Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-06-15-Speech-4-152"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20000615.6.4-152"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, one year on from the end of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the situation is unstable and the opposing forces in Serbia are giving increasing cause for concern. The daily news is witness to the oppressive actions of the Yugoslavian government. Opposition is struck down and intimidated in the ways traditionally adopted by governments who feel insecure: newspapers and radio stations are closed down, equipment confiscated, various groups and non-governmental organisations intimidated and there are random arrests and trials with unjustified sentences such as the case of Flora Brovina. Many of the men, women and students who are victims of oppression today are the same people who have courageously spoken up in these past years, calling for peace, freedom and respect for human rights, and who have, in reality, been abandoned even by Europe.
However, the situation in Kosovo is equally worrying, where the oppressed have become the oppressors, and this has been said by Kofi Annan, Solana and Kouchner. In the space of a year, 240 000 Serbs, Roma
Gorancs and Jews have fled from Kosovo in terror. And those who have remained are regularly attacked and, in many cases, killed. The most recent UNHCR/OSCE report states clearly that, in Kosovo, minorities have no access to education, health and public services and no freedom of movement. And it is not only the minorities who are in this situation: even the Albanian Kosovars who are openly against the vendettas or for democracy in Kosovo live under threat and in fear of their lives.
Leaders such as Rugova are familiar with the situation, but even more in touch are those women who, together with Serbian, Bosnian and European women – the ‘Women in Black’ against war – have in recent years managed to maintain relations and build peaceful bridges. Some of them have had to leave Kosovo and others have been forced to remain silent. In Serbia, the centre of the ‘Women in Black’
is currently under threat of closure.
In my opinion, Europe, and, in particular, the 19 NATO countries, should undertake a large-scale self-appraisal operation and revise its policies. The crimes and unlawful acts committed by NATO against civilians are now universally acknowledged. In the interests of the protection of human rights, we must not violate international regulations and we must start by observing the Geneva Convention.
At this point, let us mention fundamental freedoms: for these freedoms to be established the embargo policy must be abolished. We must not treat civilians in this way, and the democratic Serbian opposition which is still today at the mercy of Milosevic is calling for us to change our policy. It may be that we should be the ones to give them strong support in Serbia and Kosovo. We owe it to ourselves, but, most of all, we owe it to a wonderful little boy from Kosovo called Felt who said to me while we were eating an ice-cream one day: ‘This war has turned us all into nastier people’."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples