DÁIL ÉIREANN AN COMHCHOISTE UM GHNÓTHAÍ EACHTRACHA AGUS TRÁDÁIL, AGUS COSAINT JOINT COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE, AND DEFENCE Déardaoin, 10 Bealtaine 2018 Thursday, 10 May 2018 Tháinig an Comhchoiste le chéile ag 10 a.m. The Joint Committee met at 10 a.m. Comhaltaí a bhí i láthair/Members present: Teachtaí Dála/Deputies Seanadóirí/Senators Seán Barrett, Ivana Bacik, Niall Collins, Mark Daly. Tony McLoughlin. I láthair/In attendance: Senator Pádraig Mac Lochlainn. Teachta/Deputy Brendan Smith sa Chathaoir/in the Chair. 1 JFATD Business of Joint Committee Chairman: I welcome Deputy Niall Collins to the joint committee for his first meeting as Fianna Fáil spokesperson on foreign affairs and trade. The committee looks forward to work- ing with him. Apologies have been received from Deputies Seán Crowe, Noel Grealish and Maureen O’Sullivan and Senators Billy Lawless and Gabrielle McFadden. Syrian Conflict: Irish Syria Solidarity Movement Chairman: In the first part of the meeting we will meet Dr. Annie Sparrow to discuss the effect of the Syrian conflict on children. I remind members, witnesses and those in the Visitors Gallery to ensure their mobile phones are switched off completely for the duration of the meeting as they cause interference, even when left in silent mode, with the recording equipment in the committee room. I remind members of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person or body outside the Houses or an official, either by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. By virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by abso- lute privilege in respect of their evidence to the joint committee. If, however, they are directed by the Chairman to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and continue to do so, they are entitled thereafter only to qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against any person or an entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. I invite Dr. Sparrow to make her opening statement. Dr. Annie Sparrow: I thank the joint committee for inviting me to speak about this impor- tant issue. I am an Australian. I trained in the area of paediatric intensive care and for the past 20 years have been working as an aid worker. I am proud to be back in Ireland because I spent many years working with Catholic Relief Services here, the American equivalent of Trócaire, to establish relationships with Irish aid organisations which are some of the most effective in the world. The Irish people are also among the most generous in the world. I am happy to explain to the committee how aid is manipulated and controlled by the Assad regime, as well as high- lighting how we must we ensure this multi-billion dollar aid effort does not continue funding President Assad’s killing machine. Few of us remember that once upon a time this conflict was a revolution. The Syrian up- rising began on 15 March 2011. The regime has been in place since illegally seizing power in 1963. Hafez al-Assad established himself as President in 1971 and his family has exerted control ever since. It has a policy of civilian oppression and a poor human rights record. We saw this in 2011 when civilians who had taken to the streets were shot. Even children who wrote anti-regime graffiti were arrested and tortured. Doctors were killed for the crime of treat- 2 10 MAY 2018 ing civilians injured in protests. On 22 March 2011 the first doctor and ambulance driver were killed while trying to save unarmed student protestors who had been shot. Shortly afterwards, the international community responded with sanctions. Initially, they were travel bans and as- set freezes in respect of key individuals deemed to be responsible for the violence such as the chiefs of the military and intelligence forces. It was done initially by the United States and the European Union followed rapidly. By May 2011, sanctions had even been imposed on Presi- dent Bashar al-Assad himself. His atrocities continued. The next year a lot of effort went into a peace process led by Mr. Kofi Annan. By this stage, not only had the European Union which was Syria’s principal trading partner at the time extended it to economic sanctions, many other countries had also imposed bilateral sanctions. Mr. Annan’s six-point peace process failed and a massive humanitarian crisis began to unfold. Millions were forced from their homes inside Syria and there was a massive exodus of refugees. In response to the crisis, UN agencies were mobilised. The primary UN agency involved in this work is the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, which has a mandate based on UN General Assembly Resolution 46-182. It mandates it to co-ordinate an international response, mobilise funds from governments and implement measures through other UN agencies and partners. It has to do this work while respecting the principle of sov- ereignty. The condition imposed was that everything would operate from Damascus, that all aid would go through it and that the Syrian Government would be fully in charge of aid efforts. These aspects are the biggest problems and have led to the current situation. Seven years later we are faced with the worst crisis in modern history. It is certainly the largest and most expen- sive with which to deal. It is a multi-billion dollar effort for Syria alone. There are 5.7 million refugees outside the country and an equivalent number inside it. Sadly, the atrocities continue, as evidenced by the chemical attacks last month in Duoma in the Ghouta region, after which further sanctions were imposed. There is great concern about whether the sanctions hurt the humanitarian efforts. I shall explain the matter a little. Syria not only has a terrible humanitar- ian crisis, it has also suffered a public health catastrophe. One of President Assad’s claims is that the catastrophe has been caused by the sanctions imposed. Syria has experienced two polio epidemics. In 2013 polio reappeared in Syria for the first time in 19 years, but the outbreak was covered up by the government. Unfortunately, the World Health Organization, the primary role of which is to support the efforts of the Syrian Govern- ment, has had to toe the line. It was a task force in northern Syria, operated from Turkey with the permission of the Turkish Government, that took control and successfully administered a vaccination programme. Last year there was a resurgence of vaccine derived polio and the outbreak is ongoing. We had never seen it happen in a war before. The war in Iraq lasted eight years, but polio did not emerge. I hope I have given a useful example. Well before the war in Syria broke out, vaccines were withheld from politically unsympathetic areas, leaving people extremely vulnerable. It was one of reasons people took to the streets to demonstrate in 2011. After 50 years of brutal repression, they did not take to the streets to discover all of these new ways of dying - being shot at, made to disappear, tortured, arrested, gassed with chemicals, starved to death in a siege and attacked with vacuum bombs and barrel bombs. They protested because they wanted a better life and, most importantly, for the sake of their children, which is why we all care. The terrible consequence of the Syrian conflict is that children have suffered the worst and are most vulnerable. The Syrian Government fully controls the aid effort. It exercises control through its partners. They include the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the national non-govern- ment organisations, NGOs, operated by President Assad’s family and friends. They determine 3 JFATD exactly where the aid goes and deliberately ensure it does not reach the regions most in need. This is entirely consistent with its targeting of civilian homes and schools. By this time last year the Assad regime had bombed well in excess of 4,000 schools. There has also been the deliberate destruction of hospitals and doctors have been killed, which weaponises healthcare and turns people’s need for it into a weapon against them by violently depriving them of it. In areas under siege, the regime deliberately withholds humanitarian aid and refuses to al- low civilians to leave them, which makes the siege illegal. The proper way to operate a siege is to allow humanitarian aid in and civilians to leave, especially women and children. The policy of denying humanitarian aid to anyone who needs it is entirely consistent with a war that the regime has practised consistently. It is responsible for fuelling this massive refugee crisis. It does this by using an incredibly effective intelligence and security apparatus, which is how one stays in power. The Assad regime has been in power for 50 years because it has relied on brute force, a strong military and a very strong intelligence force. Let us not forget that the people in power in Syria have all been sanctioned. The first slide shows the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies with Prime Minister Imad Khamis. The picture at the bottom of the slide shows President Assad, the Minister of Defence and the Prime Minister.