Sir, - Three related events in a matter of days: The US and Britain bomb Iraq, supposedly to punish a despotic regime which, amongst many crimes, has committed genocide against Iraqi Kurds. The same day, a ship crammed with 900 Kurds, many of them children, runs aground off France and "Fortress Europe" immediately thunders "they are not political refugees" (France's Charles Pasqua) but "economic migrants". With this single legal casuistry, those fleeing suffering in Iraq are likely to be sent back to their fate.
To underline this hypocrisy, a third related event: we quietly ignore the parallel offered by the recent launch of the Dunbrody replica famine ship. In our history, millions were forced to seek passage in murderously overcrowded "coffin ships" in "unacceptable, unworthy, dangerous and inhuman conditions" (Jacques Chirac on the Kurdish vessel). Fortunate were we Irish, that lines were harder to draw 150 years ago between those fleeing famine (economic? political?) and those entitled to protection under law as "political refugees". - Yours, etc.,
Stephen Jackson, Director, International Famine Centre, University College, Cork.