Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-23-Speech-4-175"
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"en.20031023.7.4-175"2
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"Mr President, although our group supports this resolution – a very balanced one despite the many amendments, which we all accept – we do believe that what is needed, above all, to resolve this problem properly, is a realistic long-term process. For a long time, in this region, the land of the great lakes, we have seen very violent conflicts, even going as far as genocide and mass expulsions, which, if we merely apply short-term remedies, will only keep on recurring. That is why it matters that we should start by clarifying terminology, for the words that we use here are often not the same ones that are used in the region itself. We talk in terms of armies, parties, or refugees, but these are, as a rule, ethnic groups appearing in the guise of an army, a party or as refugees. What matters in the first place is that some sort of stable balance be established between the ethnic groups, with it being ensured that all of them participate in political life and are represented in the armed forces, in the administration and, as the amendment so rightly puts it, in the justice system above all. This is where it is very important that we should proceed with tact and sensitivity, rather than adopt a schoolmasterly and accusatory role, for ethnic misunderstandings and prejudices led us Europeans, too, to spend centuries smashing each others’ skulls in, and such things are still going on in Europe today. We really do, then, have to approach this task with the proper sensitivity and humility; we cannot expect people who were doing terrible things to each other only a few years or months ago to be able, within only a few months, to behave as if nothing had happened. That is why we need this process; although we must waste no time in getting on with it, we need sensitivity, we need time, and we need to be present. That is why we need civil servants, lawyers and also officers from the armed services to act as advisors to both sides."@en1
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