Sir, - I am astonished by the obnoxious article by Kevin Myers on European arms sales to the dictator Mugabe in Zimbabwe (An Irishman's Diary, January 26th).
He states that the purchase by the Indonesian regime of "a few British Hawk aircraft" was "of little or no use in sustaining Indonesian rule in East Timor". He should try telling that to some of the people to whom I have spoken who were on the receiving end of this kind of weaponry on the island of East Timor.
He attacks people in Ireland who "got themselves into a fine old lather blaming the West for arming Saddam Hussein". As one of those people, I refuse to retract a single word. We were perfectly right. Weaponry of all kinds, including the means to manufacture chemical and biological weapons, were made available to Saddam Hussein by the West. Not only that, but the political opposition was betrayed into his hands so that they could be murdered.
He then goes on to point out that, although Ireland hasn't an arms industry, we did sell beef to the Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein. Precisely; and I was one of those people who strongly opposed this in Seanad Eireann. With a nonchalance as dazzling as his moral incoherence he then goes on to rail against the British Government supplying parts for Mugabe's airforce. Again, I have consistently opposed such deals for precisely the same reason as I opposed them in the case of East Timor. Then I would, wouldn't I, being a liberal gay critic of certain aspects of European and American foreign policy?
Kevin Myers objects to "liberals" resisting Mugabe's mindless and vicious persecution of gay people in Zimbabwe. He can well afford to be cavalier about what he light-heartedly describes as Mugabe's "dislike of homosexuality". If he were a gay man living in Zimbabwe he would not have that luxury. - Yours, etc.,
Senator David Norris, Seanad Eireann, Dublin 2.