Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-12-Speech-3-258"
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"en.20011212.13.3-258"2
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"Mrs Nurit Peled-Elhanan, Mr Izzat Ghazzawi, Archbishop Zacarias Kamwenho, it is with great pleasure that the European Parliament welcomes you today in this Chamber, in order to award you the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought. Please allow me to offer a warm welcome not only to yourselves but also to the persons accompanying you, and especially to those of your relatives who are able to be present.
Archbishop Kamwenho, your country has been at war for 25 years. Two generations of Angolans have grown up without knowing the meaning of the word ‘peace’. The death toll of this interminable war makes frightening reading: one million dead, almost four million displaced individuals, hundreds of thousands of war orphans and war wounded, a starving population, meaning one child in five dies before the age of five, life expectancy is less than 45 years, millions of anti-personnel mines scattered throughout Angola, and extreme poverty despite the existence of natural resources which have, unfortunately, largely been used only for purposes of warfare.
The European Parliament has always been committed to the promotion of a political solution to the conflict in Angola, and we have repeatedly stressed the urgent need for all parties to embark on a global dialogue with a view to a lasting peace based on the promotion and protection of human rights. Our Parliament has repeatedly expressed its support for the efforts made in this direction by the churches and the organisations of civil society. As Archbishop of Lubango, as President of the Catholic Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé and of the Ecumenical Committee for Peace in Angola, you have been an apostle in the service of fundamental rights and peace and a symbol of the hopes of the Angolan people, of its desire for peace, liberty and justice.
We salute your life’s journey as an individual and pay tribute to your ecumenical spirit, your determination and your eloquence. We also salute you as a spokesman for the aspirations of all those in Angolan civil society who are working for dialogue and reconciliation.
Today and for all these reasons, Archbishop Kamwenho, we award you the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought.
I shall conclude by expressing our wish to honour the memory of the victims of these conflicts, of all those, children, women and men, who have fallen in Israel, in Palestine and in Angola. We declare our support for the three winners of the Sakharov Prize for 2001, and we are profoundly moved by their tragic fate, and affirm a common stand against violence in whatever form.
Since 1988, the Sakharov Prize has been awarded every year by the European Parliament in recognition of individuals or organisations who have left their mark on the struggle for human rights and freedom in their home countries. At the centre of their actions has lain a deep-rooted conviction: the right to live in an environment of respect for the dignity of all human beings, whatever their ethnic origins, gender or beliefs.
This year it has been decided, for the first time, that the Sakharov prize is to be shared between three recipients. This is an exceptional decision in response to exceptional circumstances.
Mrs Nurit Peled-Elhanan, you are an Israeli who has been through profound and personal suffering. You once wrote: ‘If war is to be ended, it is necessary to realise that blood is the same colour for everyone and that when a single child dies the whole world dies with it’.
When your thirteen-year-old daughter Smadar lost her life in a Palestinian suicide bombing, you did not allow the horror to turn your mind towards hatred. Instead, you chose to denounce – and I quote your words – ‘a short-sighted policy which refuses to recognise the rights of the other and stirs up hatred and conflicts’. How many of us can be sure that we too would maintain the same courage and dignity in the face of the worst injustice of all, the loss of a child? All of us must feel affected in the depths of our soul by the strength and lucidity which have made you the symbol of all those Israelis who are campaigning for a peace which will take into account the aspirations of two peoples, the people of Israel and the people of Palestine.
In awarding you the Sakharov Prize, our aim is to show our deep attachment to supporting all those who, through their daily actions, in spite of such difficult historical circumstances and in spite of the pressure of events, are working tirelessly to improve relations between peoples.
Mr Izzat Ghazzawi, you are a Palestinian whose suffering has also been great. In one of your letters from prison, you addressed an Israeli friend and poet, Ya’ir Horowitz, who had recently died. In your letter, you tried to re-establish a dialogue that had been interrupted by death, outlining the dream of peace that you shared and drawing on the resources of hope to fight the despair which threatened to overwhelm you because the dream of peace was fading with time.
You have tirelessly promoted the cause of peace and encouraged dialogue between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. Your ardour has never slackened, despite imprisonment and censorship and, more importantly, the irreplaceable loss of your sixteen-year-old son Rami, killed by the Israeli army while trying to help a school friend who had been wounded in the school playground. You have resolutely pursued that same dialogue, through your writings, your lecturing at Birzeit University, your leading role as chairman of the Association of Palestinian Writers, your contacts with Israeli writers and your joint publications. You have endeavoured to make mutual understanding and tolerance prevail among the cultures, religions and peoples of the entire region.
Mrs Nurit Peled-Elhanan and Mr Izzat Ghazzawi, by honouring you both together, the European Parliament hopes to make a contribution to the advance of the cause of peace over war, to the expression of tolerance and understanding and to the preservation of hope."@en1
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