Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 19:

In page 39, to delete line 34 and substitute the following:

“(a) stop a person at the airport for the exercise of any of his or her powers under this section;”.

We have five amendments together here. They are generally aimed. We have been at pains to highlight several issues at Shannon in recent years and we have been rather disappointed at the Government's inaction despite the glaringly obvious when it comes to the Americans' use of Shannon for purposes that do not always meet international law obligations.

The Bill going through the House, soon to be passed, does not really address the problem of the US military use of Shannon. We are concerned that it is more designed to making it easier to curtail protests at the airport rather than ensure that the country fulfils its international obligations. These include the need to check the aeroplanes coming through Shannon because we are facilitating some very poor practice on behalf of the Americans. It has reached a stage where Shannon is practically an outpost for US military activity in the Middle East and beyond.

I will read an extract from a pamphlet by Shannonwatch produced by Mr. John Lannon. He addressed the issue of international and humanitarian law in respect of Shannon. He states:

The protection of civilians from the effects of armed conflict is a long-standing and important branch of international law, known as international humanitarian law (IHL). IHL is best known through the Geneva Conventions. These comprise four treaties and three additional protocols, and they set the standards in international law for humanitarian treatment of the victims of war. In addition, the Hague Convention (IV) 1907 represents commonly accepted rules of engagement that outline the means and methods of warfare. These conventions are binding on all states as international customary law. The 1907 Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention, plus certain provisions of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, spell out the duties of an occupying power. The Fourth Geneva Convention sets rules intended to protect civilians in times of war and to minimize the harm inflicted by armed conflict, including harm to internees and the population in occupied territories. According to many scholars, the Fourth Geneva Convention is considered to be international customary law, which all states should abide by regardless of their status as a State party to the convention. The killing and harming of innocent civilians by the US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are in violation of the Fourth and Third Geneva Conventions. Furthermore Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits forcible transfer of protected civilians from occupied territory, and as a result extraordinary renditions from Afghanistan and Iraq are grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. Shannon Airport has played a part in these violations for many years. International humanitarian law also contains basic principles and rules governing the weapons used in war. It prohibits or restricts the employment of certain weapons, means and methods of warfare. Combatants are prohibited from using weapons that are inherently indiscriminate or are of a nature to inflict suffering greater than that required to take combatants “out of action”. The use of weapons that cause widespread, long term and severe damage to the natural environment is also prohibited.

Specific treaties prohibit or restrict the use of certain weapons. These include biological, chemical, blinding laser or incendiary weapons or bullets which explode or flatten easily in the human body. There are reasonable grounds for believing that some of these may pass through Shannon Airport.

The Minister probably does not need me to tell him that most of the people who have died in Iraq in the past 25 years did not die of bombs landing on their heads but of the after-effects of the bombing of their areas. More than 500,000 innocent people who played no act or part in any aggression towards America have died because of the types of weapon used by it in Iraq.

War crimes are serious violations by a country, its civilians or its military personnel of international humanitarian law. The idea is that an individual can be held responsible for the actions of a country or that nation's soldiers. War crimes are divided into two broad categories. First, crimes against peace, which include the planning, preparation and initiation of a war of aggression. Second, crimes against humanity are violations of the rules covering the means and manner by which war is to be conducted once begun and include the killing of civilians, indiscriminate bombing, the use of certain types of weapon, the killing of defenceless soldiers, ill treatment of prisoners of war and attacks on non-military targets.

Under the principle of universal jurisdiction, Ireland may investigate and prosecute foreign nationals when, for one reason or another, their countries of residence or origin will not, cannot or have not. As many of the people suspected of perpetrating war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and the occupied Palestinian territories use Shannon Airport, they could and should be arrested by the Irish authorities. Ireland has given the Americans carte blancheto use Shannon as they see fit. We do not seem to care about the end result or how many people, including civilians, die in the name of the American mission to bring democracy to the world, stability to the Middle East, or whatever they call it. All we know is that the effects have been detrimental to world peace. For a country like Ireland to take a position of neutrality would be a step towards that world peace.

This week, the living daylights have been bombed out of the Gaza Strip again, because Israel can do that. I beg to differ with anyone who believes that these actions are measured and fair. A spokesman for the Israeli authorities appeared on RTE's "Morning Ireland" today and told us that there was no blockade of Gaza. We all know there is.

What happens in the name of policing the world, which the US likes to do, is unfortunate. That we are complicit is also unfortunate. We are not innocent bystanders. We facilitate mass murder by the American war machine. The US does that for different reasons. Running for President of the US costs at least €1 billion. If most of that money comes from the arms and oil industries, one cannot possibly expect him or her to cut back on defence spending or adopt a serious approach to tackling international environmental problems. This is unfortunate.

We cannot control what America does, but we can speak out against it, call a spade a spade and address the fact that its behaviour is often disappointing. The favourite method under President Obama is the use of drones. Countless women and children have been killed by drones that are being used to take out someone in a village. The US seems to believe this is okay. The person being taken out does not even get the chance of a trial. Often, we do not even know what he or she is guilty of doing.

Given the Americans' financial power, their foreign direct investment in Ireland and their creation of jobs, we seem to believe that we cannot hold them to account for their military use of Shannon. That is not right. The companies investing in Ireland are making good money and we charge them very little tax for doing so. They would not up and leave if we started to take a responsible position on Shannon.

This morning, Margaretta D'Arcy returned to Limerick Prison in a Garda car. She will be there for two weeks because she had the courage to highlight how all is not well in how we behave in respect of Shannon. The judges at Nuremburg were direct and accurate when they stated: "Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring." This is what Ms D'Arcy did. One might say that she is not allowed on the runway and should not be out there, but it is sad that it takes a 79 year old woman in poor health to draw attention to the fact that the Government does not take responsibility for Shannon. We are allowing the airport to be used by the US military for poor reasons.

For the life of me, I do not understand why any of our recent Governments, including the current one, did not have the courage to check the aeroplanes to verify they were in compliance with international law. We would not be shooting Americans or calling them liars. They might say we can take their word that there is no need to check the aeroplanes and that everything is grand, but we would not apply that rule to anyone else. If a garda at a checkpoint stops a car and suspects there may be drugs in the boot, he or she would not just accept the driver's word that there was nothing there and wave him or her on, but that is what we are doing at Shannon Airport.

It would improve Ireland's standing in international terms if we had the courage to say that from now on we will check the planes to make sure that everything is being done properly and that international law is being complied with. That is not such a bad thing to do. If the Americans say that everything is fine and that they are not breaking the law, that is fine too and they will not be guilty of anything if everything is grand. I do not know why the Americans would be worried about it. Why would we be worried about checking them?

WikiLeaks exposed the fact that a Fianna Fáil Government was complicit a number of years ago in this whole affair and it was pretty obvious that neither the Army nor the Garda was allowed to check the planes because they did not want to see what they might find. They were being informed that there was a very good chance that extraordinary renditions, which are illegal, were happening. They could have checked the planes to see if this was happening but, no, they did not want the answers. Since then, the Garda has always refused, despite the evidence at the time, to check the planes. It appears as if an instruction was given, even though it will not be confirmed. Despite asking the former Minister for Justice and Equality and the Minister for Foreign Affairs on numerous occasions, was an instruction given at any stage to our police authorities not to inspect planes that land in Shannon that could be used for illegal US military purposes that contravened international law, we were never given an answer to that. It is very disappointing that no progress has been made on it. Different people in opposition, including the former Tánaiste, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, were very adamant that the planes should be checked and that this was not good enough, but when he went into power his view was that the Americans say that everything is grand so everything is grand. Everything was not grand when he was in opposition but it was grand when he was in power. That is one of the reason politicians in this country are lowest of the lowest in terms of public perception. We are probably lower than the failed builders and developers and that is saying something.

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