Madam, - May I congratulate John Gormley for provoking a Chinese withdrawal from the Green Party conference last weekend at the mention of issues concerning Tibet?
Would that the Chinese government would follow the example set by its ambassador and leave Tibet. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - The Government of which John Gormley is a cabinet minister has accepted US diplomatic assurances that human rights are not being violated at Shannon airport. Why is he unwilling to accept Chinese diplomatic assurances that human rights are not being violated in Tibet?
There may be a fine line between compromise and hypocrisy, but this does not mean there is no distinction. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - Apart from being instruments of repressive regimes, what do the Israeli army and the current Chinese ambassador to Ireland have in common?
Almost three years ago John Gormley TD was harassed by Israeli soldiers while on a visit to the occupied West Bank. Israeli behaviour, he then claimed, was "worse than the apartheid regime in South Africa". Last Saturday Mr Liu Biwei walked out of the Green Party conference when Mr Gormley made some anodyne remarks about Tibet, a cause that unites apolitical armchair pundits the world over.
Mr Gormley now heads the Green Party and is Environment Minister in a neo-liberal Government that supports the illegal blockade of Gaza and ushers hundreds of thousands of US soldiers through Shannon Airport on their way to an illegal war in Iraq.
It would be a shame if the opportune huff of the Chinese ambassador were to allow Mr Gormley to salvage a shred of spurious credibility.
His role increasingly resembles that of Joschka Fischer, who led the German Green Party to unanticipated heights of power - and in the process destroyed it. - Yours, etc,
RAYMOND DEANE, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
Madam, - The attendance of the Chinese Ambassador at the Green Party convention in Dundalk was wrong. Ambassadors should not attend political party conferences. They are supposed to be above party politics. It was patently obvious that the presence of the Chinese Ambassador at the Green convention was a stunt aimed to attract media attention.
The failure of Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern to condemn China's aggression in Tibet is disgraceful. Mr Ahern is quoted as saying that John Gormley's reference to Tibet as a country was a "slip of the tongue". I find this as insulting as referring to Ireland as part of the "British Isles".
Does Mr Ahern not realise that up to 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed since China invaded Tibet in 1949? - Yours, etc,
PETER O'LEARY, Malahide, Co Dublin.
Madam, - While John Gormley and the Green Party refuse to be Fianna Fáil's conscience in Government, they have no problem in acting as China's conscience towards Tibet. I think we can assume, however, that the Green Party's reawakened interest in human rights abuses will not extend to rendition flights which land at Shannon.
Possibly Mr Gormley saw China's role in Tibet as an easy target and felt attacking it would bolster his image. Surely he must have been aware that a verbal public attack on China, in front of its own ambassador, would represent a huge loss of face for China.
Mr Gormley's actions can only be seen as either extremely reckless or naive. In either event, it doesn't suggest Mr Gormley has the judgment to be a Minister of the Government. - Yours, etc,
GEARÓID Ó DUBHÁIN, Clarkeswood, Rochestown, Co Cork.