Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-15-Speech-3-315"
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"en.20020515.11.3-315"2
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"Mr President, my reading of this report differs from Mrs De Keyser's in that it is more positive. However, I would like to preface my remarks with a comment directed at you, Mr Gomolka. I believe we have to go a bit deeper still if we are to show cause and effect as they really are. When I was a scientific consultant at the Geneva Conference on Disarmament, I saw how, in 1985, the USA, the principal western European powers and the Soviet Union kept quiet when it was reported that the Iraqi army was using chemical weapons against Iran. Policies like that, of course, build up dictators and facilitate their access to weapons of mass destruction.
The report is, of course, inconsistent. There are contradictions in it. I would, though, highlight three things about it. For a start, it criticises Saddam Hussein's irresponsible policy towards his own people and towards the international community in a way that cannot be misinterpreted. It draws up demands that are necessary. Secondly – and it is this that I read in a quite different light – it raises what for me is the crucial issue of how the conflict is to be resolved, by emphasising, and I quote: ‘the importance of achieving a multilateral political solution in the region, under the aegis of the UN, as the only means of guaranteeing stability and peace in the region’. There must be no war. In this region of all regions, it would have the most menacing consequences, which would extend to every aspect of our relations with the Islamic and Arab world.
This report, thirdly, calls for the lifting of economic and trade sanctions, at any rate in all cases without military interest. They are counterproductive and have catastrophic effects on Iraq's civilian population, above all for children. Hence, Baroness Nicholson, our esteemed rapporteur, I would like to thank you for this report; even though it might sound strange coming from this side of the chamber, I did find it a report written in the truly fine tradition of liberality."@en1
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