Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-12-Speech-3-160"
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"en.20030212.5.3-160"2
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"Mr President, the European Union is facing a test of truth. The attitude which it will shortly be taking towards the prospect of a new Gulf War will be crucial in defining our vision of Europe and our conception of the world. It will have to shoulder its responsibilities in circumstances which will leave no room for one of those woolly consensuses to which, all too often, we have become accustomed thanks to the common foreign and security policy. Hemmed in by the pressure from the Bush administration’s call to arms on one side and the demands of European public opinion, which is massively opposed to it, on the other, there can be no middle way: we shall have to choose.
This is why we stated publicly, on the spot, that in our view, at the present time, the only chance for Iraq lies in complete cooperation with the United Nations inspectors. This is also why the Franco-German proposals seeking to strengthen the resources of the inspectors now constitute, in our view, the only acceptable outcome of this crisis, ruling out any military action.
This is the position that our group expects Member States to adopt, especially those among them who sit on the UN Security Council, particularly if they have the power of veto, which if necessary they should use if that is the only way of refusing to sanction the shameful actions of a team which is drunk with power and is currently placing world peace and equilibrium at risk. What credibility would the United Nations be left with if a policy of giving in to the strongest party were to lead a handful of states to violate so cynically the spirit of the UN Charter?
Next Saturday, throughout the world, a tidal wave without precedent in many countries will rise up and say no to war. We hope that as many Members of the European Parliament as possible will be seen at these demonstrations, because Europe has a duty to say no to an imperial machine, whose new strategic doctrine, as published by the Bush administration on 20 September last, illustrates its nature and its scope, namely the cult of military power, the thirst for domination, the claim to be able to act alone, if necessary, on a preventive basis, in order to achieve objectives which have nothing to do with world security.
Following the events of 11 September, we said that we were allied but not aligned. This handful of Member State leaders who are ready to divide Europe at a signal from the White House needs to be reminded of this principle. As for the candidate countries, I believe that this is the time to let them know, in all frankness, before the ratification of the accession treaties, that we must be clear about our common ambition: let us not confuse the new Europe with the reform of NATO.
We must keep abreast of European public opinion as it emerges throughout the continent. In the eyes of an increasing number of our fellow citizens, what the United States has gained in power it is losing in confidence, owing to the Messianic and megalomaniac behaviour of its leaders. This situation gives the European Union a historic responsibility, not against America, but against the dangerous desire for hegemony on the part of those who claim, on its behalf, to dictate to the world, only to lead that world into chaos.
We are, as I said, facing a test of truth. History has not yet been written. Let us hope that those who are holding the cards are able to measure the weight of their responsibility.
In these circumstances, what message should Parliament be sending to the European Council? Its resolution of 30 January was clear on the essential points, and is still entirely in line with our current view. Allow me to add a few points drawn from the moving experiences of the delegation of over thirty Members of the European Parliament, drawn from eleven countries and four political groups, which has just returned from Iraq.
First of all I should like to brush aside the insidious remarks of those who have tried to portray us as being under an obligation to Saddam Hussein. On the contrary, even in the opinion of the journalists who were present, ours was the most independent delegation of any in recent times. After all, our links with the democratic opposition to the Baghdad regime and our absolute rejection of Saddam Hussein are sufficiently well known to enable me not to waste any more time on this unfounded, petty accusation. I hope, in this respect, that the European Parliament’s ad hoc delegation to Iraq will not stop in New York but will continue to its final destination, Baghdad. Our delegation, by contrast, will proceed rapidly to New York and Washington, where the anti-war movement is growing day by day, reaching right to the heart of Congress.
Well then, what did we see and hear in Iraq, and what collective conclusions have we drawn? First of all there are the accumulated impressions and observations of the life of the population, from Baghdad and its most deprived suburbs to Basra, in the south, and Mosul, in the north, with its enormous camp for Turkish Kurd refugees. Everywhere, poverty is on a massive scale, and there has been spectacular social regression according to those who knew Iraq before the Gulf War, and even more so compared with what the country was like before the war with Iran.
There is no longer an economy, apart from oil, exports of which have fallen by half due to lack of investment. In rural areas, all activities have collapsed, desertification is progressing and the population exodus is speeding up. UN agents are sounding the alarm: one third of the population is suffering from chronic malnutrition, and one third of children are seriously underweight. Infant mortality has exploded in the last ten years. More than eight thousand schools are in ruins and need repairs that would now be too costly. Students have no books, and teachers earn the equivalent of a few euros per month.
In Iraq today, people do not live, they try to survive thanks to the meagre assistance provided by the 'oil for food' programme, which is financed using revenue from hydrocarbons and is managed directly by the government. This is the result of twelve years of embargo, and it is absolutely essential to put an end to this unbearable collective punishment.
It is possible to get an idea of the memories left in people’s minds by the war, by going, as we did, to the so-called demilitarised zone in the south of the country. There, the heaps of countless wrecked tanks, cars, jeeps and buses remind us that, in the final hours of the conflict, even as the Iraqi troops were falling back, a final bombardment claimed more than thirty thousand needless victims.
Against this background, now, the predominant feelings are of fatalism, resignation, and silent traumatisation. A new war would undoubtedly lead to the catastrophic disruption of supplies of food and water. It would be a humanitarian disaster. In our view this reason alone is enough to rule out absolutely any new recourse to war, whatever the circumstances. There is also another reason, however, namely the risk of destabilising the whole region, starting with the Middle East, where the Palestinians are currently facing one of the worst situations in their history.
The other striking experience in our view was our meeting with the spokesman of the inspectors and the director of the UN inspection centre in Baghdad. What they told us makes good sense. First of all, as long as the inspectors are present, it will be difficult for Saddam Hussein to manufacture prohibited weapons. Then again, it is completely impossible to complete such a mission in the space of two months, but given time, resources and the cooperation of the authorities, it will be possible to achieve the international community’s objective, namely to ensure that Iraq no longer constitutes a threat to the world."@en1
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