Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

Like other Members, I believe we should pass a strongly worded motion to seek the release of Ingrid Betancourt by FARC guerillas. On this island we have experienced the same type of massive change that is happening in many parts of the world. According to the adage, one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. Fine Gael is the only political party on this side of the House that has experience of elected Members being assassinated in the fight for freedom. A Senator was also assassinated. One could say the successors of the people who assassinated the Members of this House are now in power in both jurisdictions on this island. That shows how change can happen and how we must accept what the hand of history deals us. However, we must always fight for democracy, and democracy is what we are discussing in this motion.

FARC claims to represent the poor and downtrodden in their society but its actions in this case are simply turning its members into terrorists. They are not freedom fighters; this type of behaviour makes them purely terrorists. Furthermore, they give legitimacy to the Colombian Government acting with a heavy hand in the territories controlled by FARC. The Colombian Government is adept at acting in a heavy-handed manner and to some degree abuses the civil and human rights of individuals in these areas who may be innocent of the activities of FARC.

If FARC released all these hostages, not just those who are known on an international level, it might allow the spotlight to be turned on how that country is being run. There are human rights abuses on both sides. When we see what is happening with Ms Betancourt, we see only one side of the argument. On the international stage FARC is painted purely as a narco-terrorist group. No legitimacy is given to what it claims is a fight for the human rights of individuals living in its territories. The message FARC should take is that if it wants to be taken seriously on the international stage and be seen as more than narco-terrorists, it must release all the hostages and stop this practice of keeping a people down by using terror and kidnapping.

Kidnapping is a step up from assassination. In our society and through millennia we have seen that when one assassinates, it is over; when one kidnaps, one prolongs it. We have seen this happen to one of our citizens, Mr. Brian Keenan in Lebanon. The idea behind kidnapping is to make a person's misery an international issue. Once one is assassinated, it is over. A former Italian Prime Minister was assassinated and is now long forgotten. People probably cannot even remember his name. However, when people are kidnapped and held for years it gives a notoriety to the organisation that does it. It is a despicable act and should be condemned by this House. The message we should try to send to FARC is that this type of behaviour paints it in the worst possible light.

What Senator Norris said was interesting; Sinn Féin has a conduit to FARC. Whether it denies it or not, Sinn Féin had contact with FARC during the period when Sinn Féin was active in what we consider terrorist activities. It should use those contacts to explain to the people running FARC that it does not matter that their second in command has been assassinated by the Colombian authorities; in the eyes of the international community, they are still the bad guys in this story and will remain so as long as they abuse the human rights of individuals as internationally renowned as Ms Betancourt.

We should condemn all forms of violence because it happens across the world. We have talked about Tibet and Darfur. Often we do not talk about small, indigenous groups of people such as the Karen people of Burma, about whom nobody talks, and whose human rights are abused to an unbelievable degree. If this House wants to send a message it should be that everybody should condemn FARC for what it is doing and that FARC will never receive any recognition until it stops this terrorist behaviour.