Adams slams NATO bombing and `Partnership for Peace'
BY MARTIN SPAIN
We have very first-hand experience of how NATO troops behave, of how
NATO turns a blind eye to the military excesses of one of its member
states, but also how NATO seeks to use our situation as a testing
ground of new weapons and surveillance technology, counter-insurgency
techniques, and crowd control methods
- Gerry Adams
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Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has strongly slated the Fianna
Fáil/Progressive Democrat government's intention to join NATO's
`Partnership for Peace' organisation. He was speaking at a conference
on Irish neutrality and European security organised by the Peace and
Neutrality Alliance (PANA) in Trinity College, Dublin, on Saturday,
24 April. Also contributing to the debate were Labour Party President
Proinsias De Rossa and Fine Gael TD Alan Dukes.
Adams said that in examining Ireland's attitude to NATO and
neutrality, ``it is worth remembering that we in the Six Counties are
living in a state dominated by a foreign power, Britain, occupied by
British troops, who are also NATO troops.
``We, therefore, have very first-hand experience of how NATO troops
behave, of how NATO turns a blind eye to the military excesses of one
of its member states, but also how NATO seeks to use our situation as
a testing ground of new weapons and surveillance technology,
counter-insurgency techniques, and crowd control methods.
``I would therefore strongly suggest that before the Irish government
takes the grave step of joining Partnership for Peace and abandons
Irish neutrality, that it listens to the voices of those who have
direct, daily experience of one of the military powers it wants to
enter an alliance with.''
He also stressed the positive role that Irish people can play in
international affairs. ``As a people who have been fighting against
colonialism for centuries, we are unique in the European Union, most
states of which are former colonial powers. Our responsibility
therefore, should be to work with other nations to develop a bridge
within Europe between those emerging nations in eastern and southern
Europe which are disadvantaged and between Europe and the peoples of
what is called the `South' - the poorer nations of the world
representing the majority of humanity, who are crippled by a foreign
debt which keeps them permanently impoverished. Ireland should be
proactively promoting the campaign demanding the scrapping of this
debt.''
Adams clearly spelled out Sinn Féin's position, saying the party
believes `` there is no role for the European Union in military and
defence matters. These should be left up to the individual states.
International peacekeeping should be under the auspices of the United
Nations. We are totally opposed to membership of the so-called
Partnership for Peace. Joining NATO's front group would seriously
undermine our UN role.''
Adams called for an end to the bombing of Serbia, saying it was ``most
definitely not the solution to the complex political crisis in the
Balkans''. He pinted out that NATO was in breach of the Geneva
Convention, the UN Charter, and even its own charter. In a reference
to the current impasse in the political situation at home, Adams
said:
``It is amazing how tons of bombs dropped on civilians in Serbia are
morally and politically acceptable to the British government and the
jingoistic media, while the silent guns of the IRA, we are told, are
a threat to peace.''
Proinsias De Rossa, while advocating a European common defence
policy, said it was important that this policy be under democratic
control, which would be lacking in the Partnership for Peace, which
had no control over NATO's actions. He said that NATO's decision to
bomb from the air rather than send in ground troops was a sign that
NATO was not serious about about resolving the conflict but was
seeking to use it to become the main security protector for Europe.''
Fine Gael's Alan Dukes, a longtime advocate of European federalism,
favoured member ship of the Partnership for Peace, but only as a
means to upgrade the military structures here for inclusion in a
common European Union military alliance.
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