Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-24-Speech-4-149"
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"en.20050224.13.4-149"2
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"Mr President, Nepal, like Afghanistan, was, in the Sixties and Seventies, a holiday destination for Western European disciples of the alternative life, who went there in search of a less materialistic way of living, of different ways of dressing, and in order to do drugs – rather fewer of these than we now know about. Both these destinations for alternative holidays have since become places of horror to which nobody goes any more as a tourist or as somebody in search of a better world. In both countries, over past decades, various attempts have been made at imposing from the top downwards an authoritarian monolith lacking any real support from a majority of the population. The outside world, too, has an interest in putting governments in the saddle or imposing one new regime or another.
It is under such circumstances that people, on realising that they cannot bring about change by peaceful means, reach for their weapons. In Nepal, one king after another has dismissed democratically-elected governments in the belief that they could do a better job themselves. In so doing, they have not only incurred the hostility of a wide variety of political parties, but have also provoked popular uprisings. Insurgents are now in control of much of the country, particularly its western parts. The warring factions on both sides will stop at nothing.
While this is going on, mainstream politicians are in dispute about how best to gain the upper hand over the insurgents, whether through one-man rule by the king or by means of parliamentary democracy. It is Belgian weapons suppliers that protect the King against the insurgents. There seems to be no prospect of an end to this misery for anyone, and yet a stop must be put to it. The traditions that Mr Mann celebrates may well not return that quickly, but the people of Nepal still have the right to make their own choices, to opt for democracy and human rights. Let us not impose limits on the people of Nepal’s ability to choose for themselves."@en1
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