Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-06-05-Speech-4-235"
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"en.20030605.9.4-235"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I am happy with the tone set by Mrs Junker, and I would like to ask the British Conservatives to show a little more subtlety each time they put Zimbabwe on the agenda. We have done this often here, with precious little result. There has been no other country about which we have accepted so many resolutions with so little effect. Let us keep things in perspective.
Zimbabwe is not the country with the largest number of victims of war or violence in Africa, but that does not detract from the fact that the situation is deteriorating dramatically. The economic situation in the country has never been so bad and is worsening every day. 7.2 million of the 12.4 million people are starving, there are violations of human rights, and so on. Torture is the order of the day, and the arrest of journalists is making a mockery of freedom of the press.
The people of Zimbabwe, however, have the will to bring about a peaceful transition. The MDC is exerting pressure through strikes and political actions, and we must support this pressure. We must support Mr Tsvangirai, who was the moral victor in the elections. If the elections had not been falsified, he would now most likely be the head of state. The opposition is exerting this pressure, but – and we noticed this during the ACP conferences – more and more African countries are willing to exert pressure. This has not always produced results, but it was important that Mr Mbeki of South Africa and the president of Nigeria both exerted pressure on 5 May, even if this does not seem to be producing immediate results.
But who are we to think that everything can change in an instant. How does Europe handle this pressure? Parliament is continually asking for all dialogue to be brought to an end. Is that the right method? The Council is obviously pursuing a different method and wants to impose sanctions as long as these do not stand in the way of normal dialogue within the international organisations.
We must know what we want once and for all. I call on Parliament to exercise pressure and to continue to do so and not to continually remain divided as to the way in which we do this. I support any healthy measure that will place the Mugabe government against the wall, but I also understand that the people of Zimbabwe, who have already suffered so much for the sake of democracy, also want to avoid a bloody war. We must know what we want, the Council must know what it wants and must not add a sentence about Zimbabwe in some back room somewhere, like in the G8. This will not help us at all. We share the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe, but we are also dreaming that democracy will ultimately prevail."@en1
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