Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-14-Speech-2-042"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20040914.3.2-042"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Ladies and gentlemen, as is well known, the cold war is over and the Soviet Union no longer exists, and yet, as the report of the Commission and the debates in Parliament incontrovertibly show, the Belarusian people still find themselves behind an ‘iron curtain’. This is a paradox! Belarus is left as a remnant of the Soviet empire, a hangover from it in its image.
Now the whole democratic world has received a provocation from Mr Lukashenko. A referendum is under way to allow him to prolong his dictatorship. We can predict that the dictatorship will succeed, as the democratic opposition has been deprived of its rights and silenced behind prison walls.
Let us not forget that the President of Belarus was a prominent partner of the Iraqi regime and of Saddam Hussein. And this is all happening on the borders of democratic Europe. As a result, it poses a threat not just to the people of Belarus but also to the neighbouring democracies. Why is Belarus’s partner, Russia, not concerned about this? Was this a problem discussed with Mr Putin by Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder in Sochi?
In this situation, the only hope of Belarusian democrats is to place their trust in the parliamentarians of free Europe and in our readiness to give both moral and financial support to the Belarusians and, of course, to the Commission. It is our duty."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples