Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-14-Speech-4-161"
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"en.20050414.25.4-161"2
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".
Mr President, the European Commission welcomes the European Parliament’s initiative to draw public attention to the serious governance and human rights situation in Bangladesh.
For its part, the Commission will continue closely to monitor the political situation in the country and pursue these fundamental issues through our political dialogue with the government and close donor coordination. In that context we will also increase the focus of our attention on the next parliamentary elections in late 2006 and the conditions for free and fair elections. The political dialogue will be underpinned by our offer to support pressing institutional reforms in the next aid strategy which, if accepted by the government, would contribute to a meaningful change and thus to more progress and prosperity for the people of Bangladesh.
Today’s debate is very timely; it is being held against the background of a law and order situation that has suffered a serious decline since the last European Parliament resolution of November 2002. Abuses against human rights activists, journalists and minorities are on the increase. The governance situation is at an all-time low and political violence has reached a new climax, as sadly exemplified by the grenade attack in August 2004 and the tragic assassination of former Finance Minister Kibria in January.
We share your concerns about the dysfunction of the country’s institutions, the culture of impunity, mounting fundamentalism, the human rights abuses of minorities and the escalating confrontation between ruling and opposition parties. All these factors, combined with mounting religious militancy, make us believe that Bangladesh’s democratic and secular foundations are in jeopardy.
The European Community has been very vocal on these issues, not least in view of our development mandate and the human rights clause that provides the basis of our aid relationship with Bangladesh.
Over the last months the European Community and the Member States have repeatedly called on the government to condemn the persecution of political opponents, intellectuals, journalists, NGOs and minorities. The European Union has reacted strongly to the attack on Mrs Sheikh Hasina and the assassination of former Minister Kibria by urging the government to restore justice without delay and to give clear signals that acts of terrorism are not acceptable.
We are continuously stressing our concerns about the climate of impunity reigning in the country, the confrontational politics, the mounting attacks against the tribal people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the Ahmadiyya Community and the extrajudicial killings in ‘crossfire’ by special police forces. Let me also note that the European Union showed great unity on Bangladesh at this year’s Human Rights Commission in Geneva, where the EU agreed to single out Bangladesh as one of five countries in its statement of principle on human rights in the world.
The deteriorating governance situation has compelled us to enhance donor unity. In February the European Community, the World Bank and the US Department of State convened a meeting in Washington with all major international donors to discuss how we can foster key governance reforms.
The exchanges confirmed that our concerns are fully shared by the international donor community. This donor unity has allowed us to define common priorities and to convey strong private messages to the government on the poor governance and the urgent need to deliver on reforms.
The gathering in Washington had a clear impact on the country: it prompted the government to admit publicly the existence of an Islamic fundamentalist problem. Alas, the government crackdown on Islamic militants is already petering out, as demonstrated by charges being dropped against a prominent Islamic leader."@en1
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