Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support this motion. I thank Deputies Wallace and Daly and the small number of others who accompanied them to Syria and saw for themselves the circumstances on the ground. Perhaps the Minister will listen to them. There is no propaganda here. It is following a visit to Syria and a tremendous amount of research that we stand here tonight to say we do not support the sanctions. It is absolutely nonsensical and hypocritical to stand over sanctions by the US and EU that are supposedly targeted when we know from a UN report and leaked memos that they are not. As Senator Maureen O'Sullivan said, it is the vulnerable who suffer.

Let us examine some of the comments that have been made. I refer the Minister to all of them, including those made by the World Health Organization to the effect that there are shortages of insulin, anaesthetics, specific antibiotics, blood products, vaccines and so on. Health agencies on the ground say the sanctions are making life absolutely impossible.

I am not here to tell lies, nor am I here to exaggerate. I am outlining what we have been reading, namely, that the sanctions are simply making circumstances on the ground much worse. Despite this, the Government persists with its thinking. Fianna Fáil also states that the sanctions are targeted, which is doubly shocking. The Government parties are persisting with the illusion that there can be a targeted programme when the reality on the ground is far from that.

I am not here to defend the Assad regime. I have read the Amnesty reports. The most appalling war crimes have been carried out by the Syrian Government and ISIS but also by US-led forces. The latter have been cited by Amnesty in regard to the killing of hundreds of civilians. Ultimately, Bashar al-Assad is more firmly in place than he has ever been. We have trotted out the figures here tonight. Some 4.8 million people have fled. Some 6.6 million are internally displaced. Significantly, half of the 6.6 million are children. Some 300,000 are dead and millions have been injured and maimed. Despite these statistics, the Minister is sitting here tonight still standing over sanctions that are totally unjust and not achieving what they were intended to do. Moreover, they are making circumstances much worse.

I thank the Deputies who tabled the motion. I also thank Sinn Féin. I have read its amendment and have no difficulty supporting it.

Let me refer to the UN study that has been mentioned.

It is a very cautious and moderate report. More than a year ago the UN appealed for an immediate, strategic review of the sanctions by all the stakeholders because they were simply not doing what they were supposed to do. We know that the sanctions against Iraq resulted in the deaths of half a million people. That number has been quoted already. The very courageous Denis Halliday resigned in protest after a lifetime in the UN. That was a decision he did not take lightly. He equated what was happening to genocide.

Deputy Wallace has already quoted Madeleine Albright but I will repeat what he said because it is the most appalling statement, namely, that it was worth it. She said about the US sanctions, with half a million people dead, that the price was worth it. That self-damning confession came seven years after the sanctions were introduced. Seven years used to be the age of reason, where one would take stock when one grew up. Is that the type of leadership we want? The retired US general, Wesley Clark, revealed the Pentagon plans to overthrow seven governments in five years, including Syria. All that those plans achieved was an appalling loss of life and left in place and even more secure in his position the man for whom none of us have any respect. The people of Syria marched for democracy but they never asked for a war of the nature they got. This was a country that was almost self sufficient in 2011, which has cities that were the cradle of civilisation. The people of Syria never asked for this barbarism and they never asked for our hypocrisy.

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