Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-04-Speech-2-104"
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"en.20000704.4.2-104"2
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". – Mr President, first of all may I say that I would have been delighted on this occasion to have spoken after Mr Schori who has obviously done an outstanding job – as the presidency said – in Zimbabwe. I think all of us who wish Zimbabwe well would want to congratulate him and all those who were in the EU observation team. They have all done a magnificent job. They clearly managed to fulfill their objectives under very difficult circumstances and they discharged their mandate in an extremely effective way.
We have considerable influence as a major donor. This influence has to be used to encourage the government to take positive steps for re-establishing the rule of law and good governance as a first step towards a more general recovery, and I know this is a point which my colleague, Commissioner Nielson will want to speak about after me. But, once again, I would like to offer my personal congratulations to the honourable Member on a very difficult job, extremely well done.
The mobilisation of a full and experienced team on the ground less than four weeks after an informal decision by European Union foreign ministers is a tribute to the enormous efforts of everyone concerned. This and the professionalism of the observation mission enabled them to surmount numerous political hurdles. It made the operation a reference point for electoral observation in countries in crisis.
It is widely acknowledged that the European Union mission contributed to reducing the levels of violence, and I think it is also recognised that it helped to build up the confidence of civil society during the elections. Once again may I stress that the reputation of Mr Schori and the role that he played were key factors in our judgment for the success of the mission.
I believe that the mission constituted the most credible observer voice during these critical times in Zimbabwe. This was reflected in extensive press coverage during the whole period, both locally and internationally. What is more the European Union mission being by far the largest observer mission deployed in the country and operational right across the nation, also contributed significantly to the coordination of the overall electoral monitoring effort in Zimbabwe.
We have of course had a chance of becoming acquainted with the main outlines of the report, though we are looking forward to the opportunity of studying it in detail. I know that the first part of the report follows the interim report which the honourable Member made, and is an account of the violence and intimidation which sadly marked the early stages of the election campaign. We know from what he has said that the report analyses the voting process and the conduct of the poll and I think – though I would not want to take words out of his mouth – that by and large the actual conduct of the poll seems to have been pretty satisfactory.
Finally, and most importantly, and this is what we are looking forward to hearing from the honourable Member, the report focuses on the consequences for Zimbabwe's future. The honourable gentlemen is right to recommend that the European Union should in the coming weeks and months monitor very carefully what is happening in Zimbabwe and provide assistance and support wherever it is appropriate for us to do so. We would certainly want to endorse this, and my colleague Commissioner Nielson and I will certainly intensify our efforts to strengthen channels of communication, both formal and informal, with President Mugabe and his government, to facilitate the transition to effective multi-party democracy.
The honourable Member has spoken of how important it is that the government should prosecute those who have been involved in political violence or guilty of other human rights abuses; he has also stressed the importance of the courts determining the outcome of any challenge to the election results. It is very important that the government should respect their decisions. These are both enormously important points and touch, of course, centrally on the credibility of the whole democratic process.
Zimbabwe is plainly at a crossroads. The outcome of the legislative elections could mark a major transformation in the country's political culture, the transition to a multiparty system in which Parliament will replace the ruling party Zanu PF politburo as the main policy-making institution. President Mugabe's electoral strategy, focused on land reform and support for the war veterans, failed to address the country's economic plight and this was obviously reflected in the votes polled by his party.
The new government of Zimbabwe and all those who want to see the country rise above its present serious difficulties, whether they relate to the economic situation, the question of land reform or the terrible scourge of HIV, must now address the challenges effectively, collectively and constructively."@en1
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