Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-10-Speech-3-021"
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"en.20040310.1.3-021"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am fully aware of the importance of this debate on the future of Europe. I would, however, like to take this opportunity to refer to an emergency very close to our hearts as Radical Members, and for which my colleague, Mr Dupuis, has been on hunger strike for over 30 days. We consider it to be an emergency for Europe’s present, one which unfortunately, was not an emergency for Europe’s recent past. I would like to turn once more, Mr President—in—Office of the Council, Commissioners, to the Chechen question. This debate is certainly important for the future and for the institutions, but if we let the present go by, the horrors of the present, we will lose credibility when we want to construct a different future. Well, Mr President, Mr President—in—Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, as everyone knows – but no one reacted – over the course of recent weeks, the Russian authorities organised, using the puppet government in Chechnya as a cover, a series of about 30 arrests of relatives of Umar Khambiev, Chechen Minister for Health and emissary of President-elect, Aslan Maskhadov. His brother Magomed
Minister for Defence, gave himself up to avoid further bloodshed.
Starting on 29 February, in dramatic raids, dozens of masked armed men from Russian forces and Chechen militia surrounded villages, entered houses, hit, insulted and threatened to kill members of the Khambiev family to the last; they abducted and took away those members of the Khambiev family that they managed to find there. There has been no further news of them. Seven hundred men arrived in armoured vehicles in Benoi, the village of birth of the Khambievs, and having beaten the inhabitants and destroyed everything they could destroy, they kidnapped seven people and demanded that Umar and Magomed surrender.
Mr President of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, what is happening in Europe – and Parliament has repeatedly spoken out in this regard, from a humanitarian and at times even political point of view – must form part of our political present. Concern has already been expressed even by the US administration. In accordance with the Geneva Conventions, we are calling for the Red Cross to be authorised to visit the Khambiev family and the Minister for Defence, Mr Khambiev. These Geneva Conventions should be observed, Mr President. We are going to put a question to the Council straightaway, but I think it is our duty to at least react to these methods. Not just with radical non-violence but also by means of European political presence and compliance with the Geneva Conventions. We achieved this even for Saddam Hussein, who received a visit from the Red Cross; it is inconceivable that we cannot even achieve this in this case."@en1
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