asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will instruct our Ambassador at the UN to intervene with the Secretary-General of the UN in an effort to save the lives of the three African National Congress activists sentenced to hang by the South Africa's Court of Appeal in April 1982 who have now appealed to the State President of South Africa for clemency and if he will impress on the Secretary-General of the UN that the execution of Messrs. Manana, Lubisi and Mashigo would be contrary to humanitarian laws and the Geneva Conventions.
Private Notice Question. - African Activists.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Perez de Cuellar, has already made an urgent appeal through the South African Government to the competent South African authorities to review the cases of the three convicted members of the African National Congress and to grant clemency on humanitarian grounds and in accordance with the established principles of human rights.
The Government are gravely concerned at the imposition by the South African courts of the death sentences on these three young men and believe that the carrying out of the sentences could further aggravate the already dangerous situation within South Africa. Ireland has therefore joined with the other members of the Security Council in adopting Security Council Resolution 503 calling on the South African authorities to commute the death sentences. Ireland's view has also been conveyed to the South African authorities through the framework of European Political Co-operation.
We hope that the urgent appeals of the Secretary-General, the Security Council and of many other States, international organisations and individuals will not go unheeded and that the South African authorities will grant clemency to the three members of the ANC now under sentence of death.