Sir, – If we as a society are really concerned about the act of state hijacking of an Irish airliner by the Lukashenko regime, why is Ireland not using all its resources and, in particular, its newly won UN Security Council seat to express our condemnation through bringing forward a resolution to this effect?
Such action, while it may well attract a Russian veto, would at least send a clear message that Belarus and Russia are isolated in their flagrant abuse of the rule of international law and of human rights. What more fitting and practical demonstration of our presence at the UN Security Council?
Our two years in that UN chamber, after all the expense and effort of our campaign to win a Security Council seat, should be put to good use, not just treated as a symbol of our status on the international stage. – Yours, etc,
DONAL DENHAM,
(Irish Ambassador
to Belarus, retired),
Dalkey,Co Dublin.