Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-10-Speech-2-295"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20040210.16.2-295"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, Members of the Conference of Presidents, Members of the Bureau of Parliament, chairmen of the committees, Members of the European Parliament, ladies and gentlemen: people who visit Colombia very often say that it is a wonderful country, in complete contrast to the image portrayed by analysts and the media.
My government takes a democratic view of security, in order to protect all the citizens regardless of their ideas, of their economic situation, of whether they are employers or workers or whether or not they are supporters of the government.
Dealing with 30 000 terrorists is not easy.
We are aware that our challenge is to overcome the terrorist threat transparently, as a starting point for building national unity and sustainable democratic security, which seeks to restore law and order.
While terrorism is the great violator of human rights, the State and the security forces are devoted to upholding them. Last year 76 864 members of the institutional forces were qualified in Human Rights. In 2002 the Public Prosecutor received 231 complaints against the security forces for abuses of international humanitarian law. The number was reduced to 160 in 2003.
The monitoring bodies, the justice system and the government share the determination to severely punish any proven violation of human rights.
Colombia feels gratitude and pride in the courage of its soldiers and policemen. The sacrifice they have made in order to bring us peace has been immense: since August 2003, 277 soldiers and policemen have been killed by antipersonnel mines alone, and 854 have been injured, many of them permanently mutilated.
Our country is open to the vigilance of the international community. At our request, we now have an office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Their recommendations are received with respect. When the government believes they cannot be complied with, the issue is discussed frankly.
I recognise the role of human rights NGOs, I value the work of many of them, despite the fact that I express my disagreement with reports which do not correspond to the facts.
In almost 1 200 000 square kilometres, with more than 400 000 of jungle, for years the State has not been present, replaced by terrorist organisations. We have proposed extending the institutional capacity to protect the citizens.
Of the country's 1 100 municipalities, in 170 there was no police presence. Today there is a police presence in all of them, although we will not rest until the last of the urban centres is protected. In 450 municipalities we have installed soldiers and marines, known as ‘of My People’, who carry out their military service in their place of residence. The results are encouraging, and there is great hope that, following their active period within the security forces, we can count on them as leaders in compliance with the law, forever.
Others say that it is an illegitimate, authoritarian and elitist State.
Between 2002 and 2003, murders were reduced by 20%, kidnappings by 26%, massacres by 33%, attacks on the population by 84%. In January 2004 there were 51 kidnappings compared to 186 in January 2003, and murders were reduced by a further 17%.
The murder of teachers, trade unionists and journalists has reduced and, fortunately, the murderers in several cases are already in jail, as a result of our determination to eliminate impunity. I would like to re-state our enthusiasm and commitment to providing protection with particular emphasis on teachers, trade unionists and journalists, because no democracy can allow them to be murdered.
Violent deaths of indigenous people, indigenous aid workers and environmentalists, cruelly persecuted by terrorist groups, have decreased as a result of State presence in the ancestral territories.
Internal displacement is one of our great tragedies resulting from terrorism. During the last year it was reduced by 53% and 11 140 families have returned to their places of origin.
Although we have made some progress, the job has hardly begun. What country can accept 2 200 kidnappings in one year? We will only claim victory when the massacres and acts of terror are completely eradicated, because every one of them brings pain to the entire nation, such as the car bomb set off by the FARC in the Club El Nogal, exactly a year ago, killing 33 and injuring 173; or the rural worker from La Unión Peneya, who was burnt alive by terrorist guerrillas because he refused to abandon his home and swell the numbers of displaced people; or the peasant woman from Tibú, who lost her leg as a result of a mine while she was out walking with her five-year-old daughter.
The constitutional reform which introduces anti-terrorist laws was approved by Congress amidst national and international debate. The powers given to security forces to capture, intercept and carry out raids in cases of terrorism were subject to the subsequent approval of a statutory law, and also to other guarantees such as the obligation to bring the case before the courts within 36 hours, the immediate dispatch of a report to the Public Prosecutor and periodic scrutiny by Congress.
The law is less stringent than those in force in many Western democracies.
I believe that the world must reconsider the idea that this type of power placed in the hands of governments jeopardises human rights, since these must be respected fully and in the same way by both the judiciary and the executive.
I classify violent groups as terrorists on the basis of the nature of their actions, the democratic context of Colombia, the comparable international legislation, the source of their resources and the results of their activities.
People who plant antipersonnel mines, kill children, take pleasure in their own cruelty and act treacherously can only be described as terrorists.
With the strengthening of the State, our pluralist democracy has made the transition from formal and rhetorical guarantees to effective and genuine ones.
People who attack democracy, by means of violent action, while Colombia is determined to offer guarantees to all expressions of political thought, can only be described as terrorists.
People who for ideological or other reasons use or threaten violence are defined as terrorists under the legislation of many countries. Likewise, anybody who behaves like that in Colombia can only be described as a terrorist.
People who fund violence through illegal drugs and kidnappings, destroying the dignity, freedom and ecology of the people, can only be described as terrorists.
People who use poverty and inequality as a way to justify violence and then cause more poverty and more inequality through the exercise of that violence, can only be described as terrorists.
I am not opposed to a negotiated solution, but it must not be mixed with terrorism. An end to hostilities is a requirement, but disarmament and demobilisation require long timescales.
Colombia has had a generous tradition of negotiated solutions with armed groups. My predecessor, President Andrés Pastrana, made a huge effort to negotiate with the FARC. His good faith and patriotism were deceived in a cowardly manner by the FARC, which expanded their criminal empire while the nation waited and hoped for a peace agreement.
I have made democratic security a priority because that will make the armed groups appreciate the need to negotiate seriously, on pain of total annihilation by the institutions.
Nevertheless, efforts have been made to begin negotiations with them.
With the help of the Catholic Church, of Cuba, with the intervention of the Group of Friendly Nations and the Group of Facilitator Countries, we have sought dialogue with the ELN. There have been no results so far despite our willingness. They are afraid of taking steps towards peace without the permission of the FARC.
The Catholic Church offered to mediate with the illegal vigilantes and I decided to allow it to continue. I accepted that the Peace Commissioner should begin dialogue when these organisations declared an end to hostilities. It is time to update and monitor this ceasefire, with regard to which the support of the Organisation of American States is extremely useful, and this must quickly lead greater numbers of members of these groups to show a genuine desire for peace.
The vote proposed by the government and held on 25 October was discussed and approved by the Congress, its text was modified by the opposition and examined and reduced by the Constitutional Court. Abstainers and opponents had every opportunity to express their views. Nobody could complain of violation of their rights or government hostility.
When the State and society is attacked violently the legal order is also attacked just as it is when it is claimed that they are being defended through appeals for violence and the action of vigilante groups.
We must recover the principle of exclusive institutional protection of citizens. The demobilisation of vigilantes contributes to achieving this aim.
The government’s military action has been implacable against the vigilante sectors which have not respected the ceasefire. This is demonstrated by the number of demobilisations, which increased by 85% in 2003 compared to 2002, and the number of those captured, which increased by 135% over the same period.
The draft law on alternative penalisation, which is being discussed widely, seeks to facilitate peace agreements, without impunity, in harmony with justice. Although its negotiation coincides with the process which is being put forward with the self-defence groups, it is needed even more for the guerrilla forces, which has more members and a greater level of demobilisation during the current government.
In that law we must look at the past and anticipate the future. The pardoning of horrific crimes in the past is unacceptable today and it would also be unacceptable if tomorrow the law we adopt is modified in accordance with a political predisposition towards other perpetrators of terrorism who want to negotiate.
During this period of government almost 4 500 members of armed groups have been demobilised, 68% of them members of the FARC guerrilla organisation. They have been received with complete generosity and the State has made huge efforts to help them reintegrate into society. This number exceeds what has been achieved in peace processes over past decades.
The FARC are holding more that 1 000 hostages, including congressmen, members of the security forces and the ex-presidential candidate Ingrid Betancur, who has both Colombian and French citizenship. I understand the pain of their families and the international interest in a humanitarian agreement. Initially I made an end to hostilities and the initiation of dialogue a condition. My talks with the Church, the French Government, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and the families of the victims, led me to accept the quest for an agreement on the basis of negotiations held under the auspices of the United Nations, the release of all hostages, and the commitment on the part of terrorists leaving prison not to return to offending, with effective guarantees, such as their residing in a country which respects the agreement.
Without the effective guarantees that they will not return to crime, the government cannot release terrorist guerrillas. Otherwise, we would be disrespecting the sacrifices of the security forces, discouraging their actions and withering the popular spirit of respecting the law. We would be opening the door to constant extortion against the State and society.
We must bear in mind that on the one hand there are respectable citizens kidnapped by terrorists while on the other there are terrorists who are in jail. We must bear in mind that war is one thing but terrorism is quite another. In war there are parties whose legitimacy is recognised for the purposes of humanitarian agreements, while with terrorism there is a murderer and a victim which is society, the rights and welfare of which we must protect through institutional arms.
The authority cannot therefore give up on the rescue of hostages, despite the cruelty of the criminal, as demonstrated by the murders of Gilberto Echeverri, Guillermo Gaviria, Doris Gil, Helmut Bickenback, Chikao Muramatsu, and many members of the security forces. Murders of defenceless citizens by the FARC when they thought the authorities were present in the neighbourhood of the captivity.
The following day, the people elected 30 governors from amongst 133 candidates; 914 Mayors from amongst 3 441 candidates; 398 deputies from 373 lists comprising 2 723 candidates. The number of candidates was twice that of previous elections.
No negotiation can be allowed to strengthen the murderer.
Colombia is a social democracy. 63% of the country’s budget, excluding debt repayments, is directed towards social protection, education and health, directly and by means of decentralisation.
Terrorism has increased poverty. Building peace requires that we overcome that poverty. The government is working on a plan known as ‘The Seven Tools of Equity’, which are: educational revolution, social protection, promoting economic solidarity, social management of the countryside, of public services, a country of owners and quality of urban life.
Primary and intermediate education coverage reached 86.3%; the State technical education service will achieve its four-year goal of increasing from 1 070 000 students per year to 4 000 000; the various child nutrition programmes benefit 5 000 000 children; the credit for small businesses increased last year by 57%.
We have many social problems, but we are completely determined to overcome them.
The economy grew last year by between 3.7% and 4%, when we expected 2%. Last year the unemployment rate dropped by three points and the scourge of unemployment stood at 12.3%.
In Colombia inequality is not due to private enterprise but to the lack of private enterprise. Organised private enterprise has top officials to contribute to solidarity with its workers and the rest of the population. Our employers pay the majority of fiscal obligations, and the latest fiscal reforms have increased their taxes.
Terrorism has blocked the expansion of private enterprise and this has added poverty to the lack of business-like practices
We enthusiastically promote workers’ companies, cooperatives and the participation of users and workers in the provision of public services.
We believe in social capitalism. In order to combat the concentration points of rural property in the hands of drug traffickers and terrorists combined, we approved a law to speed up the procedures for seizing assets. Last year this rose from five definitive judgments to 61.
In several cities and departments, candidates from parties other than the traditional parties won, from organisations arising from the former guerrilla groups, from, shall we say, leftist or opposition groupings. In the campaign they carried out, the government’s main concern was to give them every possible guarantee. And now that they are elected, the government has decided to work with them, within the Constitution, regardless of the political reasons they were elected, transparently, and above all, with the patriotic task of uniting Colombia in its diversity.
The European Union has given us extremely valuable support which I would like to thank you for. The London Declaration commits us deeply. It has been a great source of democratic commitment, a great sign of European support. The funding of the Peace Laboratories is welcomed by the Community.
We need more cooperation in order to destroy drugs. Without drugs there would be no terrorism. This is not a time for blaming some people because they produce it and others because they consume it. The problem is so great that all permissive countries end up being producer, trafficker and consumer. It is time to destroy drugs. Our rural workers who cultivate it feel deceived by the terrorists and that their dignity is violated. They yearn for alternatives. We now have 20 000 forest-guard families to look after the areas free of coca and supervise the recovery of the jungle. Each receives around 2 000 dollars per year. We need to increase this to 50 000 families.
Young Europeans must be aware that drugs have destroyed 1 700 000 hectares of tropical jungle in Colombia, right at the access to the Amazon basin, which is seriously threatened by this scourge.
We in the Andean Community are concerned that the European Union has not decided to negotiate a free trade agreement with our countries, when it has updated it with Mexico and Chile, and proposes to bring it forward with MERCOSUR. The imperfections of Andean integration which are used as a reason not to negotiate that treaty would be overcome on the basis of the obligations imposed by an agreement with the European Union.
We are grateful for the extension of the General System of Preferences and we respectfully request that it be maintained until it is replaced with a permanent agreement.
I address this Parliament with profound respect, with gratitude for the interest you have shown and your constant assistance for Colombia. I am aware that the solutions my government is seeking to my country’s complex problems are controversial. I would repeat that I have faith in creative deliberation. Deliberation is more constructive than absence. Debate is more constructive than withdrawal. Constructive polemic produces more than the abandonment of seats. You are aware of my intransigence toward terrorism. My generation has not seen a single day of peace. The country we want for our children and future citizens must be a country of peace and equity. Distinguished Members of the European Parliament, I would like to say to you once again that my love for democracy is profound.
Mayors and governors elected by the people have been victims of pressure and murder from terrorists. At the beginning of this government, 416 mayors were threatened by the guerrillas and 216 were not able to carry out their duties in the territory of their jurisdiction. The work done on security means that the problem persists in just 14 places.
For more than a century Colombia discussed the popular election of Mayors, as a fundamental step towards extending democracy. The terrorist guerrillas demanded it as a condition for peace. It was approved in the 1980s. But that is the paradox of terrorism: it is the murderer who destroys the local democracy it calls for.
Our State is made up of institutions which monitor one another and of the broad participation of public opinion, which means that the citizens are subject to the rule of law and not the whim of the authoritarian governor."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples