The following letter was published in the Irish Times on the 28th of April 2012.

Sir, – Credible reports that Syrian security forces have murdered people who have had contact with UN monitors represent a challenge to all of us. The United Nations acts in our name. If silence represents complicity in the face of crimes against humanity, allowing the UN to be used to select people for summary execution makes us even more culpable, unless we take action to stop the killing.The UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, even before these most recent crimes, had called for the referral of the Assad regime to theInternational Criminal Court.

In the light of the string of recent atrocities, that makes a mockery of efforts to secure peace in Syria, surely the Dáil and Seanad will demand such action in an urgent resolution, and request the Minister for Foreign Affairs to seek to lobby the Security Council to act.

Thousands have died as tanks and artillery have indiscriminately shelled besieged cities and snipers have targeted peaceful protesters. But the most egregious aspect of the Assad regime’s response has been the callous and indiscriminate targeting of children.

Lois Whitman, children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch, has stated: “Syrian security forces have killed, arrested, and tortured children in their homes, their schools, or on the streets. In many cases, security forces have targeted children just as they have targeted adults.. It’s clear from the brutal methods used against children that Syrian security forces show child detainees no mercy . . . We fear that children will continue to face horrendous punishment in detention until Syrian officials understand they will pay a price for such abuse.”

If we fail to act, we may condemn thousands, including who knows how many children, to torture and death. The heart-rending memorial on April 6th in Sarajevo commemorating the outbreak of war, and which highlighted the deaths of more than 1,000 children in the indiscriminate slaughter of the siege, is a compelling reminder of how real that threat is in Syria. – Yours, etc,

RONAN TYNAN; RANA KABBANI (Syrian Writer Broadcaster); CHRISTINE MURRAY (Web Master – Irish Pen); VALERIE HUGHES; Dr BRONAGH CATIBUSIC; MIRZA CATIBUSIC; BRENDAN SIMMS, (Author, Unfinest Hour: Britain and the Destruction of Bosnia); GERALDINE MITCHELL; MICHAEL McLOUGHLIN (International Sec., Labour Party); GARRET TANKOSIC-KELLY (Former UN Resident Representative); FARUK KLEPO; PETER WALSH; ELVEDINA DIZDAREVIC and JOHN FEIGHERY.

(from , The Irish Times , 28/04/2012)