for your great support that I felt when speaking to you last Friday. I wish you every success. Thank you for your time.

I read that letter because it comes from an individual who is hugely appreciative of all that Ireland has given him and his family. He was touched to emotion and had to pause to compose himself. He said Ireland is one of these great places that can add a huge and magnified voice to the Libyan people's deep desire to put in place, after the removal of Gadaffi, the democracy we all desire.

He went further and explained, in case we had worries or doubts about the make-up of Libya, that Islam is the religion of the entire nation. Libya does not have the problem of degrees or sub-parts of Islam. Islam is a blanket faith that sits comfortably across the entire nation, west and east. After the birth pains of the new democracy, there will be one less complication as a result of traditions. There are tribal elements but they are not so fundamental or deep rooted as to cause a problem. With regard to policing, if Gadaffi has to be forcefully removed there will be a respect for the police force because it is not so endemically contaminated as to present a problem, as happened in other countries under military occupation.

There is much to be positive about. This is an opportunity for the Irish people and Parliament to express unanimously, enthusiastically and encouragingly our support for the Libyan people.

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