Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-17-Speech-4-166"
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"en.20000217.8.4-166"2
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"All who are in contact with real life in Kosovo share the same opinion: it is a tragic, desperate situation where there is a democratic void and no possibility of the different ethnic groups living peacefully side by side. Mitrovica is a tragic example of this.
Before military intervention by NATO, Milosevic’s policy for Kosovo was certainly to be condemned, and the demands of the non-violent forces of the Rugovo era for the Kosovar regions to be autonomous were justified. But NATO’s decision for military intervention and the KLA’s support for the armed forces had a devastating effect and have reduced Kosovo to a colony, as well as destroying civil infrastructures in Serbia.
Today, Kosovo has no adequate strategy for protecting minority groups, and these include not only Serbs and Roma, but also moderate Albanians who still believe in the possibility of peaceful coexistence and are persecuted by the extremists in power. It is useless to talk of the Roma houses which have been burnt down and the thousands upon thousands of new refugees and the refugees from Krajina, who are now living, barricaded in, in Kosovo, abandoned by the UNHCR, which itself has been abandoned by the donors, while the emergency is still of dramatic proportions.
In the joint resolution, we ask the Council and the Member States to double their efforts to ensure respect for minority groups and to work towards the creation of democratic structures, giving a voice to all those forces which still believe in peaceful coexistence. In this sense, I am in agreement with Mr Sakellariou’s proposals.
Another subject being discussed is the release of the Albanians held in prisons, particularly Flora Brovina, a woman of extraordinary humanity whom I met, together with the Women in Black of Belgrade, during joint attempts to build bridges between women from different ethnic groups. Flora defended herself, and asked Serbs and Albanians to shake hands. Flora Brovina’s husband is the guest of Serbian women in Belgrade. This is a sign of hope, the hope that it possible to act differently even in Serbia. It is not true that Flora Brovina has been abandoned. She might well have been abandoned by the large institutions, but we, who worked in Kosovo and Serbia for many years, are doing our utmost to campaign for her release.
I believe that the European Union must do likewise. The embargo on Serbia must be lifted and Serbia must, in turn, release its political prisoners."@en1
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