Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-15-Speech-3-055"
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"en.20040915.2.3-055"2
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"Mr President, what brings us here today, with confusion in every group, is anguish at the fate of the hostages, and I ask you what the European Union can do to defend those who belong to it? The French journalists and the two young Italian aid workers who were taken hostage are all innocent in this war, and they risk paying for their commitment to a free Iraq with their lives.
Quite apart from the victims, we must not forget that the whole of the Iraqi people have been held hostage and that each new bloodbath brings fresh chaos.
The confusions are beyond number and I shall mention only two of them. As the violence spirals, we are becoming unable to distinguish between victim and executioner, confusing resistance fighters with terrorists, the unfortunate fate of soldiers killed in action with that of civilian victims of what we euphemistically describe as excessive force. To be sure, those who kill hostages are unscrupulous criminals, but the origins of the tragedy and violence that are rife in Iraq are to be found elsewhere and nothing can excuse such things as the random missile strike on the Bradley tank last Sunday at a time when the wounded soldiers had been evacuated. These strikes killed children, civilians, and a Palestinian journalist. One day, international law will demand that justice be done.
Let me turn to the second confusion. Islam has many faces; we often see it in the darkest light, but the extraordinary outcome of the siege of Najaf and the courage of French Muslims in committing themselves to the release of the hostages show us that moderate Islam can play a part in bringing peace. This is something we will have to remember in other contexts.
We live in the – perhaps illusory – hope that, in 2005, free elections will be held and a government enjoying popular legitimacy will be formed. We ask the Commission and the Council to do everything possible to fulfil this hope. As Mr D'Alema said, the Iraq war has been a tragic mistake, and we cannot make history anew, but – and I say this to Mr Tannock – there is a point at which we must be able to recognise our own mistakes if we are to be able to rectify them."@en1
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