Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-17-Speech-3-176"
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"en.20010117.5.3-176"2
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"Mr President, I would like to concentrate on three issues in this debate on the preparation of the annual human rights conference in Geneva, and the European Union’s role in this. I would like to say a few things about the situation in Burma, and in Indonesia, and about the child soldier phenomenon.
It is already almost ten years since Aung San Suu Kyi was chosen as President of Burma and the Burmese Parliament received a majority of her party, the NLD. Since then, Burma has been suffering under a military dictatorship, scores of MPs have been murdered or have fled, and there is talk of unprecedented acts of terror being committed against political opponents and minorities. I have long been a member of Pidi-Burma, a group under the leadership of former Premier Bondevik of Norway, and I have visited the refugee camps of the Burmese in Thailand. I have a rough idea of what is happening in the country. I now hear that there is a possibility of talks between Aung San Suu Kyi and the military command, and that next month, a delegation from the European Union under the leadership of Sweden is going to travel to Burma. However, beware of being led up the garden path. The military regime out there has made so-called concessions before, which later proved to be absolutely worthless, and this often happened just before an EU-ASEAN Summit, or just before the conference in Geneva. Our advice is please keep a highly critical resolution about Burma to hand in Geneva and do not have any qualms about pushing for investment freezes or sanctions on that front. I emphasise this point not because I am any particular fan of sanctions, but if there is one country that does deserve them, it is Burma.
Then there is Indonesia, a country in the midst of a democratisation process and where the government is having to deal with tough opposition. The country is facing enormous problems in a number of regions such as Aceh, the Moluccas, Irian Jaya and Timor. By all accounts, more than a million people have now fled and tens of thousands have been killed or wounded. Disaffected soldiers and fundamentalist Muslim groups are mainly the ones to blame for serious violations of human rights. The government is not doing enough about it and so a resolution in Geneva would be both beneficial and necessary. The idea would not be to attack the Wahid government, but to urge it to deal with the human rights violations more effectively and bring the culprits to justice.
Lastly, I would like to draw attention to the growing problem, particularly in Africa, of the child soldiers, who are incited to commit the most terrible, drug-induced acts. We see evidence of this in the Sudan, and Sierra Leone, and the phenomenon is also on the increase in a number of other countries. What we are talking about here is a double human rights violation. First, these children are abducted, and then they are brainwashed, using drugs and other techniques, into maiming and murdering people. And when I look at the regime in Sudan, I feel this warrants additional criticism because it admits these groups to its territory in southern Sudan in order to carry on a reign of terror in Uganda. These groups also abduct girls from schools in northern Uganda for special services. What this in fact means is that these children suffer a triple injustice. There is an urgent need for a robust statement on these practices in Geneva, as I see it, and I also call upon the European Union to table a resolution in this vein.
Mr President, naturally I support the criticism of China with regard to Tibet, of Russia with regard to Chechnya, and I endorse the criticism voiced in relation to the human rights violations in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, also when it comes to the repugnant public lynchings that are carried out. I approve of the criticism levelled at Iran and its lack of religious freedom, freedom for women and press freedom, but do not forget Burma and Indonesia and the child soldiers. That was the message I particularly wanted to get across."@en1
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