Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-16-Speech-4-113"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20030116.8.4-113"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Madam President, the disregard for democracy that the authorities of Equatorial Guinea have been displaying for years reached its peak during the recent elections in December.
The result of 97% of votes in favour of the Government was reached without counting votes, with a dubious census, with the opposition leaders in prison and without freedom of expression throughout the campaign, and with no freedom to vote in secret on election day, when the voting tables were presided over by the military.
Elections from which, in the face of so much disaster and outrage, the opposition parties withdrew. In short, fraudulent and invalid elections, the results of which should not be recognised by the international community, with the European Union taking the lead.
Madam President, recalling that this is the fifth European Parliament resolution on human rights in Guinea, and taking into account the statement made by the Presidency of the Union on the elections in Guinea, the Socialist Group asks the institutions of the European Union to use every means possible to ensure that a peaceful transmission to democracy is initiated in Equatorial Guinea, that political prisoners are immediately released and that the international commitments made by President Obiang are complied with.
Madam President, we attach a great deal of importance to paragraph 7 of our Joint Resolution, which states ‘Asks the Commission to draw up a report on the impact on democracy and human rights of the policies of the oil companies operating in Equatorial Guinea’. We are talking about a country that has oil, the income from which goes to President Obiang, his family and friends, but not to the population of Guinea. One third of the population has a life expectancy of 40 years and 57% do not have access to drinking water.
Therefore, Madam President, perhaps we need to promote, in the United Nations Security Council, an embargo on Guinean oil and, perhaps, now that there are four Member States of the European Union that are part of the Security Council, one of its agreed actions could be monitoring the democratisation processes in a series of countries and promoting appropriate measures in order to encourage the necessary changes, in accordance with the priorities stated by the European Union.
We need to say ‘that is enough’ to the countries in which only a minority benefits from the resources while the rest of the population continues to live in poverty.
Therefore, Madam President, we consider that this Resolution is very good and positive in terms of achieving something that is among the priorities for Parliament and the European Union."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples