Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Je dis simplement et vraiment à chaque citoyen de la France que nous sommes de tout coeur avec vous. This was a horrible distortion of human behaviour, to randomly tear apart the lives of young people innocently going about their social intercourse. It is really the mark of the ripping out of civility in our modern world and human family that such events can occur.

France is close to my heart. I had the happiest student exchange experience when I was a teenager with a family with whom I kept in touch until two years ago, when the parents died in their nineties. When I was a college student I worked as a stagiairein a bank, Société Générale - an interesting name for a bank - at the Place de l'Opéra. On 1 November last, All Saints' Day, I attended a memorial service outside Paris, on the Ouse River, where one of the bravest women of our times, Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the exiled opposition to the tyrannical regime led by Khamenei and the mullahs in Iran, has her headquarters to keep alive the flame of hope for the 85 million Iranian people. On Thursday, 29 October, at approximately 5 p.m. our time, a barrage of 64 missiles was launched against Camp Liberty - an ironical name - and 23 people were slaughtered. They were innocent civilians among approximately 2,500 people compounded in that small area, who were supposed to be under the protection of the United Nations and the United States under written guarantee that they had international refugee status before they moved on to safer places.

The memorial service was held in Paris. I was honoured to be there with Professor Alejo Vidal-Quadras, who was the Vice-President of the European Parliament for 14 years until last year and is now président de Comité international pour l'Application de la Justice, and with Haitham al-Maleh, an 85 year old courageous lawyer from Damascus in Syria who has been exiled for the last 40 years or so and directs all his energy and efforts to the freedom of his country, Syria. He explained that the tyrannical Iranian regime has 60,000 troops in Syria supporting Assad. There are approximately 250 million people in that part of the world, between Iraq, Syria, Iran and Palestine, who are suffering, as Deputy Wallace said in a gentle but powerful way. It is wrong. We are part of the human family. Where there is civility there is courtesy and graciousness. However, leaders of so-called developed countries remain remote, stand back and do not get to know the people. Haitham al-Maleh told me that there are 24 million people in Syria. We know about the 5 million who are bursting out as refugees. There are 14 million who are homeless, and we talk about our homelessness crisis. This is because tyrants have ruled that part of the world. Maryam Rajavi is the modern Mahatma Gandhi of that part of the world. She has a ten point plan with principles that would eliminate fundamentalism and introduce democracy, respect for human rights and respect for women's rights.

I entreat Members to Google Maryam Rajavi's name and look at the connections and links. One is the anthem of the survivors. Approximately 15 survivors composed a song within 12 hours of that massacre. We did not even hear about it on the news. That song is as powerful as "Riverdance" was when it exploded onto the "Eurovision Song Contest" stage. Listen to that song on YouTube and see the spirit of a nation that is prepared to sacrifice for true liberty, not the liberty we think we can get from slugging it out with armaments and money. It is the liberty of the soul and the mind and of respect for human rights. I urge Members to look up Maryam Rajavi and the link I mentioned.

Ingrid Betancourt was also at the memorial service. It was touching when 23 white doves were released into the sky. That is the human spirit we should support.

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