Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-16-Speech-4-179"
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"en.20000316.6.4-179"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in our mind’s eye we can still see the tragic pictures from Mozambique, the results of a rare sequence of extremely harsh natural events. We are also very much aware of how slow the response to this massive disaster has been. We regard the resolution we will be voting on today as the continuation of an emergency debate which took place at the mini-session in Brussels immediately following these events. We concur with all the points mentioned here: the need to keep on mobilising resources for the rescue and relief of the people who have been displaced, to carry out an inventory of the effects of the crisis as a whole and to coordinate and unite efforts to prevent the foreseeable health consequences, replant farm crops and reconstruct the country.
But we alone should not bear the blame for the delay. We should also be wondering what other countries in other continents are doing. What about India and Pakistan, which have substantial resources and large communities resident in Mozambique? And what are the nearby African countries doing? Angola, for example, has powerful armed forces which could have given valuable assistance, or Zimbabwe, just next door, or Nigeria, which has an operational air force. These questions must also be asked given the imminence of the approaching European Union/Africa Summit, so that we can communicate better on this issue out of common concern for solidarity.
I must also say that we are sensitive to the issue of external debt forgiveness, but we identify more with the text set out in the joint resolution. As a Christian Democrat, I am sensitive to the appeals of the Catholic Church in this jubilee year for positive handling of the external debt of the third world as a whole. But we need to make a distinction between the different situations of many African countries. There are cases where the fortunes accumulated by the leaders of these countries would be enough to pay off their external debt, so these are sensitive issues which need to be carefully considered. We know this is not the situation in Mozambique, as poor as the country may be. However, we think the wording of the joint motion for a resolution is correct, and I must say right away that we agree with the position taken by the Portuguese government, which is to immediately write off half of Mozambique’s external debt."@en1
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