Michael D’s passionate idealism burns as strongly as ever
It’s January 2003 in Baghdad and Iraq’s tough-talking deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, is discussing the prospects for war with an Oireachtas delegation.
Initially Mr Aziz’s eyes wearily register the presence of yet another well meaning but powerless group of foreign politicians. But then something unexpected happens.
As Michael D Higgins feverishly outlines the bones of an idea to solve the deadlock, the Iraqi official’s eyes begin to sparkle. And suddenly there is electricity in the air as both men excitedly discuss the options available to help avert a war.
“He began to get very warm and engaged from a point of almost weariness,” recalls Mr Higgins. “He got very engaged and accepted the principle of the plan.
“Afterwards he thanked myself, Minister Tom Kitt and the Irish people. He said honest people like ourselves were trying to avoid a catastrophe. But if it happens, he said, we will have to defend ourselves - and we will.”
Despite 20 years in national politics, the passionate idealism of Michael D. Higgins still burns as strongly as ever.
These days he directs his outspoken views on issues such as the “neo-liberal market agenda” and the widening gap between rich and poor.
But it is the effects of a war on Iraq that are occupying much of his time right now.
“Iraq’s women and children will be hostages to war if the looming conflict goes ahead.
“In the 1991 Gulf War around 90,000 tonnes of explosives were dropped on Iraq. Between 50% and 70% of these missiles missed their target. They resulted in thousands of civilian deaths. If there is another war, the consequences could be even worse,” he says
It’s not the first time Michael D. has been highlighting the humanitarian effects of war at a time when war mongerers are making all the headlines.
The Labour deputy has travelled widely to places such as Nicaragua in the 1980s, Iraq before the 1991 Gulf War and Somalia in the early 1990s where he was a consistent voice for the marginalised and dispossessed.
In 1992, he became the first recipient of the Sean McBride International Peace Medal of the International Peace Bureau for his work for human rights.
One of his chief aims at the moment is to highlight the obligations of countries who have signed up to international treaties, aimed at curbing the excesses of war.
“The United States, along with other countries, is governed by the rules of warfare reflected in the Geneva Conventions from 1949 onwards. This says children are not to be the object of attack and that facilities essential for their survival must not be attacked.
“Armies are not supposed to destroy infrastructure in a way that threatens the livelihood of the women and children. Yet within six weeks of war in 1991, the infrastructure of the country was wiped out.
“The structure of human rights and international law came about after World War II, after the nadir of Auschwitz and Dachau. We came out of that period discussing ways to ensure this could never happen again. To set all that aside and go back to war as a strategy would be an immense reversal,” Mr Higgins says.
HE said the stories of
ordinary people in Iraq - away from the gaze of official minders - are a chilling reminder of the horrors of war.
“An old man told me there were 43 days of bombing in the last war. By January 7 the sky went dark from the bombing and the smoke from the refinery. This time there are supposed to be up to 300 missiles aimed at Baghdad. The population of Iraq is around four million and there are 34 bomb shelters.
“But people are nervous about going into the shelters. A shelter at Amerijah was hit by two US missiles in the 1991 Gulf War and incinerated 400 people.
When the people heard this, they left the bomb shelters and returned to their villages near Baghdad.”
The Galway-West deputy says there is still a chance that conflict can be averted despite the huge international forces behind the march to war. What’s needed, he says, is a country such as Ireland to lead a peace initiative.
“I think it is possible for Iraq to demonstrate that it is not a threat to anyone, by increasing resources available to inspectors and giving them more time.
“There is widespread support for a peace intervention. I have already discussed it with some very eminent people, close to the prime ministers of Canada and Jordan.
“The general attitude is that it’s a very good idea - but someone has to ring the bell. That’s the one practical thing Ireland could do as an alternative to war.”
HOWEVER, Ireland’s tacit support for the US by allowing military aircraft transport weapons through Shannon airport would indicate that Government is unlikely to stick its head above the parapet, he says.
“The problem with the Government is they won’t declare their position. They give the impression that if it could be all over, they would get away with saying nothing.
“It makes our neutrality a sham - there’s no doubt about that. The Taoiseach’s nod and a wink approach means he ends up discrediting himself and the country.”
As well as his concerns over the humanitarian effects of a likely war, Mr Higgins expresses growing unease over the hawkishness of US foreign policy.
“The big test is what the thinking in the White House is at present. US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld has said he wants the US forces and defence department to be an aggressive multinational, enforcing the American way. This is lunacy,” he says.
“The invocation of God’s blessing on all this is blasphemous. When people start trading certainties and quoting their prophets, you’re then dealing with fundamentalism.”
Mr Higgins, however, says his opposition to the war does not mean Saddam Hussein’s regime should be tolerated. Instead, he says there are other ways of trying to effect change.
“My position, since the 1980s, is that Iraq would be much better off without Saddam Hussein and would be better with a developed civil society. But you’ll never get to that point through starving the people or going to war.
“I also feel the amount of antipathy towards the war is growing and growing - and I think on February 15, we’ll see an enormous turnout.
“I keep hearing that people from all over Ireland will be travelling to Dublin for the march, which is also taking place across Europe and the US.
“When I see the faces of these young soldiers, with no connection to Iraq, I feel sad. They are only young people and I’ve seen the kind of places they come from, because I lived in the US, and it may be that it’s the only option they have.”
