In Reply to: re: re: plus 655,000 dead iraqis posted by are you serious? on October 21, 2006 at 06:51:52:

Of course concern is expressed here about Darfur both by the Irish government in the UN and in practical terms 500,000 euro to the African Union peace mission in Darfur back as far as Nov 2004. The press page on the Irish Dept of Foreign affairs has many statements about Sudan and Darfur including the following item just after the press release about the above half a million euro:

"This further funding [the 500,000 mentioned above] follows on from the nearly 10 million euro in funding that the Government has provided to Sudan in 2004. Six million euro has been provided in emergency assistance to meet the immediate needs of some of the most vulnerable populations in Darfur. Assistance amounting to over 3 million euro is being provided to other areas of Sudan, where needs are also great.

The European Union has, to date, committed over 100 million euro in assistance for the African Union’s efforts in Darfur. "

So while, as you might expect there are hundreds of hits on our government website regarding Darfur, it's not just words but practical help from the Irish people to the African Union soldiers.

It still doesn't change the fact that a supposedly civilised country has invaded a country in serach of invented weapons of mass destruction in a big oil grab and has resulted in the violent deaths of 655,000 Iraqi civilians. You call it a 'stance on something' but in reality it's just ended up as mass murder. Even the awful genocide in Darfur still hasn't racked up quite that many deaths. But both are deplored. And undoubtedly like Lebanon and Liberia and so many other places we will eventually end up sending troops to help clean up the mess.