Sir, - Kevin Myers asks: "What did any of us do to stop the rape of Bosnia by the huge Serb army?" (An Irishman's Diary, October 9th). Des O'Malley was one politican who did recognise the nature of the atrocities committed in the Bosnian war and who passionately and relentlessly cried out for the arms embargo to be lifted or for armed intervention to protect the Bosnians. Today he campaigns vigorously for an effective international Criminal Tribunal and the arrest of indicted war criminals.
A stimulating article he wrote (The Irish Times, May 8th) supporting Mary Robinson's application to become United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and portraying the same acute "sense of what the world must take responsibility for" (which she described memorably during her visit to Somalia) stated: "human rights abuses that have occurred in Bosnia . . . East Timor, Tibet, Burma, for example, are such that normal considerations of trade and diplomatic friendship must be set aside." (EU trade with Algeria now top of the list, please, Mr O'Malley).
His principled confrontation of human rights abuses has not received much recognition. Nor has his costly stand for public integrity in Ireland been much acknowledged. He was not nominated as a Presidential candidate though he had, according to some commentators, expressed an interest in the position, and he only narrowly retained his Dail seat in the recent election, reputedly his last.
In his article last May describing the difficulties and unpopularity Mary Robinson would be faced with if selected for the job of High Commissioner for Human Rights, he wrote that the aim of constructing a civilised international order based on respect for human rights and on the recognition of the rule of international law is "an end which transcends considerations of personal or political popularity and will in time earn its appropriate recognition."
Vincent Browne (The Irish Times, August 13th) said that Des O'Malley would make "an outstanding candidate" for the Presidency. Accepting that this cannot now be the case, it will be a huge loss to Ireland that if at the end of this Dail, a man of such moral calibre may well be lost to Irish public life without having received the recognition which he has merited. - Yours, etc., Valerie Hughes,
Belgrave Mews,
Dublin 6.