Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-13-Speech-4-153"
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"en.20030213.9.4-153"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that this is an example of exactly what we must not do. What Mr Deva has just said is the opposite of what must be done in this type of case. I think, on the contrary, that we have made a serious mistake. Recognising human rights abuses in Zimbabwe is one thing, but assisting the opposition and doing all we can to establish a democracy is quite another. Lastly, the increase in sanctions proposed by Mr Deva is inappropriate in a country riddled with famine and pandemics, because these sanctions will not affect Mr Mugabe, but the people.
I still believe that our serious mistake was precisely cancelling the sitting of the equal ACP-European Union assembly. When Belgium grants a visa to nationals of a country, when the delegates concerned are present, when others then have the right to take part in a meeting and when we unilaterally and dictatorially refuse them access to this building, we deprive ourselves of the possibility for Africans and Europeans to adopt together a resolution that condemns what is happening in Zimbabwe. Instead of that, we have strengthened all those who support Mr Mugabe. We have provided him with superb publicity. What is not responsible is for you to say that France has no right to prohibit a man from taking part in a Franco-African summit in which he is involved, precisely because that would enable us to tell him what we think face to face.
If we want lasting peace in this region, if we do not want discrimination and violence against the poorest to become even more widespread in these countries, we need to involve the regional organisations, and in particular the African Union, in our action. In order to do that, we need to sit down with them and hold discussions with them. What you are doing here is forgetting the colonial past of a country in which there is certainly violence today against white farmers, but which is currently also paying the cost, it should be recognised, of that colonial past where, for many years, the vast majority of the black population did not have access to land, whereas today the country is the subject of agricultural reform. We cannot, therefore, solve the problems by trying to attack Mr Mugabe, but by sitting down together around a table, and I completely disagree with you and your method."@en1
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