asked the Minister for External Affairs whether he will press the United Nations Organisation to take steps as a matter of urgency to ensure the protection of the civilian population and missionaries in Biafra.
5.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Nigerian Hostilities.
4.
asked the Minister for External Affairs if he will consider the advisability of accepting the suggestion of those who at present control the Biafra territory, to send an Irish delegation to mediate in the present hostilities in Nigeria; and if he will clarify the position in this territory where Irish nationals are carrying out missionary work for the past 50 years.
I propose with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 4 and 5 together.
As I have already indicated in reply to a number of questions relating to the civil war in Nigeria, we have done everything within the competence of a small European country to promote a ceasefire to be followed by negotiations for a settlement which will ensure the rights of all the people of Nigeria. We have also assisted in repatriating from the Eastern Region all Irish citizens who wished to return to Ireland.
The situation in Nigeria has been a source of grave concern to members of the United Nations since the violent coup d' état of 7th January, 1966, but it has never been raised formally at the United Nations because of the objections of the Federal Government. These objections have been strongly supported by State members of the Organisation of African Unity but the leaders of that organisation have themselves made many efforts to bring about a settlement.
We have not been asked by either the Federal Government at Lagos or Lieutenant-Colonel Ojukwu to attempt to mediate and in any event I am convinced that mediation can best be undertaken by the leaders of African States whose national and continental interests are so obviously and immediately involved.
While I appreciate the difficulty of an outside country getting involved in the question between the Federal Government and the breakaway State of Biafra, has the Minister considered whether it is possible for the UN to offer assistance in any way to avoid the hardship which has befallen a number of hospitals, missionary centres and so on, which have been bombed? From recent reports it would appear that quite a number of lives have been lost through bombing of hospitals and missionary centres. Is it possible for the UN to take any action in that regard?
I have told the Deputy that the Federation of African States strongly supported the attitude of the Federal Government against the matter being discussed. Of course everyone is aware of the death and destruction caused by the civil war in many parts of Nigeria but the attitude of the vast majority of member states of the Organisation of African Unity is that because it is an internal matter, a civil war, the UN cannot legally intervene in this matter.
Though I understand the attitude of the Organisation of African Unity, does the Minister not think the UN should consider the possibility of action purely from a humanitarian point of view to alleviate the suffering, as distinct from taking action from a purely political point of view on the other question involved?
The purely humanitarian international organisation is the Red Cross. More could possibly be done by the Red Cross to alleviate suffering. The amount we have sent from this country may be small but the UN have no funds for the relief of suffering in a broad general way as is the case with the Red Cross. In the matter of relief of distress, the distress has to be specified and the amounts devoted to the relief of that distress come from the Children's Fund, the Refugee Fund and so on.
In view of the recent reports that there appears to be a concerted effort to bomb hospitals and missionary centres, would the Minister reconsider whether it would be possible to have the matter now considered by the United Nations?
We have heard one side of the reports on these matters. There are two sides to nearly every question.
The Minister stated that the matter has not been raised at the United Nations. Why should this country not raise the matter? After all, we are directly interested in Nigeria.
Of course we are interested in Nigeria. We are interested in every country where peace is threatened but the African States have an organisation called the Organisation of African Unity and it was that organisation that moved first to try to bring about peace in Nigeria. They appointed six of their leaders to get contact with both sides in the civil war. Some of them have been making contact ever since.
Would the Minister not agree that Africans are not notorious for getting full agreement among themselves and would he not further agree that an outside country such as Ireland, an independently-minded nation, is in a strong position to raise the matter at the United Nations? Therefore I suggest that he does so.
It is easy enough to raise anything at the United Nations in a speech but I feel that we have to be very careful before we raise things in a very sensitive situation like a civil war in which every African state is interested because there are potential Biafras in all the African states newly come to independence.
Would the Minister not agree that it is possible there may be a very serious massacre there in the not too distant future unless someone raises it? It will then become a matter of international importance and somebody else will raise it and Ireland will have lost an opportunity of doing a job she should have done at the United Nations.
That is the Deputy's opinion.