Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 302: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if the reports on two women with Downs Syndrome being used as suicide bombers in Baghdad, Iraq are correct; and if he will raise this at United Nations level. [4544/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

As Deputies will be aware, I have strongly condemned the bomb attacks in two markets in Baghdad on 1 February, which took the lives of some 73 people and wounded as many as 200 others. Iraqi police reports stated that the bombs were carried by two women believed to have been suffering from disabilities. Other reports specified Downs Syndrome, but it is not clear that the specific disability can be reliably confirmed. It was also stated that the devices were detonated by mobile phone, which strongly suggests that the two women may have been used as unwitting carriers of the bombs, which were a mixture of dynamite and ball bearings. The Prime Minister of Iraq broadly confirmed these reports in a later statement, but the Government has no additional sources to corroborate the precise details of the attack. It seems likely that, far from being suicide bombers, these two unfortunate and dependent women were brutally murdered along with many others by those who armed and detonated their bombs.

The attacks on the markets were themselves a horrendous crime, clearly aimed at causing the greatest possible number of civilian casualties. They came after a period of relative calm in Baghdad, but they fit a pattern of previous attacks by the 'Al Qaeda in Iraq' group, aimed at provoking sectarian retaliation by militants from the Shia community against Sunni areas. Thankfully, this group appears to have been greatly weakened across much of Iraq in recent months. The only hope in relation to this ghastly attack is that the act of using disabled women as unwitting bombers reflects the increasing pressure on the armed groups. It is clear that progress on the security front will only be sustained through renewed political action to reconcile the different communities in Iraq and with the constructive cooperation of all of Iraq's neighbours. There is a growing urgency to renew the political process in Iraq in order to put an end to the atrocities which have brought such suffering to the Iraqi people in recent years. We strongly support the strengthened efforts of the United Nations to support this process.