Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-28-Speech-4-138"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2004-10-28"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Cluster munitions2
dcterms:Language	"de"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20041028.11.4-138"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2004-10-28-Speech-4-1392
lpv:speaker	lp:Frithjof Schmidt2
lpv:spokenAs	member; DEVE (2004-07-21--2007-01-14)3 unknown; Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (2004-07-20--2009-07-13)3 member; Delegation for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (2004-09-15--2007-03-13)3 substitute; Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (2004-09-15--2005-10-26)3 substitute; INTA (2004-07-21--2007-01-14)3 member; G/EFA (2004-07-20--2009-07-13)3
lpv:translated text	"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, cluster bombs are weapons of a particularly insidious kind. When launched, a bomb of this kind can disintegrate into anything up to 8 000 bomblets, which then lie spread across areas of up to 240 000 square metres – about 50 football pitches – and work in much the same way as land mines, threatening civilians, children and women just as much as military personnel. This is clearly in breach of Article 51 of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Convention. For that reason, 18 months ago, on 10 February 2003, the European Parliament called for a moratorium on the manufacture and use of such cluster munitions and cluster bombs, and for them to be banned outright in the long term. This makes it a political scandal that these weapons are still being produced in the European Union – in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and Belgium. So what we are doing is adopting a pious resolution to the effect that this sort of thing is a violation of human rights and has to stop, and then we go on producing the things. At national level, our governments are doing nothing about this. That is hypocrisy, and that is why it is absolutely necessary that this House should again make its voice heard in opposition to the production of such weapons in the European Union and against the trade in them. It is perverse thinking for the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats to acknowledge, in item 1 of their resolution, the devastating effects of these weapons, and then, in item 3, to express understanding for the military use of them, on the grounds that the armed forces would otherwise deploy even worse weaponry. I think the ethical stance of the Christian members of the conservative group must make such a position untenable, so I call upon them to withdraw this item from their resolution; it really does undermine the case."@en1

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