Eoin Ryan
Ceist:61 Mr. E. Ryan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if the Government has raised, at any level, the treatment and conditions of the Marsh Arabs and the treatment of them by the Iraqi Government.
Written Answers. - Treatment of Marsh Arabs by Iraqi Government.
The grave and widespread violations of human rights in Iraq continue to be a matter of the utmost concern to the Government. The actions of the Iraqi authorities against the Marsh Arabs and the Kurdish population in particular have resulted in a deplorable deterioration in the living conditions of those affected and severely hindered their social and economic development.
New and disturbing reports in recent days speak of an intensified Iraqi campaign to empty large sections of the country's Southern marshlands of their population. There are allegations that chemical weapons have been used in attacks on the Marsh Arabs in that region. The UN is urgently investigating the situation.
Iraq's human rights record is in flagrant violation of Security Council Resolution 688 of 5 April 1991, and other relevant decisions of the Council, which demanded an end to the repression of the Iraqi civilian population and insisted that Iraq co-operate with humanitarian organisations to ensure that the human and political rights of all Iraqi citizens were respected.
As evidence of the importance we attach to the question, the Government have sponsored resolutions in the UN General Assembly and the UN Commission on Human Rights dealing with the human rights situation in Iraq. In March 1991, the Commission appointed a Special Rapporteur to make a thorough study of human rights violations by the Iraqi authorities. The reports submitted by the Special Rapporteur clearly underline the nature and scale of the abuses of human rights suffered by the Iraqi civilian population. Further reports will be submitted by the Special Rapporteur to the General Assembly at its current session, and to the Commission at its next session early in 1994.
Together with our EC partners, we are now considering a new draft resolution to be tabled in the General Assembly. Particular attention is being paid to the plight of the Marsh Arabs, and to the reports to which I have referred of the use of chemical weapons, in our consideration of the question.