Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-04-12-Speech-3-163"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20000412.5.3-163"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Madam President, I wish to begin by welcoming Commissioner Patten’s statement, which sets out the truth about our European assistance. Once again, we see the scenes on our TV screens of starving children in Ethiopia and we remember the horrors of the last famine in the Horn of Africa. Once again, we have pop stars and celebrities criticising the institutions of Europe and national governments for doing too little too late. It is amazing how quickly some people become experts when a situation like this arises and they can see some publicity, without knowing more of the background to the overall position.
Somalia is war-torn into small fiefdoms, which makes it extremely difficult for anyone – institutions or NGOs – to deliver food aid to the starving people. Who does one negotiate with in such a situation?
Ethiopia is engaged in a border dispute with Eritrea, which means most of the manpower is tied up on a war front and much-needed food is being diverted in both countries to feed soldiers rather than starving children.
Of course we must do everything in our power to alleviate famine. However, where countries are at war, all our aid must be humanitarian and channelled through NGO organisations to ensure that aid goes to the starving people and not to the war front. We must watch the situation in Eritrea and balance humanitarian aid there, if required. We desperately want these two countries to sign a peace agreement through the efforts of the OAU so that we can resume full development aid to both countries.
I recently spent a week in both Ethiopia and Eritrea. I visited refugee camps in both countries and saw for myself the hardship and the poverty people are suffering. It is not true to say that Ethiopia has not been crying for help for food aid over the past two years, but the war situation has blurred the vision of many looking on. When I was there they were pleading for help. I saw children with serious malnutrition and in need of health care, as well as food and proper shelter. I saw families living in caves, the walls running with water, and listened to the hacking coughs of children racked with fever. It looks bad on TV; it is a hundred times worse when you stand amongst it, when people are in such dire situations.
However, I saw food aid being delivered in Eritrea by German NGOs to a camp of 16 000 people, spread over 7 kilometres in case of bombing raids. I watched two strong men lifting 50-kg bags on to women’s backs and saw them stagger off to their plastic shelters kilometres away. I saw children aged eight walking eight kilometres out and eight kilometres back to get water. They were the lucky ones: they were the ones with food.
We never seem to learn a lesson from the past. It should not be TV cameras and pop stars who alert us to starvation and drought: there should be a proper monitoring system in the sensitive areas of the African continent. Perhaps this could be built into Commissioner Patten’s rapid reaction unit we heard of yesterday. We must have action and we must have action decisively and urgently."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples