Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

This House is an ideal vehicle to do that. I would be grateful if the Leader might, in the context of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, initiate some process to acknowledge the occasion of Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday to give maximum effect to the publicity that hopefully would surround it.

In the same vein, this House rightly condemned the imprisonment of a frontline defender who was coming to Ireland some weeks ago to receive an award. In recent days a representative of Médecins Sans Frontières was arrested by the Sudanese authorities on the basis that he refuses to disclose medical information contained in a report which was endorsed by the UN and by Kofi Annan outlining in great graphic detail the rape of several hundred Sudanese women and young girls. They have arrested this individual representing Médecins Sans Frontières on the basis that the report is false. This House having already expressed its outrage at the earlier incarceration should do so again. I would be grateful if the Leader would convey the outrage of the House at this representative's arrest to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and if he, in turn, would convey to the Sudanese authorities that it is unacceptable to arrest a representative of this aid organisation of the highest integrity.