Government urged to promote the removal of Assad regime

Minister Eamon Gilmore has been very active and very visible in promoting the right to protest and to fair treatment of Irish citizens in Egypt.

While I have no reason to criticise this, I can’t help comparing the severity of what has been happening in Egypt over the past few weeks with the extreme suffering of Syrian anti-government protesters which has been going on for several years.

I’m sure there are Irish Syrians who have been victims of the Assad regime, or whose families are enduring violence and extreme hardship in Syria and surrounding countries.

I know that the political situation in Syria is very complicated, as is that in Egypt, but this is no excuse for the EU and the UN not to intervene in the Syrian conflict in order to protect civilians, particularly women and children.

One excuse I’ve heard for not intervening is that Islamic terror groups are involved on the anti-government side.

We should know from our own history that the longer you ignore injustice, the more young people will be driven into the arms of terrorist groups.

I am calling on Eamon Gilmore and the rest of the Government to do all they can in the EU and the international community to promote the removal of the Assad regime and a peaceful solution to the conflict in Syria.

Mary Chance

Milltown

Dublin 14