Sir, - The Peace & Neutrality Alliance campaigned for a No vote and a renegotiation of the Amsterdam Treaty because of the effect the treaty would have on Ireland's policy of neutrality and its capacity to have its own independent foreign and defence policies.
The decision of the US to bomb targets in Afghanistan and Sudan in response to terrorist attacks was in contravention of Articles 48 and 51 of Additional Protocol 1 to the Geneva Convention which has now become customary international law.
The response of our Government has been to make no comment except to say it supported EU foreign policy. While it is understandable that an Irish Government would be reluctant to be critical of a US administration that has played such a constructive role in the Irish peace process, as a small democratic sovereign state we need the protection of international law and global institutions (with all their limitations), such as the United Nations, rather than just supporting the EU.
By adopting the response it has to the actions of an existing nuclear armed superpower, the Government is giving carte blanche to the breaking of international law not just by the US, but by any state with the muscle to do so.If the PANA analysis is correct and the Irish political elite supports the transformation of the EU into a federal nuclear armed superstate, then the Irish people in the future might be expected not just to support by silence such action, but to actively participate in the effective smashing of international law. PANA will continue to believe that such a future for the Irish people is not inevitable and to promote a policy of positive Irish neutrality and the constructive role of the United Nations. PANA supports the call by other organisations that the Government ask for the establishment of an international commission to investigate the bombing.State terrorism in response to terrorism is not a principle which Ireland should be seen to be supporting. The New Agenda strategy for a nuclear-weapons free world launched by the Government in June 1998 is a more effective policy to pursue than its response to the action of the US in Sudan and Afghanistan. - Yours, etc., Roger Cole,
Chair,
Feargus McAogain,
Secretary,
Peace & Neutrality Alliance,
Blackrock,
Co. Dublin