Sir, - I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the Campaign to End Iraq Sanctions, to congratulate the members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs, namely David Andrews, John Gormley and Michael D. Higgins, on their recent visit to Iraq.
Their concern about the worsening humanitarian crisis in Iraq, which has resulted from 10 years of sanctions by the UN Security Council, is commendable and admirable. These sanctions serve no other purpose than to collectively punish an entire society and decrease the opportunity for the Iraqi people to depose Saddam Hussein and his regime.
In January 2001 Ireland will hold a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council. This presents an opportunity for the Irish Government to show as much courage and integrity as David Andrews and his companions in working to persuade both America and Britain, two countries with which Ireland has a special relationship, to lift the sanctions and stop the suffering of the ordinary Iraqi people. - Yours etc.
S. Flood, Campaign to End Sanctions on Iraq, Winter Gardens, Dublin 2.