Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 2 Feb 1994

Vol. 438 No. 2

Written Answers. - Humanitarian Aid for Bosnia.

Liz O'Donnell

Question:

52 Ms O'Donnell asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the Irish response to the appeal by the Bosnian Health Minister to the Council of Europe to speed up the evacuation process for seriously wounded patients in Sarajevo hospitals who can no longer be treated locally.

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Spring)

The Government is deeply concerned at the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the former Yugoslavia and is committed to providing relief for the emergency humanitarian needs of the victims of the conflict. The Government has so far allocated IR£1.7 million in emergency humanitarian assistance to the international relief operation there. We have admitted 259 Bosnian refugees and have allocated visas to a further 140 refugees to enable them to come to Ireland when the situation in the region permits. Our main priority at present is to reunite the relatives of Bosnian refugees with their families in Ireland.

The lead agency for the relief operation in the former Yugoslavia is the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The Government has supported the special medical evacuation programme for the former Yugoslavia which was established by the UNHCR in July 1993, to facilitate the evacuation of serious medical cases for treatment in other countries. Ireland was one of the first countries to respond positively to the programme and in August we accepted 11 serious orthopaedic cases for treatment in Cappagh Hospital.

The commitment of the European Union and the member states to bring humanitarian assistance of all kinds to the former Yugoslavia is not in doubt. The European Union has to date provided 690 million ECU to the international relief effort, 60-70 per cent of all the funding required for the international relief operations since the conflict began. The majority of persons evacuated to date under the Medevac programme are receiving treatment in European Union member states.

I am aware of the appeal made by the Bosnian health minister to the Council of Europe for the evacuation process to be speeded up. There have been similar appeals from a number of other quarters. I understand that selection for medical evacuation is based on established UN evacuation criteria. However, in the case of Bosnia-Hercegovina, evacuations require the agreement of all of the factions involved in the conflict. The failure of the factions to co-operate to facilitate medical evacuations has led to serious disruption of the Medevac programme and its suspension on a number of occasions.

The Government, as well as our European partners, would wish to see this operation carried out as effectively and speedily as possible. I will continue to urge this at meetings of the European Union and elsewhere.