Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-12-Speech-3-169"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2003-02-12"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Situation in Iraq2
dcterms:Language	"fr"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20030212.5.3-169"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2003-02-12-Speech-3-1702
lpv:speaker	lp:Paul Marie Coûteaux2
lpv:spokenAs	member; Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3 substitute; Committee on Development and Cooperation (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3 member; Members from the European Parliament to the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union (ACP-EU) (2002-02-06--2004-07-19)3 unknown; Rassemblement pour la France (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member_of_the_bureau; EDD (2001-12-11--2004-07-19)3
lpv:translated text	"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this sad business of Iraq has many aspects. We have already mentioned a great many of them, but what strikes me at this stage is the incredible power of propaganda, and in particular of the process of demonisation. Throughout the world today there are many men and women who believe, probably entirely sincerely, that Saddam Hussein is threatening the peace of the world, or even, as Mr Poettering said just now – and if the situation were not so dramatic it would be amusing – that Saddam Hussein is starving his people, whereas the truth is exactly the opposite and is so simple that one is almost ashamed to have to spell it out: it is the American and British Governments which for years have imposed a terrible embargo on people who are reduced to living, or rather surviving, in a ghetto. Consequently, Iraq is a country which has been drained of blood and which is now quite incapable of fighting any sort of war. Karl Ritter, who headed the inspection mission that ended in 1998, assured us that it was impossible that Iraq could be in a position to build any weapon of mass destruction whatsoever. I repeat, the propaganda must have been very powerful to make us keep on swallowing one impossible lie after another. Then again, even if Iraq were armed, what right would we have to deprive it of all means of defending itself? This is the second thing that propaganda has achieved, namely to make us lose sight of one of the conditions for world order, that is a world of sovereign nations who cooperate with one another and are well-balanced. No, the arming of Iraq is no more dangerous than that of other nations, and in particular that of its neighbours, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria, who are not necessarily motivated by the best of intentions. I believe, quite simply, that we do not have the right to disarm Iraq any more than we have the right to disarm any other country, as General de Gaulle reminded us in 1963 when he refused to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Another thing that propaganda has achieved is to make us believe that what it calls the international community has the right to topple a regime, which is absolutely contrary to international law and even – and this is my final remark, Mr President – contrary to the most fundamental truth in the world, which is the liberty of nations. I hope that over the course of this century we shall gradually become aware of this."@en1

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