Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-14-Speech-4-220"
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"en.20020314.11.4-220"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, a year ago the SAARC delegation of the European Parliament visited Sri Lanka. I was there in my capacity as vice-president and was able to visit both the north and the south of the island. In the vicinity of Jaffna, the army had just managed to reclaim large tracts of land formerly occupied by the Tamil Tigers. We saw villages razed to the ground, land laid waste and a demonstration by fishermen and farmers wanting to return home but prevented from doing so for security reasons. Back in Colombo, foreign observers and the local non-governmental organisations told us the war in Sri Lanka had become an institution.
At all the talks we backed the Norwegian intermediaries who have been trying to set up bilateral negotiations for years now. Only a few of us believed then in an end to a civil war which had lasted nearly twenty years and claimed over 60 000 lives. Since the elections, which were won by the United National Front on a manifesto which included a peaceful resolution to the conflict, the situation has changed. Economic sanctions have been lifted, fishing restrictions reduced, the transport embargo relaxed and sea and air links established. Following the ceasefire, which hopefully will hold up, prisoners of war have been exchanged and Norway has again asked for assistance.
Commissioner Fischler, I am pleased to say that the European Union has not been sitting on its hands. Our main help has been humanitarian. Since 1993, some EUR 13 million have been collected through ECHO. EUR 1 million was recently provided to improve the food and health situation, for medical care and medication and to pave the way for better hygiene and cleaner water. The European Union should not only take financial action at the donor conference in Sri Lanka in May. More importantly, it should exercise political pressure so that the ceasefire and the initial peace talks, which are just tender shoots, are not just a flash in the pan, as has been the case so often in previous years, and actually come to something this time round. We must hope for a lasting peace process for this country and its people."@en1
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