Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-10-26-Speech-4-211"
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"en.20061026.29.4-211"2
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".
Mr President, Guatemala has a long and bloody history of violence behind it, and one certainly must not be partial in one’s judgment when considering it, for, while there were terrible dictatorships and repressions, there was also an equally cruel and bloodthirsty revolutionary movement in the shape of the Tupamaros.
Over three decades have passed since the eyes of all Germany were fixed on this part of Central America, when the German ambassador Karl Graf Spreti – whose son is a member of my staff – was abducted and murdered. Karl Graf Spreti was one of the great men who prepared the way for Europe; he was also a member of the German
for my party, but it was as a diplomat and an innocent man that he was taken away and put to a cruel death in the primeval forest. Since then, the country has gone through a period of terrible crises. It is for that reason that we must be very careful, but also very firm, in supporting the peace process there by unambiguously denouncing those who, while in positions of power, had recourse to violence, as well as those who misused the word ‘freedom’ as a justification for doing the same thing.
Guatemala has also, repeatedly, been the scene of gruesome acts of genocide, and it is cause for gratitude that the resolution does not mince its words about the expulsion of some 10% of the Maya, a people with an ancient culture, and the murder of tens of thousands of them.
We also need to seize this opportunity to tighten up our definition of genocide. It is said repeatedly that the term ‘genocide’ may be used only when a group is systematically exterminated. That is not so: it is also genocide to deprive an ethnic grouping of its basis for existence by robbing it of its homeland by means of expulsion and murderous violence. That has happened to many ethnic groups, not only to the Maya but also to smaller groupings in Guatemala. There is no statute of limitations applicable to such crimes, and that is why we must leave no stone unturned in bringing those responsible for them to account rather than turning a blind eye and moving on to the next item on the agenda."@en1
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