Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-06-Speech-4-260"
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"en.20000706.10.4-260"2
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"Mr President, who could not feel sorry for the sorely tried population of Iraq? I would therefore like to think that it was this sympathy that was the driving force behind those submitting the joint resolution. The political ramifications of their intention are, however, a missed opportunity. What is more, they are a complete disaster for the liberated Kurdish part of ancient Mesopotamia. Allow me to be more specific. Contrary to what is assumed in recitals B and C, Saddam Hussein, a latter-day Nebuchadnesar, took it upon himself to raze this old civilisation he admired so much to the ground. This is evident from the first and second Gulf War and another five years, the 1991-1996 period, during which Baghdad categorically refused to cooperate in the oil-for-food programme, which led to a completely unnecessary lengthening of human suffering.
At present, the Iraqi Government is even allowed to export unlimited quantities of oil in order to procure humanitarian aid. In other words, what is stopping Saddam from alleviating the suffering of his people? In fact, what will happen with the reserved 13% for the Kurds in the unlikely event that the sanctions are lifted? In my view, the use of the strange term “intellectual embargo” in recital D is bizarre. After all, the Iraqi intelligentsia has for decades strained under the intellectual embargo of Saddam’s Baath party. The tyrant of the Tigris is only interested in one type of scientist: the developer of weapons of mass destruction. It is precisely this obsession of Saddam Hussein’s which reveals the very risky naivety of Paragraph 3 of the joint resolution, because the lifting of the no-fly zone in the North of Iraq – remember this is the international guarantee for the Kurds against their arch enemy Saddam – will probably drive millions of Kurds to take flight once again. They know all too well what Saddam’s pledges are really worth. Those tabling this resolution cannot possibly have it in mind to raise this awful spectre. Hence my explicit vote against."@en1
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