Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-10-Speech-4-215"
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"en.20050310.25.4-215"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, by withdrawing parliamentary immunity from three opposition members of parliament – including our friend Sam Rainsy, whom a number of us have met – who had drawn attention to what was currently happening in Cambodia and had denounced the gangrene of corruption in their country, Cambodia has once again shown itself to be a very inadequate democracy indeed, in which autocracy imposes an arbitrary governance on political, social and economic life.
We must bear in mind, as our colleague has just pointed out – and it is important that people are aware of this – that, despite the five billion dollars in international aid received during the last ten years, Cambodia is nonetheless the only country in the world where illiteracy, infant mortality and the number of people living below the poverty line are still on the increase. As the UN and World Bank have emphasised, those exercising political power are misappropriating international aid, the country’s resources, leaving the Cambodian people in a state of abject poverty. The donor countries – including ourselves – share the blame for this situation because there is no control of the true recipients of the aid, and a regime, known for its corruption and authoritarian excesses, is not being called to account.
Finally, what can we say about the peasants expropriated for the benefit of a Chinese company which, like other companies, is unscrupulously laying waste to entire hectares of forest? Since 1993, 50% of the Cambodian forest has been destroyed with the complicity of a corrupt government. It is time that the European Union began supporting those really engaged in the fight against corruption and striving to establish the rule of law and compliance with democratic principles, by, for example, making aid conditional upon respect for democracy, human rights and the environment.
Finally, let us force the Cambodian Government to do what is the duty of every democratically elected government, namely to respect and support democrats."@en1
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