Dáil debates

Thursday, 8 March 2012

Topical Issue Debate

Foreign Conflicts

3:00 pm

Photo of Arthur SpringArthur Spring (Kerry North-West Limerick, Labour)
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I welcome the opportunity to discuss the dire situation in Syria. What is happening in that country shows the lack of respect for human life by President Assad. He calls himself president, yet the country has been run by himself and his father for 41 consecutive years. Assad was elected unopposed in 2000 and 2007. Unfortunately, now we see why no opponents put themselves forward for these elections by the way of the current regime. There is a cruel irony in this, as President Assad is a trained medical doctor who worked in hospitals in Damascus for many years prior to getting involved in so-called politics, and, in reality, as we all will be aware, replaced his father as a dictator of Syria.

When I learned of his background in medicine and of his years in working in hospitals, it aroused suspicion within me as to how much control the army has over the killings that are taking place in Syria and the level of collusion that was shown in "Prime Time" on Monday night between the medics and the army. This evidence leads me to believe that international sanctions currently being imposed on Syria will not bother President Assad and the army which is propping up this regime at his behest. He was put in power with the approval of the army and it shows what kind of regime it is.

In Kosovo in the 1990s and in Rwanda also, the international community was slow to react and, subsequently, we found out that thousands of people, and in the Rwanda case hundreds of thousands, had been massacred. I would like to see further intervention, possibly from the UN and NATO. I want Ireland to put pressure on the international dimensions that exist for us to do so. It is not enough to stand idly by, and especially when one sees organisations such as the Red Cross being prevented from entering borders at present. We need to raise the profile of what is going on but we also need action. I am appalled by what I perceive to be Russia's and China's lack of interest in human life.

Photo of Eoghan MurphyEoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Recently, Deputies Spring, Ann Phelan and I were in Vienna as part of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's parliamentary assembly. At that meeting, we discussed the issue in Syria. Unfortunately, it does not pertain directly to the work of the OSCE but we felt what was happening there was so grave that it was our duty as parliamentarians from across the OSCE regions to raise this matter. At the conclusion of the meeting, Parliamentary Assembly President Efthymiou, from Greece, read out the following statement the assembly:

As President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, I deeply regret the violence and loss of life in Syria. As OSCE participating states and partners for co-operation have expressed their concern about the current situation, I call for a full respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the country. I salute the journalists who have paid such a heavy price to keep the world informed.

At the end of that statement, the parliamentarians there supported him in it. As the head of the delegation that went to the OSCEPA, I repeat that statement here to voice my support for it. When we speak of intervention in this context, we are talking very much about humanitarian intervention. What we have seen in Syria is medical care being used as a tool for repression, and it is disgusting.

I would very much like to know what our policy is as a country. We were very quick to support NATO military intervention in Libya when it occurred, yet we are not so quick in this case. Why the discrepancy between the two?

Photo of Shane McEnteeShane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The matter is close to everybody's heart. By right, we should be discussing this for a couple of hours rather than a couple of minutes. We stated it would never happen again after the Second World War and it has happened several times since. In this case, I hate to think that we must wait another four years for the truth when people are being butchered by their own government.

Horrific suffering and a campaign of ruthless repression is being visited upon the civilian population in Syria. The Government, in concert with its EU partners, has strived to exert strong and united political pressure on the Syrian regime to end its campaign of repression and make decisive progress towards fulfilling the aspirations of the Syrian people for a democratic transition. The grim facts of this conflict are truly horrifying. Credible reports of more than 7,500 people killed since March last, an estimated 200,000 internally displaced persons, and 35,000 who have fled to other countries as refugees. According to the latest report of the commission of inquiry established by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate events in Syria, state forces stand accused of committing widespread and gross human rights violations which amount to crimes against humanity. They have done this, apparently, with the knowledge and consent of President Assad and his regime.

There is no doubting the widespread international revulsion. This is evident from the overwhelming support for various resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council in recent weeks. It was also evident at the initial meeting of the Friends of the Syrian People group, which the Tánaiste attended in Tunis on 24 February and where more than 70 countries gathered to voice their support for the Syrian people and for international efforts to end the conflict and promote peaceful democratic transition within Syria. There is an obligation on the international community to do all it can to end the violence and suffering of the Syrian people and to help them to chart a new way forward.

The immediate priority must be to secure a ceasefire which will end the indiscriminate shelling of cities such as Horns and Rastan and at the same time provide the UN, ICRC and others with humanitarian access. The visit yesterday of the UN emergency relief co-ordinator, Baroness Amos, to the Baba Amr district of Homs revealed the true extent of the human catastrophe. She reported that the area had been completely devastated and most inhabitants had fled to other parts of the city or nearby villages. It is vital that full humanitarian access to the whole country is achieved urgently.

It is regrettable that the UN Security Council has so far failed to agree a resolution on the situation. The Government regards it as a welcome development that discussions have now got under way at the UN on a new draft resolution primarily addressing the humanitarian situation. It is incumbent upon the Security Council to live up to its responsibilities in the area of the maintenance of international peace and security and to adopt a resolution at the earliest opportunity on the situation in Syria. No other action could better convey to the Syrian regime the strength of the international condemnation of what is happening in that country.

Photo of Peter MathewsPeter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State's time is up.

Photo of Shane McEnteeShane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I will conclude shortly. In saying all of this, we must be also realistic about what the international community can accomplish in regard to Syria. There is little or no appetite anywhere for any form of external intervention. This also extends to any idea of arming those now opposed to the Syrian regime. We must never fail to remember that Syria is a country through which many fault lines run, whether political, ethnic or religious. The worst-case scenario would be if Syria were to slip into an open civil war which would be profoundly destabilising for the entire region.

Photo of Ann PhelanAnn Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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I am grateful for the opportunity to add my voice on this situation and that my comments will be on the record of the House. There are new lows happening every day in the Homs area of Syria, where it is now being reported that local hospitals are unable or unwilling to provide blood transfusions to patients in dire need because the medical blood banks in Syria come under the aegis of its Department of Justice. I ask the Tánaiste to bring his weight to bear in order that this situation be rectified. I do not believe I have heard anything as low as this in my time. Anecdotally, we hear that some members of staff seem to be taking part in this, which is abominable.

Photo of Eoghan MurphyEoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply. There is incredible hypocrisy on the part of the international community. While I am not calling for military intervention, there are other things we can do. We are reading reports from Médecins Sans Frontières about problems in terms of resources and supplies, including getting medical supplies into the necessary areas. Deputy Ann Phelan touched on this point. What kind of financial resources are we willing to put behind some sort of medical assistance? Are we examining ways of getting medical assistance into the country to help those areas that do not have the necessary supplies, including supplies of blood, and expertise, given people have had to flee?

Photo of Shane McEnteeShane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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In a statement the Tánaiste outlined the widespread international revulsion at what is currently taking place in Syria and the steps which are being taken by concerned members of the international community to try to put a halt to the killings, repression and terror currently being inflicted by the Assad regime and its forces upon the Syrian people. The League of Arab States is playing a particularly important role at present in the peace plan outlined last November, and agreed at that stage by the Syrian authorities, which still provides the only credible plan for bringing the violence to an end and initiating a peaceful transition in Syria. The Arab League has made other important contributions to current efforts to resolve the crisis in Syria, including the monitoring mission deployed in late December and subsequently withdrawn due to the non-co-operation of the Syrian regime.

Arab League Ministers called for an international peacekeeping force to be deployed and the idea of a joint UN-Arab peacekeeping mission was positively considered at the recent meeting of the Friends of the Syrian People held in Tunis on 24 February, which the Tánaiste attended. However, a ceasefire would first need to be in place before any possible peacekeeping mission could be deployed. In addition, some form of authorisation or mandate for such a mission from the UN Security Council would be highly desirable. It is by no means clear that any such agreement would be forthcoming from the Security Council at present, given current Russian and Chinese attitudes. For the moment, international efforts to broker a ceasefire are concentrating on the mediation by the joint UN-Arab League special envoy, former UN Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, whose mission Ireland and the EU fully support. It is hoped Mr. Annan will be in a position to travel to Damascus for discussions in the coming days.

In conclusion, I can only reiterate the Tánaiste's words of yesterday that there are no easy solutions to what is a very complex political situation now obtaining in Syria, nor should we view any form of external military intervention or, alternatively, arming the badly divided Syrian opposition, as offering any form of panacea. Such forms of action or intervention are, unfortunately, only likely to accelerate the descent into open civil war in Syria, a civil war, moreover, which would provide profound destabilisation for the entire region, not least neighbouring countries such as Iraq and Lebanon.