Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-29-Speech-3-032"
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"en.20030129.2.3-032"2
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"Mr President, High Representative, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, everyone seems to be for peace, saying ‘No to war’. Can you see anyone saying ‘Yes to war’? Everyone – the Pope, the antipope, the communists, the fascists, everyone – is saying ‘No to war’. What is the alternative to ‘No to war’, however? Specifically, it is the risk of war breaking out – which you have mentioned
in 15, 20 or 30 days’ time. What a wonderful success for the European Union: it would appear that the European Union has, at last, achieved agreement on a practical matter, if I am not mistaken, in calling for the inspectors to be given a few more weeks, for them to be given a little more time, a little more money, resources and a little more support. Later on, however, after 20 days, will there be a different strategy? What will Europe propose? The alternative to the destruction we call war – how do we, how do you see it? There is an alternative, and it is not peace: peace is what we have at the moment. For the time being, we are not at war, as you say, as my friend, Mr Le Pen, says, for whom the value of freedom and the value of fundamental human rights do not exist. That is his opinion! We all know the sorts of things that Mr Le Pen can say and the meanings that can be inferred. You can all go together: Mr Le Pen went to visit Saddam Hussein 12, 13 or 14 years ago with Mr Fini; now you can all go together. I can see some logic in all this.
We radicals have presented a proposal. In the space of four days, we have received approval from 66 countries. In Italy, to date, we have received approval from 57 Members of Parliament, half of them centre-left and half of them centre-right, including the former Prime Minister, Mr Andreotti, and other important figures who support this proposal. What are we suggesting? What proposal are we now submitting to you too? The alternative is called ‘democracy’, the alternative is called ‘law’ and ‘rights’, the alternative consists of enforcing written international law at last – for, although it is in force, it is not being enforced, as often happens in our country – that international law which, all things considered, has now identified a kind of subjective right to freedom and democracy belonging to the people living in this country, and by ‘this country’ we mean the world.
We have the chance to choose what the European Union wants, to choose whether it wants war or not, whether it wants Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq – for, whatever Mr Watson may say, he will leave accompanied, he will essentially have safe conduct as far as his place of exile, and, moreover, I would advise Mr Watson to read the Treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, from which he will learn that, in any case, Saddam Hussein cannot be prosecuted in this situation – but what we can and must do is realise that the UN and the Security Council have a duty to act. It is not a question of changing the dictator but of changing the regime. That is what is needed in this part of the world, where the gun held to Saddam Hussein’s temple, for better or worse, now gives him the chance to make a limited choice between falling in a
currently being plotted by his closest friends, shooting himself, committing suicide in a bunker, dying in a massacre or leaving the country, as many dictators have done, and being taken to live in exile somewhere else.
This is our proposal, the alternative to war, as I have told Mr Cohn-Bendit too, and, more specifically: ‘temporary government’ – in inverted commas – by the UN for two or three years until fundamental rights are established in that country – using Amartya Sen’s economics and other methods; there have been temporary governments in Japan, Germany and other places – governments with the task of restoring to the Iraqi citizens and the Middle East the rights which have been taken from them through violence. This is our proposal, and may
the others rest in eternal peace. I believe that we are choosing something different: living in freedom, according to the law, building a life which is worthy of being lived and consists of more than just constant dread of the terror of death."@en1
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