Sir, - The atrocious suffering caused by the Goma volcano, while very great, pales in comparison with the truly gargantuan agony of the Congo's innocent civilian population in recent years.
Since 1998 an incredible 2.5 million people have died due to the conflict in that unhappy country. By all measures the Congo is just about the poorest and most wretched country in the world.The foreign armies there - from Zimbabwe, Angola, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi - all claim to be defending their own borders or coming to the aid of an ally under threat. The reality is "military commercialism". This is where armies happen to occupy an area with extremely valuable resources. These are then looted to pay for the military intervention and also for the personal enrichment of the leaders involved. Meanwhile the ordinary Congolese, caught up in the fighting and dislocation, suffer dreadful hardship and often death.
Last year the United Nations produced two reports detailing the sudden existence of gold exports from Uganda, where there are no gold deposits, and diamonds flowing out of Rwanda, where no diamonds are mined. The UN also listed Western companies that are trading in these resources, and called for them to be investigated.
The list of urgent recommendations by the UN panel of experts in both reports is very clear. But nothing has been done. Instead, the UN Security Council has simply asked them to carry on for a further six months. This is mere prevarication!
If Ireland's hard work to join the UN Security Council was for a purpose it must surely be to stand up clearly for an end to the unnecessary suffering of millions.
A century ago that great Irishman, Sir Roger Casement, famously drew the world's attention to the looting of the Congo's natural resources, and the appalling suffering visited, as a result, upon that country's innocent inhabitants It is surely time once again for Ireland to speak up on behalf of another generation of innocent Congolese civilians whose suffering seems to know no bounds. - Yours, etc.,
Dr BRIAN SCOTT,
Executive Director,
Oxfam Ireland,
Dublin 2.