: With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 12, 13 and 14 together.
I am aware of the hunger strike in Chile to which the Deputy refers. The Deputy will be aware that the hunger strike has been suspended since those involved are waiting to ascertain if the Chilean authorities will announce an independent inquiry into the disappearances.
It has also been reported recently that the Chilean authorities have agreed to admit the ad hoc Working Group on Chile appointed by the UN Commission on Human Rights. I have been informed by our permanent representative at the United Nations in New York that discussions are at present taking place between the working group and the Chilean authorities in this regard. I would hope that the Chilean authorities will indeed agree to hold an independent inquiry and that it will make all relevant information available to the relatives of persons who have disappeared. I hope also that the ad hoc group will be admitted and that the Chilean Government will co-operate fully with it, particularly in regard to the unexplained disappearances.
Successive Irish Governments have been gravely concerned about the general human rights situation, and in particular the unexplained disappearance of many people in Chile, since September 1973. At the most recent session of the UN General Assembly the Irish delegation again cosponsored a resolution on this subject. This resolution called on the Chilean Government to restore and respect human rights and fundamental freedoms and in particular demanded that the Chilean authorities "put an immediate end to practices of inadmissible secret arrests and subsequent disappearance of persons whose detention is systematically denied, or never acknowledged, and clarify forthwith the status of such persons".
The nine member states of the EEC, in a common statement in this debate, expressed very grave concern about the unexplained disappearances. They referred to the hunger strike undertaken by relatives of some disappeared persons in June 1977 and expressed regret at the totally inadequate manner in which the Chilean Government carried out its undertaking to the UN Secretary General to make serious inquiries into the disappearances. The Ambassadors of the EEC countries in Santiago had previously with our approval made an approach to the Chilean authorities in July last year on behalf of all the members of the Nine about the unexplained disappearances.
The Government remain very concerned about these disappearances. Ireland does not have formal diplomatic relations with Chile. However we are considering whether any further representations can usefully be made in conjunction with our partners in the Nine or in an appropriate UN forum to reiterate our grave concern to the Chilean authorities.