Finian McGrath
Ceist:478 Mr. F. McGrath asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the action the Government took at UN level in relation to the massacre at Gaza; and his views on whether Mr. Sharon should be tried for war crimes. [15589/02]
Written Answers. - Middle East Peace Process.
I take it that the Deputy is referring to the incident on 22 July last, in which 14 Palestinians, including six children, were killed by a bomb from an Israeli warplane. I condemned that attack in a public statement of 23 July in which I said that:
"the use of air launched missiles in densely populated areas can only result in civilian casualties on the scale we have seen today. To pretend otherwise is disingenuous. This kind of attack is not a reasoned or proportionate response to the threat of terrorism".
These sentiments were echoed by our Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York during a public meeting of the Security Council on 24 July where he also condemned the attack as an act of gross brutality.
The question of the criminal responsibility of individual political leaders for the acts of their forces is a complex one and is, in the first instance, a matter for national legal systems.