Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-11-Speech-4-164"
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"en.20040311.7.4-164"2
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"Mr President, I was totally taken aback when reading the draft resolution by this House on the situation in Haiti. I was expecting France and the United States to be congratulated – especially France, as a European country – for having put an end to an insurrectionary crisis, which was visibly degenerating into a very serious civil war. Yet, I did not see such congratulations in the draft resolution, even though the European Union has been saying, for several weeks, that it is greatly concerned about the outbreaks of violence and called on all political forces, without exception – and I am quoting the Presidency declaration of 18 February – to refrain from any kind of violent behaviour. These friendly calls came to nothing, whereas France and the United States have at least achieved something.
I was also expecting France to be congratulated for not being cravenly disinterested in a country with which it maintains cultural links and with which it has long-standing ties of affection, even though this country is in immediate proximity to the United States. France intends, in this way, to show that it is still aware of its historic commitments and the European Parliament should have been able to support this act of responsibility. I also expected France to be congratulated on having implemented a measure for preventive diplomacy, a measure to which the European Union, if it had been a good sport, would have been able to lend its support.
Instead, the proposed resolution seems to primarily deplore, without daring to say so clearly, the fact that a European country took an initiative without continually remaining in the ranks of those who issued friendly calls. This is a negative attitude and altogether deplorable, which leads the draft resolution to surprising expressions. For example, I see in Recital F, that the conditions for the departure of Jean-Bertrand Aristide are criticised in a veiled manner and he is referred to as President, even though everyone knows, and the report itself recalls this in Recital H, that the election to his second term in office took place without the participation of the opposition parties, which wished to protest against the vote count at the previous parliamentary elections, thus creating a crisis which has only got worse and degenerated since.
I also see, in paragraph 11, that the European Parliament called for the multinational interim force, authorised by the United Nations Security Council, to be formed, not of French, US and Canadian military personnel, but of United Nations peace-keepers, as if the European Parliament’s one overpowering concern was to exclude from this force the countries that have a presence in the region, because they are the ones primarily interested.
To conclude, Mr President, I am disappointed that the draft resolution does not recognise that France acted out of duty and general interest, that it gave assistance to a population in danger – to avoid the worst – and that France defended the sovereignty of the Haitian people and that furthermore, France endeavoured to protect the legitimacy of a process of political restoration. This, I stress, is par for the course because the Council of seven wise men, representative of the diversity of Haitian society, has just nominated a Prime Minister, Mr Latortue, with the approval of the interim president Mr Alexandre, which, by the way, makes Recital K of the draft resolution somewhat out of date. We should welcome this recent decision, which is within the context of a move towards reconciliation and opens the way to forming a transitional Government of National Unity that will itself be responsible for preparing the next elections."@en1
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