Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)

The Minister of State, Deputy Costello, said that the Government is monitoring human rights abuses in Africa. Perhaps he will comment on the UN human rights group report on Libya which refers to 8,000 prisoners being held without trial, deaths in detention, ethnic cleansing in Tawergha - a town of 30,000 mainly black Libyans - violent persecution of sub-Saharan Africans and Libya being in the grip of lawless warlords and armed conflict between militia. When the intervention commenced, 2,000 civilians had been killed. The current figure in this regard is estimated to be 30,000. NATO moved in and Sarkozy was driving the agenda so as to re-establish his position for re-election. NATO has since pulled out, resulting in Libya becoming a disaster zone.

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