Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-09-Speech-3-033"
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"en.20070509.11.3-033"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it is quite true that 62 years ago today, the representatives of Nazi Germany signed the instrument of unconditional surrender, thus bringing to an end one of the darkest chapters in European history. The peoples of what was then the Soviet Union played a decisive part in bringing this victory about, and they also had to pay an enormous price; all these things we ought to properly appreciate and, of course, reflect upon them, and it is for that reason that I thoroughly endorse what has been said about the events in Tallinn by the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem, in these words, which I found very moving:
‘Whilst the Centre unequivocally condemns crimes committed against Estonians of all faiths and nationalities under Soviet rule, it must never be forgotten that it was the Red Army which effectively stopped the mass murder conducted by the Nazis and their local collaborators on Estonian soil until the final day of its occupation by Nazi Germany. Thus the removal of the monument from the centre of Tallinn by the government reflects a regrettable lack of sensitivity to the depth of Nazi criminality and is an insult to its victims.’
My group finds it extremely regrettable that disagreements in Tallinn on matters of domestic and foreign policy should have reached this crisis point, and we urge all the parties involved to exercise moderation and enter into dialogue. That a peaceful demonstration in the Estonian capital should degenerate into a riot and that the police should act in such a way that one person is killed and many others injured is very disturbing, and that it should happen at all testifies to the lack of dialogue between the Estonian majority and the Russian minority. What I want to highlight, then, is that we in this House also share in responsibility for this, for having expressed too little opposition to the discrimination against the Russian minority in the Baltic states.
The disproportionate responses from Russia are no less disturbing. My group strongly endorses the demand made of Russia that it discharge its international obligations in accordance with the relevant conventions and protect not only the premises but also the staff of the Estonian embassy and allow unhindered access to it. We also call on the German Presidency of the Council to help de-escalate the situation and bring Estonia and Russia together in dialogue. With the EU/Russia summit in the offing, this is a time for building bridges rather than barriers."@en1
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