Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for affording me an opportunity to raise this important issue. On 18 April 1980, Privates Thomas Barrett and Derek Smallhorne were killed while on peacekeeping duties with the Irish Army as part of a UNIFIL mission in south Lebanon. They were murdered near the village of At-Tiri and their colleague, Private John O'Mahony, was seriously injured.

I raise this matter today lest we forget, and in so doing, I acknowledge this is a matter that has been raised previously by many colleagues across the various political parties in this House. Perhaps more important, I raise it because I believe we are now moving significantly towards an endgame in respect of the quest for justice for Privates Thomas Barrett and Derek Smallhorne.

The chief suspect in this double murder is a Mr. Mahmoud Bazzi, who fled south Lebanon in 1994 and lived illegally in the United States up to relatively recent days, when he was deported from the United States and detained in Beirut on his return to Lebanon. In raising this, I appreciate that Lebanon is a separate jurisdiction with its own rule of law and its own judicial system. However, I think it absolutely imperative at this juncture that the State does not relent in the campaign that successive Governments have waged in an effort to deliver justice for Privates Thomas Barrett and Derek Smallhorne.

I know that as recently as June last, when the Taoiseach was in south Lebanon, he raised this issue with the Lebanese authorities. Our diplomatic service in the United States was very active with the US authorities in bringing to their attention to this issue and in successfully concluding the deportation of Mr. Bazzi on the basis that he was illegally resident in the US. What is crucially important is that we do not relent in any way in terms of the effort we put into this. I would specifically urge the Minister of State, Deputy Paul Kehoe, and the Department of Defence to take a cross-departmental approach to this. I initially tabled this as an issue for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade but I accept there is a dual jurisdiction here, and it is an issue of national importance. All diplomatic channels must be used in a co-ordinated fashion. In particular, we need to be in contact with the Lebanese ambassador in London, HE Inaam Osseiran, to ensure we do not let up in any way in the quest for justice for these two Irish soldiers who were murdered.

That is the primary reason I raise the matter. Lest we be in any doubt that this is still a volatile region, only two weeks ago a private in the Spanish army, who was serving on a UNIFIL peacekeeping mission in south Lebanon, was murdered. I am concerned that there is a crossover between the rule of law and politics in these regions. I see some speculation in newspaper coverage of this issue in recent days, given the deportation of Mr. Mahmoud Bazzi, that covert deals may be being done because of Israeli support for the South Lebanese Army militia, which attacked the Irish peacekeeping force nearly 35 years ago, when Privates Thomas Barrett and Derek Smallhorne were murdered. It is imperative that we keep up the pressure. As we enter the endgame on this issue, I ask that the Department of Defence, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and every instrument of Government available through the diplomatic service in particular and our contacts at all political levels are used to ensure that these two families at last get justice for their loved ones.

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