Cathal Berry
Ceist:94. Deputy Cathal Berry asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the position regarding the situation in Belarus and the status of persons (details supplied). [33991/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 24 June 2021
Ceisteanna (94)
Freagraí ó Béal (6 píosaí cainte)
I will focus my questions on the worrying case in Belarus, particularly the welfare of the Ryanair passengers forcefully removed from a flight in Minsk at the end of May. I would be grateful if the Minister could update the House on the most recent developments at European and international level.
The repression carried out by the Lukashenko regime in Belarus has intensified over recent months with widespread crackdowns against political dissidents, human rights defenders, journalists and media outlets, civil society organisations and minority groups.
At our meeting on 21 June, EU foreign ministers adopted a fourth package of targeted sanctions against 78 individuals and eight entities. These measures target those behind the repression, those responsible for the forced landing of the Ryanair flight in Minsk on 23 May and several prominent business figures who support and benefit from the Lukashenko regime. Ministers also agreed on sectors to be targeted by economic sanctions and work is under way to implement that agreement. Although there have been some signs of willingness from the Belarusian authorities to move the two individuals arrested on 23 May, Mr. Roman Protasevich and Ms Sofia Sapega, to a less onerous form of detention, Ireland will continue to insist on their immediate and unconditional release.
Ireland, the EU and our like-minded international partners are united in calling for the regime to end the repression against its own people and for the Belarusian authorities to co-operate fully with international investigations into the forced landing of the Ryanair aircraft. Ireland played a constructive role in the successful adoption of an EU-led resolution at the Human Rights Council that gave the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights a mandate to investigate human rights violations in Belarus. Her team is scrutinising more than 2,000 reports of human rights violations and we support this work.
The EU will also seek a mandate renewal for the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus during the 47th session of the Human Rights Council. Ensuring accountability will remain a key priority for Ireland.
It is reassuring that the welfare of the two Ryanair passengers are uppermost in our minds at both the national and EU level. I very much welcome the targeted sanctions, asset freezing and travel bans for the 86 people and entities associated with the Lukashenko regime. It is a very positive development. I also welcome that the Belarusian national airline is banned from EU airspace and it is likely that more targeted economic sanctions are coming down the track, perhaps even as early as this weekend.
How does the Minister see this playing out over the next couple of months? We are all aware that the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organisation was tasked with formally investigating the Ryanair incident, with a report to be submitted by 26 June, which is only two days away. Does the Minister see that deadline sticking and the report being submitted? Does he expect the report will be published and, if so, when is that likely to happen so we can all read exactly what happened?
I do not have a date for when the report will be finalised but I expect it to be public. This incident has, in many ways, galvanised the EU in its response to the Lukashenko regime. A Ryanair plane, registered in Poland but flying from Athens to Vilnius, was effectively hijacked in the sky - that is what happened - and the pilot was told there was potentially a bomb on the plane and it had to turn around and fly to land in Minsk. It was escorted by a military aircraft and when the plane landed, the passengers were kept on it for quite a period while military police came on and took certain passengers off before arresting them forcefully. That is not acceptable and really focused the EU's attention on the intervention that is necessary in the context of what is happening in Belarus.
I suspect there will be much pressure for the report to be accurately concluded and be made public. I do not have exact dates around that and Ireland does not control it. I am sure the Ryanair airline will contribute fully to the investigation.
More broadly with respect to Belarus, I suspect the ongoing repression in the country will continue for some time. The EU is certainly resolute and united in the action and position we must take to change those facts on the ground and to allow the people of Belarus to choose their own political leadership.
I thank the Minister again for outlining the European and international dimension. Is there anything we can do at a national level to demonstrate our solidarity with and support for the people of Belarus and the political opposition in exile? I would be grateful for the Minister's thoughts on whether we should invite the opposition leader here to address the Houses of the Oireachtas, whether at a committee or in plenary session, either in person or remotely. He met her in Brussels recently and she appears to be very principled and capable. I would be grateful for his thoughts on whether that would be possible. I know she has a very busy schedule but we could at least extend an invitation and leave it up to her to decide whether to accept or decline it.
We had the opportunity, as foreign ministers, to meet Ms Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is one of the key opposition leaders in the democratic movement for, and in, Belarus. Of course, she is living in Lithuania now for her own protection. She is planning to come to Ireland and we have extended an open invitation to her. We expect she will be here next month and I look forward to welcoming her here. She knows Ireland well, by the way. As a young girl she lived with a family for different periods in County Tipperary.
She learned how to speak English here and is very familiar with Ireland. Ms Tsikhanouskaya has a lot of affection towards this country. I believe that Ms Tsikhanouskaya will get a very strong welcome and a lot of solidarity when she comes here, in the context of the dangerous, difficult and challenging work she is trying to do for her country, her own personal circumstances and those of her husband and children given their vulnerabilities, and so on. I hope that when she comes to Ireland, Ms Tsikhanouskaya will have an opportunity to meet not just with me and with Government figures, but also with Opposition spokespersons and perhaps the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence. Ms Tsikhanouskaya has a lot to say and we should listen.