Anti-War Ireland criticises visit of US Secretary of Health to Ireland

national | anti-war / imperialism | press release Sunday May 09, 2004 04:35 by Anti-War Ireland info at antiwarireland dot org 087 1258325

Top US official to visit Ireland

PRESS RELEASE, 9/5/04

ANTI-WAR IRELAND criticises presence of US Secretary of Health in Cork

Tommy Thompson, the US Secretary of Health, is due to visit Cork city to attend a meeting of 25 EU Health Ministers next Tuesday and Wednesday, May 11th and 12th. The meeting, hosted by Minister Michael Martin, will be held in the Rochestown Park Hotel and it is expected that Secretary Thompson will be present on Wednesday to address the gathering.

Anti-War Ireland, a national alliance of anti-war groups that includes the Cork Anti-War Campaign, is opposing the presence in Ireland of this senior member of the Bush administration.

According to Dr Fintan Lane, convenor of Anti-War Ireland: "It is wholly inappropriate that a welcome has been extended to Mr Thompson, particularly in the context of recent revelations regarding the torture and mistreatment of Iraqi detainees by US forces and the systematic killing of civilians in Fallujah and other Iraqi towns. War is a health issue also and the current US administration is a menace to the well-being of innocent people across the globe. The majority of Irish people oppose the US war on Iraq and Michael Martin should have taken this into account before he invited a senior Bush official to this country."

According to Dr Lane: "Tommy Thompson is a staunch neo-conservative who as a member of Bush's cabinet is playing a direct role in the decision-making process on Iraq. He is deeply implicated in the slaughter that has enveloped that country. Mind you, the Irish government is also implicated in the Iraqi conflict through its provision of facilities to the US war machine at Shannon airport. The prosecution of Mary Kelly is a further sign of this State's involvement with this discredited and disreputable US military adventure."

Concluding, Dr Lane said: "Tommy Thompson should not be welcomed in this country. His hands are steeped in the blood of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children."

Anti-War Ireland has learned that the EU Ministers, and possibly Mr Thompson himself, will be staying at the Hayfield Manor Hotel, off College Road in Cork city, on the Tuesday night. There will be a major security operation in place and a significant number of the adjoining streets will be closed off to traffic. Residents in the area have been approached over the past few days by Gardai and advised that they will not be allowed to park their cars in certain streets for the duration of the security operation.

Anti-War Ireland and the Cork Anti-War Campaign are supporting a demonstration on Tuesday morning that will be made up of a coalition of progressive campaigning groups and political parties in the Cork region. Going under the title 'No Prescriptions for Profit', this demonstration will assemble at Douglas Court Shopping Centre at 10am before marching to the Rochestown Park Hotel. We are calling on people to turn out in numbers for this demonstration.

On Wednesday morning at 8.30am, anti-war activists from Anti-War Ireland and the Cork Anti-War Campaign will also mount a picket at the hotel against the presence of Tommy Thompson. We intend to make our voices heard against the ongoing illegal occupation of Iraq, and we will be letting Secretary Thompson know that not all Irish people intend playing the part of lapdog to George W. Bush and his far-right Christian fundamentalist administration.

PRESS RELEASE ENDS

To contact Dr Fintan Lane, convenor of Anti-War Ireland, phone 087 1258325.