Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-17-Speech-3-177"
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"en.20000517.10.3-177"2
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"Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I shall begin by disagreeing with the previous speaker. There have undoubtedly been problems in the past, but the problems of colonialism were resolved with independence. The image portrayed here by Mrs Lucas is a distorted one, which is bound to encourage the continuation of Mr Mugabe’s despotic rule and lead to greater suffering for the Zimbabwean people, which is really what is at stake. In the previous debate I drew attention to what I felt was a significant point here: one of the main protagonists in this crisis, the leader of the ‘veterans’, Mr Mugabe’s armed supporters, chose to change his surname to ‘Hitler’, and that says it all. We must not be under any illusions about what is really happening here. The facts speak for themselves.
Although we supported it, and although it was a step in the right direction, I rather feel that the April resolution that has already been mentioned was rather anodyne given the obvious seriousness of the situation. We should not forget this. The European Parliament recommended that the date of the elections should be set as quickly as possible, but certainly for no later than 1 June. They have now been announced, but for 24 and 25 June. We shall see what happens between now and then.
We subsequently called upon the Zimbabwean authorities to respect human rights, including minority rights, as well as international electoral law. We know that none of this is being done. What we are witnessing is a country being held hostage, and we ourselves are finding it difficult to define a fair position given the dramatic nature of the situation, because the appeals for help that are reaching us from Zimbabwe, from the MDC and from the democratic forces, say that it is a bad thing that the elections are being held, because they will probably be unfair, such is the scale of intimidation; yet not holding them would be worse. We are therefore witnessing a country being held hostage before our very eyes and before the eyes of the whole world, which seems to be paralysed and incapable of coming up with any more incisive action.
We must also make our position very clear. It is not just whites who are in danger. We have already been reminded here, and rightly so, of the atrocities committed in the past in Matabeleland and…
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