Madam, - Your Editorial of May 23rd, highlighting the shameful inaction in the face of the unspeakable torture, rape and mass murder inflicted by the brutal Sudanese regime, represents a timely reminder of our own culpability. Like it or not, Ireland has failed to take a real stand on this issue in any international forum.
The most depressing example of that failure is our willingness to go along with European Union inaction without publicly voicing our dissent. As former EU Commissioner Chris Patten pointed out in your columns some time ago, if statements of concern by the EU could have stopped the genocide it would have been ended long ago.
Instead, we continue to lend our name to hypocritical statements of concern knowing full well they are meaningless. If anything, they make the situation worse, because they show Khartoum that the EU is not serious about defending the millions of innocent civilians involved as the conflict spreads into Chad and the Central African Republic.
In that context, your suggestion that Ireland should support French President Sarkozy's initiative for a contact group to promote tough sanctions and a no-fly zone, while obviously commendable, is a poor substitute for a forceful and united EU response.
Equally serious, in terms of implicating us in the genocide, is that the Irish Government has shown no appetite for even mildly challenging China about its complicity in the slaughter, given that it effectively bankrolls the Sudanese economy as the biggest customer and investor in its oil industry.
We have also failed to introduce legislation to make it illegal for any companies - even State companies - doing business in Ireland to invest in Sudan.
I applaud your Editorial. However, unless we in Ireland are prepared to admit complicity through our inaction and take a stand we have no chance of shaming anyone else into decisive action. - Yours, etc,
RONAN TYNAN, Blackrock, Co Dublin.