Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-04-13-Speech-4-148"

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"Mr President, during these last few days, Parliament has been watching an extraordinarily powerful documentary on the effects of the sanctions on Iraq, and I would like to thank Patricia McKenna for this. Civilians, men, women and children are dying because of the sanctions. I will not repeat the figures, for we are all aware of them and they have been quoted many times in this Chamber. But what a contradiction. What a tragedy. In the name of the protection of human rights, the rich, powerful countries of the West are killing communities and starving them to death. During the war in Yugoslavia, American aircraft continuously bombarded towns, killing civilians. It is better to tell the truth and admit that the interests of the United States take precedence over those of communities. Today, we are going to vote on a motion, a very important motion for a resolution calling for an end to the sanctions, an end to the embargo. I feel that we must then act in order to give practical effect to our resolution. There is no doubt about the fact that it is important for Iraq to change its policy and that the existing arms must be monitored and decommissioned, but, in this regard, there is abundant documented evidence that the nuclear and chemical weapons have already been decommissioned. And that is essential. However, I also feel that a clear policy must be developed for the decommissioning of nuclear weapons where they exist in the Middle East. For example, Israel is full of nuclear weapons and no one is asking Israel to decommission. Unfortunately, even the resolution called for by Egypt was not supported by the European Parliament in Cairo. We must do everything possible to free this world from the nuclear threat. Today, I would also like to pay tribute to Dennis Halliday – mentioned by Ms McKenna as well – who was responsible for the oil-for-food deal. In a world of hypocrites and careerists, Dennis Halliday had the courage to speak out over the implications of the sanctions on the Iraqi people and to condemn the lies of the United States departments. Saddam Hussein is certainly responsible and guilty, but we are also incurring a great deal of responsibility and guilt in continuing with a policy which maintains the population of a country in extreme poverty, a population such as the Iraqi people, with a rich history and culture, a population made up of people, women, children, who want to live. I hope that when the embargo imposed on Iraq is lifted, this will be the end of all embargoes everywhere throughout the world. This is important for all of us."@en1

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