LIMERICK Senator Paul Gavan has called on the Government to end the use of Shannon Airport by US military forces in light of the latest atrocities in the US-backed war in Yemen.
Last Thursday coalition airstrikes led by Saudi Arabia hit a bus carrying children in northern Yemen, killing 29 children who were on their way back from a picnic. According to UNICEF, the United Nation’s children’s fund, some 2,400 children have been killed and 3,600 maimed in the country on the Arabian Peninsula since the conflict between the pro-Government forces and Houthi rebels escalated in 2015.
“This is the latest atrocity in a horrific war being waged by the Saudi-led Coalition. There is a direct line from these atrocities back to Shannon Airport,” Senator Gavan declared.
“The US provides logistical and weapons support to the Saudis. US contracted military planes leaving Shannon regularly travel to states belonging to that Coalition.
“Hundreds of permits for military munitions of war were approved by our Government last year, with many of these planes heading to these same destinations. Did the missile that blew up these children pass through Shannon? It’s a shameful practice and a betrayal of the principles of neutrality.”
Senator Gavan, who is based in Castleconnell, was one of dozens of protesters who attended a Shannonwatch vigil last Sunday regarding the US use of Shannon Airport. In a moving ceremony each of the dead children’s names were read out while a ribbon with the name of each child was attached to a barricade erected by Gardaí.
