Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-16-Speech-4-140"
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"en.19991216.6.4-140"2
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"Mr President, here too, I should like, on behalf of the Commission, to welcome expressly the fact that the European Parliament has turned its attention to this subject this afternoon. I think it is very important that we make it clear that the horrific human rights violations such as those which we have seen and which we are seeing in Sierra Leone are a matter of concern to all Europeans because it is our understanding that human rights and human dignity are indivisible throughout the world and we will not tolerate a selective perception which results in our taking a closer interest in acts of violence in our own region than in the eruptions of violence which we have witnessed in Sierra Leone for several years now.
The Commission is currently preparing further help for the year 2000. We are, in fact, discussing further aid for the children affected by the war with UNICEF, the Ministry of Social Affairs and with various groups from civilian society. I should like to stress here that the Commission will always be prepared to examine proposals from these groups for action in the human rights sector. The Commission is also prepared to examine funding for the Truth and Reconciliation Committee being set up under its budget line for human rights and democracy.
I agree with those who have said that there are few conflicts in the world which are as barbaric, as bloodthirsty and, unfortunately, as hopeless, as far a political solution is concerned, as this conflict in Sierra Leone.
The peace agreement concluded in July was welcomed at the time by the European Union. We called on all parties to help implement it and stated that we ourselves were prepared to do so. We could see that it would be very difficult and we could see that, in the final analysis, all the conditions for a working, stable, democratic rule of law in Sierra Leone would have to be created anew and that there was only limited willingness to cooperate. Like Parliament, we are therefore extremely worried about the latest violations of the ceasefire and we are concerned that the peace agreement is only being implemented slowly, if at all.
Nonetheless, we must ask ourselves what we can do to help the tormented victims of this conflict. Merely stating that the situation is horrific does not help, which is why we are starting by offering concrete help with reintegration with the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme.
Since 1997, the Commission has been financing reconstruction of the social and economic infrastructure destroyed by the war through its rehabilitation programme. With the help of this programme, families settling there and former fighters are obtaining jobs and an income. We are currently working on a bigger programme to the tune of some EUR 20 million to support reconstruction and reintegration. This programme should replace the current programme, which expires in the middle of next year.
Further help to resettle rural communities is being given in the form of agricultural resources and is being funded under the food security budget line.
ECHO will also provide further humanitarian aid. In 1999, non-governmental organisations and UN organisations received EUR 14 million for the benefit of the people who had suffered during the war. It included aid for Sierra Leone – refugees in neighbouring Liberia and Guinea and, as referred to here, help for NRO, which gives psychological and social support in the refugee camps, has initiated aid programmes for demobilised child soldiers and is addressing the particularly gruelling problem of mutilated children in order to give them some prospects in life. The lady Member just said that these children had no prospects. I do not think we should accept that so readily. I think that we should do everything we can to give these children a dignified life.
I should like to remind you that the scope of humanitarian aid in Sierra Leone does not depend on the funds available but on the security situation in the country itself.
At present, the aid organisations are severely hampered in their work by the insecurity which prevails in the northern and eastern provinces of the country. Whether or not there is additional impetus in the disarmament process and hence an improvement in the security situation will depend this month on the arrival of the UNAMSL forces, the UN mission to Sierra Leone."@en1
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