Dail Private Members' Motion on use Shannon Airport by US Military

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday January 27, 2003 16:29 by Orla - SP

Dáil Private Members’ Motion to be debated this Wednesday Demands: Immediate withdrawal of Shannon Facilities for US Military; Explanation for Flagrant Breaches of “Carriage of Munitions of war Order”

That Dáil Eireann;

· Notes the huge build up of United States and British troops and weapons in the Middle East in preparation for a war against Iraq;

· Notes the relentless drive by President Bush & Prime Minister Blair for such a war;

· Notes that US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared on Fox News, ‘there’s currently a state of war with Iraq that has not ended’(January 19th 2003).

· Notes the systematic undermining by the U.S. Administration of the work of the U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq and the pre-empting by the United States of the provisions of UN Resolution 1441;

· Notes the statement by Scott Ritter, a U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq during 1991- 1998 and a supporter of the U.S. Republican Party, that 90% to 95% of Iraq’s previous weapons of mass destruction were verifiably put beyond use during that time;

· Notes a leaked U.N. Report projecting “potentially a large scale and protracted ground offensive, supported by aerial bombardment” giving rise to half million direct or indirect casualties; a chronic situation in south and central Iraq for 4.2 million children under five and one million pregnant and lactating women, two million internally displaced persons and an unknown number of infirm, terminally ill and elderly; and the devastation of all major infrastructure facilities such as bridges, railroads electricity supplies and provision for potable water;

· Notes that the United Nations sponsored economic sanctions against Iraq have already caused untold suffering among the ordinary people of Iraq and resulting in the premature death of hundreds of thousands of children;

· Notes the ongoing and regular, little reported, bombing by the United States and British Air Forces in northern and southern Iraq;

· Notes the sentiments of the Irish people expressed in an Irish Times/ MRBI poll published on 1st October 2002 which found 68% of respondents profoundly opposed to unilateral U.S. action against Iraq and 59% wishing this State to oppose any UN authority for action;

· Notes the widespread growth of popular opposition against a war in the worldwide protests held on January 18th this year including an anti-war demonstration in Washington with up to 200,000 attending;

· Condemns the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and its suppression of human rights and national and ethnic rights;

· Notes the widespread belief that the real motivation for a war on Iraq is the desire of the U.S. Administration to control that country’s oil reserves and increase its presence in the Middle Eastern Region.

And calls on the Government:

· To explain why it is facilitating the precipitation of a war in Iraq by allowing U.S. military planes to land and refuel at Shannon Airport;

· To explain why it is allowing a flagrant breach of the 1954 Defence Act and the Air Navigation (Carriage of Munitions of War, Weapons and dangerous Goods) Order, 1973.

· To explain why it is in apparent breach of Article 5 of the Hague Convention (v) respecting the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers whereby “belligerents are forbidden to move troops or convoys of either munitions of war or supplies across the territory of a neutral powers”;

· To explain why it is in apparent breach of Article 28.3.1 of Bunreacht na hEireann, the Irish Constitution, which directs that the State shall not participate in any war save with the assent of Dáil Eireann;

Further calls on the Government:

· To apply all possible pressure open to it to prevent an attack on Iraq by the United States or Britain;

· To immediately withdraw all landing and refueling facilities in Shannon Airport for U.S. military planes and any other aircraft carrying U.S. military personnel, arms or munitions that may be used in a war in Iraq;

And calls for:

· The future of the peoples and resources of Iraq and the Middle East generally to be determined by the people there, based on the principles of freedom, justice, democracy and human rights, free from both local dictatorships and imperialist or corporate interference.
·ENDS

Motion jointly drafted by Independent Deputy Tony Gregory T.D. and Socialist Party T.D. Joe Higgins and signed also by Seamus Healy T.D., Gerry Cowley T.D. and Finian McGrath T.D.
The debate takes place this Wednesday January 29th from 7.00 – 8.30 PM and on Thursday morning after the Order of Business.