Peace Activists to meet Oireachtas Committee on Shannon

national | crime and justice | news report Saturday December 17, 2005 17:28 by Edward Horgan - Peace and Neutrality Alliance

Let the Legislators Legislate for Peace, not War

Peace activists, Edward Horgan, Mary Kelly, Tim Hourigan, and Deirdre Morgan, will meet the Oireachtas Joint Committee for Foreign Affairs on Tuesday 20 December 2005, at 11.30 am. This is an open public meeting.
The main topic will be the US missuse of Shannon airport.

Meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs
by Edward Horgan - Peace and Neutrality Alliance Saturday, Dec 17 2005, 4:21pm


Peace activists and citizens, Edward Horgan, Mary Kelly, Tim Hourigan and Deirdre Morgan, have been granted the privilege of addressing the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, on Tuesday next 20th December 2005 at 11.30 am, in Government Buildings, Kildare Street. We will also be making a written submission.
This is an open public meeting so we urge members of the public to attend.
The purpose of our meeting with this committee is inform the committee of the evidence we have concerning the breaches of Irish and international laws that are occurring on a daily basis at Shannon airport, and to request the members of this committee to carry out a detailed investigation of these matters on behalf of the Oireachtas, on behalf of the people of Ireland, and on behalf of all the innocent people killed in Iraq since Dáil Éireann approved a motion on 20 March 2003, allowing the US military to use Shannon airport for the purposes of making an unlawful war on Iraq.

We will be making four main points:
1. That Ireland is in breach of international law, especially the UN Charter, and Hague Convention on Neutrality, and the Geneva Conventions on War, in assisting the unlawful US war against Iraq, by allowing over 650,000 US armed troops in uniform to pass through Shannon airport for the purposes of the Iraq War, and that this has resulted in the unlawful killing of up to 100,000 Iraqi people.
2. The Irish Government has provided landing facilities at Shannon airport, and possibly at other Irish airports, for dozens of US Government and CIA aircraft that have been involved in the so-called 'rendition' of prisoners for torture in contravention of the UN Convention on Torture and the (Irish) Criminal Justice (UN Convention on Torture) Act 2000. Some of these prisoners are believed to have been tortured beyond the point of death.
3. That Irish Government ministers are in continuing breach of the Hague Convention on Neutrality, and are committing an offence against this convention, by continuing to declare that Ireland is still a neutral state, even though it is in flagrant breach of the fundamental rules of international laws on neutrality, at Shannon airport.
4. That there are very serious safety and security implications arising from the misuse of a civilian airport such as Shannon, and from the contravention of international laws by the Irish Government. These matters, especially the transit of very dangerous military cargoes and munitions through Shannon, are putting members of the public, Shannon airport employees, and other workers and residents at Shannon Town and Shannon Industrial Estate at grave risk. In addition, the decision of the Irish Government to support the war being waged by the United States, in contravention of the UN Charter, puts the Irish people as a whole, and the people of Dublin city in particular, at risk of retaliation, by those who perceive themselves to be the victims of the US-led war.

We wish to emphasise that all our endeavours over the past several years, and in attending this meeting are directed towards reinforcing the rule of law, nationally and internationally, and promoting peace by peaceful means. We accept that the laws and the United Nations are often inadequate, but we insist that the solution to these inadequacies is to reinforce and transform the laws and the United Nations, and not to operate in flagrant breach of these laws, as we believe our government is doing. We also believe laws much be applied and enforced on a priority basis, based on the priority just needs of the people of Ireland and the need for justice for humanity as a whole. Therefore, the laws should not protect human greed, or Ireland’s economic interests, or inanimate property, if by so doing, human lives are put at most serious risks, in Ireland or anywhere in this increasingly interdependent world. We believe, especially, that the life of one Iraqi child, or one American child, is equal to the life of one Irish child.
We are aware that tens of thousands of Iraqi children have been unlawfully killed, and we believe that dozens of prisoners have been ‘rendered’ for torture, and that Shannon airport has been used for these nefarious purposes.

We welcome this opportunity to inform members of the Oireachtas on these most important issues, because the Oireachtas, especially Dáil Éireann, are the primary legislators in Ireland, and also have important oversight duties as to how the laws are applied and complied with for the benefit of the all people. We will ask the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs also to investigate and inform themselves in more detail on events at Shannon airport and we will be requesting that this committee should report these matters to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and to the Irish Government, with a view to bringing the unlawful use of Shannon airport to an immediate end. We will be further recommending that the present use of Shannon airport by the US military and by the US CIA should be suspended forthwith, pending an enquiry to be conducted by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Peace to all the survivors of wars