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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 9 Jul 1968

Vol. 236 No. 4

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Nigeria-Biafra Relief.

2.

asked the Minister for External Affairs if further consideration has been given to supplying food and other relief to Nigeria and Biafra; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

3.

asked the Minister for External Affairs what portion of the £100,000 recently donated for relief in Nigeria will be used for the relief of distress in Biafra.

4.

asked the Minister for External Affairs if he will consider the transmission of supplies destined for Biafra through Caritas Internationalis as the most certain medium through which to transmit such supplies to the area in the Nigerian territory where they are most urgently needed to prevent mass deaths from starvation.

5.

asked the Minister for External Affairs if he will consider sending volunteer teams of medical personnel and social workers to Biafra in an effort to lessen the sufferings of the people of Biafra in their present plight.

With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose taking Questions Nos. 2 to 5 together.

At the beginning of this year the Government authorised the Minister for Defence to make funds available out of the Emergency Relief Fund of Cumann Croise Deirge na hÉireann to enable it to help in maintaining University students from Nigeria who were cut off from receiving support from home.

In May last, the Minister for Defence made £5,000 available to An Cumann Croise Deirge for sending food and medicine to the Nigerian districts in greatest need particularly those in the East and South East.

Two weeks ago, the Government decided to give a further sum of £100,000 for the same purpose. In addition as the Deputy is aware An Cumann Croise Deirge has received the generous subscription of £10,000 from the Catholic Hierarchy and considerable donations of cash and supplies from organisations, business concerns and private individuals. It is to be hoped that our people will continue to send in donations of cash and supplies as long as the need for them continues.

An Cumann Croise Deirge has over the years despatched its relief supplies through the International Red Cross Committee in Geneva. The International Red Cross is a world-wide organisation and is usually in the forefront in bringing relief to areas seriously affected by war, famine, floods and earthquakes. By using the experienced and efficient services of the International Red Cross for the distribution of relief, the minimum of difficulties have arisen and An Cumann Croise Deirge has succeeded in delivering the highest possible proportion of Irish donations of cash and supplies to people in distress.

The International Red Cross has been active throughout Nigeria since the conflict broke out and it is considered the most effective and most economical medium to ensure delivery of supplies to the areas in sorest need of help. Under present circumstances it is, of course, impossible to foretell what percentage of our supplies will reach any particular district in Nigeria.

I see little hope at present of any significant number of medical and social workers reaching certain parts of Nigeria and in any event the Government have received no request for such personnel.

In view of the reports which have appeared to the effect that supplies sent through the International Red Cross did not reach Biafra, has the Minister considered sending any supplies through Caritas Internationalis?

There was one plane carrying Red Cross supplies which crashed but the Red Cross have been delivering supplies by air into the improvised airstrips in the eastern portion and they are continuing to send them. Of course, they can send only limited quantities but they are continuing to do so.

Arising further out of the Minister's reply, is it not a fact that the International Red Cross deals with the Government concerned in the country, and that all supplies go through that Government? Is it not further a fact that if the supplies go through the Nigerian Government, the Biafran people will not accept them because they are afraid the stuff going in to them may be tampered with before it gets there? Is he not further aware that Caritas Internationalis have their own methods of delivering goods within stricken territories, and have succeeded in doing so over the past weeks? Would the Minister therefore not consider that anything despatched from Ireland should go through Caritas Internationalis through whom it will reach the destination for which it is intended?

The Deputy is misinformed when he says the International Red Cross cannot deliver supplies into the eastern portion. They have been delivering supplies—that is the fact— and it was a Red Cross plane that crashed. They are continuing and they intend to continue to deliver supplies by air. However, we must realise that what can be delivered to improvised airstrips is a very small proportion of the goods and medicines most people would like to see delivered.

Is it not a fact, in the case of anything delivered into Biafra by the International Red Cross, that the Red Cross have to go through the existing Government, the Nigerian Government, there?

No, it is not a fact.

By what means is the stuff going into Biafra?

It is being delivered to an adjoining country, to Fernando Po, by ship or by air.

Fernando Po is an island.

I know. It is delivered from there by air by the Red Cross. The supplies are delivered from there into the area still held.

Is it not first inspected by the Nigerian Government?

Is Deputy Esmonde's concern for the Nigerian Government or for the people who are starving?

My concern is for the starving people. The people in the Labour Party can keep silent.

A danger signal.

Is it not, first of all, inspected by the Nigerian Government? Is what is delivered into Fernando Po not first inspected by the Nigerian Government?

Is it not the position that the Biafrans will not accept anything that passes through the hands of the Nigerian Government?

I know the concern of the Deputy. I want to make the situation clear—what it has been, what it is and what we hope it will be in the future—in regard to the delivery of supplies. The supplies that go to Fernando Po can be flown direct from there by the Red Cross. They do not go through the territory held by the Federal troops: they go over it. There is some hope in the news in the papers yesterday and today that there may be further agreement which will facilitate the delivery of more supplies by air. However, what is very necessary, if supplies are to be delivered in quantity, is that there should be a land corridor into the area and this is something the mediator, the Secretary-General of the British Commonwealth Secretariat, is trying to negotiate.

The difficulty is that the facilities at Fernando Po are too limited. Is it not a fact, in relation to supply difficulties at Fernando Po, that the facilities there are so restricted that the quantity that can be brought in through that means is very limited?

That is true. The airport facilities at Fernando Po are limited. Perhaps the Deputy has read some of the news items in today's and yesterday's papers which indicate that the Federal Government are prepared to allow relief supplies into the Federalheld territory and to give a clearance for planes landing in the Ibo-held territory.

Only in daylight.

Well, daylight is the best time to land at an unlighted airport or on a piece of a road. They have further suggested that they will open up—and this is not a new suggestion on their part—a corridor through which these supplies can reach the people in distress.

Could the Minister say whether or not the International Red Cross are represented in Nigeria?

They have been represented in all parts of Nigeria since war broke out.

Could there not be an arrangement whereby the Red Cross in Nigeria would arrange for the supply of these foodstuffs, medicines, and so on, to Biafra?

They are working on that all the time. They have not succeeded in getting agreement on both sides on the technique of flying them in. However, the situation seems a little more hopeful.

Surely the Red Cross in Nigeria appreciate the situation there? Surely the Red Cross in Nigeria, being the humane society that it is, recognises the urgent necessity of getting foodstuffs, medicines, and so on, into Biafra? There should be no difficulty about that.

That is what they are doing all the time.

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