Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-09-04-Speech-3-021"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2002-09-04"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Iraq2
dcterms:Language	"en"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20020904.1.3-021"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2002-09-04-Speech-3-0222
lpv:speaker	lp:Baroness Nicholson Of Winterbourne2
lpv:spoken text	"Mr President, we run the risk today of fiddling while Rome burns. At any moment the current low-intensity aerial defence of southern and northern Iraq – which has been carried out at considerable personal risk by pilots from the USA, originally from France, and also from the UK, to whom I pay tribute as they have saved countless lives – may be stepped up to considerably heavier military action, which I believe will have support from a wide number of countries which are at present silent about their opinions. The EU voice must be heard. We must no longer stand on the sidelines, wringing our hands and repeating like a hopeless prayer 'Iraq must comply with UN conventions and the weapons inspectors must go in' because this leopard will not change his spots. We have ample evidence of the use of weapons of mass destruction. I have first-hand personal evidence of the use of such weapons: chemical warfare against the southern Iraqi people in the late 1990s. I have talked to the victims who stumbled choking from clouds of yellow smoke that must have been mustard gas. We have evidence first hand of the destruction of the environment, the water, the degradation of life in the marshes of the deep south, for example. We talk in Johannesburg about the need to bring water to millions more people, yet we have allowed Saddam Hussein to take away the water from over half a million Iraqi people. We have stood silent. We have first-hand evidence of that. We have been overflying the south since 1994. On human rights and genocide: as Max van der Stoel said when he was human rights reporter on Iraq for the United Nations: 'Genocide has been carried out against the Marsh Arabs and the Iraqi people'. We have evidence of that; I personally have had evidence at first hand. On weapons of mass destruction: surely our quarrel is not precisely about having weapons of mass destruction – quite a number of countries sadly have such weapons – it is what you do with them that counts. We have the continuing threats of Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait and Iran. I have seen the mined borders and the tanks just over the borders from Iran. We have that evidence available. What can we do? We can set up the Office of Inquiry for Human Rights Violations that was recommended in our report, which the Commissioner so kindly referred to just now. We had a full house – an 85% majority for the vote on that report. I call upon the Commissioner and the Council of Ministers to set up that office today."@en1
lpv:spokenAs	substitute; AGRI (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3 member; ELDR (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member; Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries and the Gulf (2002-02-07--2004-07-19)3 unknown; Liberal Democrat Party (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 substitute; Delegation to the EU-Romania Joint Parliamentary Committee (2002-02-07--2004-07-19)3 vice-chair; Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy (2002-01-22--2004-07-19)3
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"(Applause from the centre and the right)"1 "Nicholson of Winterbourne (ELDR )."1

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