Republican News · Thursday 23 January 2003

Neutrality? They don't know the meaning of that word

BY ROISIN DE ROSA

Last Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people, across the so-called peace-loving, civilised world, in San Francisco, Washington DC, England, Germany, Japan, came out to protest against the US administration's apparently irreversible determination to make war on Iraq.

d Ireland was no exception, with a large march to Shannon airport, which has become the focus of attention thanks to the 'Peace Camp' set up outside the airport, where women have continued their freezing vigil outside of the airport, protesting Ireland's complicity in the preparations for war.

The use of Shannon Airport by US planes ferrying an army to the Middle East is, of course, only the very tip of the iceberg of Ireland's involvement in this impending war.

The Irish Times, to its credit, pointed out at length last week how Ireland is heavily involved in the so-called 'defence industry'. Other newspapers, to their shame, have pointed out that we wouldn't want to prejudice these valuable contracts by contesting US rights to overfly neutral Ireland, still less restrict the use of Shannon airport to refuel their planes and replenish their troops as they move a 100,000-strong army into position across the Middle East.

After all, Ireland is neutral, we're told. Didn't we all just vote on securing and copperfastening our neutrality in the Nice referendum last summer? Well, that's what we were told we were doing.

Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh, put the matter in a nutshell lat week, when he reiterated again the demand that the government should recall the Dáil to address the public's concerns about Ireland's involvement in this impending war.

He pointed out that Foreign Minister Brian Cowen's authorisation of US overflights and its use of Shannon airport are in violation of Article 2 of the Hague Convention Respecting the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers and Persons in Case of War on Land.

The convention states that belligerents are forbidden to move troops or convoys of either munitions or war or supplies across the territory of a neutral power.

The peace camp at Shannon has brought the issue of Ireland's neutrality centre stage - and in doing so has caused a lot of floundering and embarrassment in government circles. Over the last week, spokespeople squirmed and wriggled.

First it was reported that the government agreed "Well, yes. Planes from the US are landing at Shannon, but we don't know what's on them." Then it was, "Yes, OK, there are soldiers on them, but they don't have weapons." Then it was, "Well, yes. They do have weapons but they are all in the hold". And then the position moved to "We don't know, for sure, where they are going."

When last week there was a fire in the cockpit of one of the US 747s, firetenders were not allowed near it.

Activist Tom Hourigan was very concerned about Flight N485EV, a cargo plane, which landed last Monday, and which had an inordinate amount of activity around it. He wanted to talk to Brian Cowen directly about this on last Tuesday's Prime Time - but was unsuccessful.

The planes are not searched. There is no publicly accessible record of who or what is on them. But Martin Moroney, Airport Director with Aer Rianta, is not inordinately concerned by this. An estimated 8,000 troops passed through the airport last week, in and out of the duty free, and that's all good business.

"It is simply not the case," Brian Cowen said last week, "that the US is using Shannon to transit large quantities of arms to the Gulf."

Are not 8,000 guns, at least, a large quantity of arms?

But Minister of Defence Michael Smith went to the point. "There is no such thing as, if you like, complete military neutrality," he said, adding: "There can be no neutrality when it comes to the threat to ordinary innocent people.

"When it comes to the Peace Camp, neither side is neutral - it's two sides, government and peace camp, which take opposite positions as to where the threat comes from and who is threatened. It is not about neutrality - it is about taking sides. It's just a matter of which side you are on - or more to the point, who are the innocents.

This is an interesting take on neutrality. Did this minister never hear of the Bandung Principles, which have inspired a generation. They are: 1. Respect for fundamental human rights and the principles of the UN Charter. 2. Respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations. 3. The Recognition of the equality of all peoples. 4. The settlement of disputes by peaceful means.

Subscription to these principles is incompatible with support for war on the Middle East, whatever you may decide on the question of who is threatening the lives of innocent people.