Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-29-Speech-3-114"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2003-01-29"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Illegal exploitation of the wealth of the Democratic Republic of Congo2
dcterms:Language	"fr"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20030129.5.3-114"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2003-01-29-Speech-3-1152
lpv:speaker	lp:Véronique De Keyser2
lpv:spokenAs	member; Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3 member; PES (2001-09-25--2004-07-19)3 unknown; Parti socialiste (2001-09-25--2004-07-19)3 substitute; Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3 member; Delegation for relations with the countries of Central America and Mexico (2002-02-07--2004-07-19)3
lpv:translated text	"Madam President, I come from what was once a colonising country, Belgium, whose emotional ties with the Democratic Republic of Congo have never been cut. It was therefore with despair that I saw it swallowed by war and with relief that I welcomed the Pretoria agreements, which are a promise of peace and democratisation in this martyred region. The Congo has exceptional natural resources. In 1997, the value of the resources in the North was estimated at USD 25 billion. The minerals: zinc, lead, iron, tungsten, cadmium, cobalt and germanium are unique, and germanium has semi-conducting powers that are now used to make the most powerful microchip in the world, to say nothing of radium, lithium and niobium, which produce superconductive alloys at high temperatures, or diamonds, silver, platinum, and so on. It is probably the country with the greatest resources in the world. This is why, along with the neighbouring countries concerned, it has to be said that Western predators have pounced on it under all sorts of pretexts, exterminating its population and using Africans to fight a Western war. It is a veritable holocaust. People are quoting figures of 4.5 million Congolese victims since 1998, 2.5 million people displaced, 16 million condemned to death, thousands deported to Rwanda and Uganda, and I prefer not to mention the details of the massacres that have taken place, which are unbearable. So yes, I am in favour of this resolution, and if it turns out that my country, as has been suggested by a panel of experts, is harbouring any of the predators that are fuelling the war, Belgium will not evade its responsibilities. It will conduct the necessary enquiries and will ensure that there are repercussions. It will not add complicity in the present to the burden of past colonisation. However, there is one condition: the UN resolution last week on the same subject stressed that the panel of experts is not a judicial power and that therefore, the results that it gives cannot be considered to be established facts and cannot therefore automatically lead to penalties. The right to defence must be preserved."@en1

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