Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-12-12-Speech-4-547-000"
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"en.20131212.66.4-547-000"2
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"Mr President, I have to declare an interest, obviously. I was born in Sri Lanka. My grandfather was a senator and he was a founder member of the main opposition party.
It is pathetic that a vicious 30-year terrorist insurrection, claiming 60 000 lives, has all but been forgotten by this House and replaced with international judgments about how the war ended. For 30 years, state actors defended the rule of law against non-state actors which terrorised an innocent population, using them at times as human shields.
Sri Lanka is a 2 600-year-old unitary state, proud and undivided, invaded 14 times by armed forces from mainland India and repelled 14 times by her ancient kings. Uniquely, Sri Lanka is also the most Europeanised of any Asian state. She had 500 years of European civilisation: first from Portugal, then Holland, and then from Britain. She became a universally-franchised democratic state in 1928 – far, far earlier than 19 out of the 28 EU Member States which now think it wholly appropriate to lecture her on democracy.
It is laughable. That laughter becomes risible when states that once subjugated her now – and as this House has done – issue dated ultimatums for her to do this or that, by this date or that date, on pain of serious sanctions. Are we still back in the imperial age here? This is utterly counterproductive and only makes the current government even more popular. Instead we must build lasting peace with her people …"@en1
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