Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-20-Speech-3-230"
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"en.20021120.5.3-230"2
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"Mr President, as a Christian I feel ashamed at the way Mr Marchiani has misused the concept of Christianity. I do not regard the murder of Muslims as a Christian duty. Terrorism, arms trading and drug trafficking also exist in other states, including our own Member States. Nevertheless, no one is suggesting that we should simply be bombing those Member States, including Mr Marchiani's own country. We need to be clear about the fact that people are indulging in emotional manipulation here. We are certainly not talking about a war on terrorism – we are talking about the creation of terrorism.
The Chechens have been the victims of colonial persecution for 150 years. They were deported by Stalin. In the modern era, they have twice been overrun in brutal wars serving oil interests. Mr Putin's election campaign was one of the factors underlying the intensification of the second of these wars, which is still being waged.
So it has to be said for once and all that this is not a war on terror, it is more likely to encourage terrorists! We have a share in the responsibility for all this. So how have we reacted? The beautiful city of Copenhagen was boycotted by Mr Putin simply because the Danes exercised their democratic right to respect freedom of expression and freedom of association.
So why did the Council then shift to Brussels? Commissioner Nielson, who is responsible for humanitarian issues in Europe, has not announced that he is to visit Chechnya, but rather that he is to attend a banquet for Heads of State and Government in St Petersburg. Let me say this very clearly: it makes me sick to be part of a Europe that is sipping Crimean champagne in St Petersburg while people are bleeding to death on the streets of Chechnya.
I believe that Europe's most noble task is to advocate freedom and human rights. Yesterday we were celebrating the presence of our Baltic colleagues in our midst for the first time. Our colleagues from the Baltic states also owe their freedom to a Chechen, General Dudayev, who at that time refused to take part in the bloody repression of the Baltic freedom movement as he had been ordered to do as a Soviet officer!"@en1
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