Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-03-09-Speech-3-020-000"
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"en.20110309.6.3-020-000"2
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"Mr President, this is an extraordinary debate. I agree with almost everything that Daniel Cohn-Bendit has said today, which makes me a bit worried. As I have always said, Gaddafi remains the Fidel Castro of Africa, although not even Castro would have resorted to such savage violence as we have seen recently from the Gaddafi regime and his sociopathic sons against civilian protestors.
Last January, I drew attention to the fact that Gaddafi used to be a huge sponsor of terrorism. Now, of course, he stands accused of terrorising his own people. Gaddafi spent a lot of money and time courting the West, trying to make us think he was a changed man. That has not happened, of course. With vast oil revenues at his disposal, he was able to dispense largesse in return for political acquiescence throughout Europe and Africa, not least in my own country, the United Kingdom, particularly under the previous government.
Our first priority now is to help bring an end to the senseless violence in Libya. I was amongst the first in this House to call for a no-fly zone. I thank France and the United Kingdom for pursuing this vigorously over the entire country to stop Gaddafi bombing his own people and flying in mercenaries, mainly from Algeria and sub-Saharan Africa. I believe that the Security Council – particularly with the Russian and Chinese veto at stake – may not sanction this issue of a no-fly zone.
We should now seriously consider recognising the Transitional National Council in Benghazi as the legitimate Libyan Government, so that it could invite military assistance in without the need for recourse to a UN resolution. This would prevent further civilian massacres and give the pro-democracy rebels a real chance.
Fortunately, most EU citizens in Libya were safely evacuated – and this was done efficiently – but it was clear to me that most EU Member States were only interested in helping their own nationals. The Maastricht Treaty provisions that allow EU citizens, wherever they are, to seek consular protection from any Member State in times of urgent need appeared to have been totally forgotten during the evacuation process."@en1
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