Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-07-07-Speech-4-213"
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"en.20050707.30.4-213"2
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".
Mr President, in a special way, the theme for this week is Africa, a continent neglected all too long by all of us, including, to some extent, those of us who sit in this House. Starting with the pop concerts at the weekend, moving on through the summit in Scotland on Wednesday and our great debate here in this House, it is Africa that dominates today’s topical and urgent debate this Thursday afternoon.
The subject of Zimbabwe alone has made clear just now much potential for conflict there is in this topic. It has become evident that there is a need, over and above purely humanitarian approaches, for a rigorous and well thought-out Africa policy to be developed. I have to say that I was shocked by what the Commissioner had to say on this point. Speaking as a Bavarian Member of this House, I have to say that, when I recollect that the Commissioner was, in his former incarnation as Belgium’s foreign minister, one of the prime movers behind the attempt to impose sanctions on Austria, that model European democracy, to hear him now give it as his opinion that it would be counter-productive and wrong to apply sanctions against Zimbabwe’s Mugabe, one of the most infamous dictators in the world, then I have to say that this application of double standards is something we simply cannot accept.
We have to make it abundantly clear that we, in Europe, can be credible only if we do not just potter around showering Africa with money, but instead, put together a political strategy and a perfectly clear concept of what human rights are.
I agree unreservedly that we cannot, of course, go around making ourselves out to be the ones who can teach the world. We have enough to do to put our own house in order, but, Commissioner, I do believe that it is necessary, as a matter of urgency, to impose sanctions on the dictators in Africa and exert pressure on them.
South Africa’s President Mbeki, who parades himself around the whole continent as a model democrat and peacemaker, is himself basically no more than a Mugabe in disguise, or else he would long ago have come out in opposition to the wrongdoing in Zimbabwe. That much is clear enough when you listen to what the representatives of the churches in South Africa have to say on the subject, and this is a cause we should take up.
It is in this context that we have to consider the portents for Ethiopia, and beware. Ethiopia has already experienced enough catastrophes in the shape of dire famines, wars and civil wars, a dictatorship bearing the unmistakeable mark of Soviet-style communism, followed by another civil war and a war of secession, war among its neighbours and more of the same besides; it is now heading for a new one. We now see yet another dictatorship coming into being, and that in a country that has massive potential, a country that is one of the oldest independent states on earth, with an ancient people, predominantly Christian in culture, that until recently had never had to endure colonial hegemony, a country that had fought Fascism and European militarism, a country that was once the pride of Africa and the symbol of independent self-supporting development. We must not allow this country to disintegrate into clans in the same way as its neighbour Somalia, into multiple divisions along tribe and party lines, with most of the parties based on tribal allegiance.
That is why we need to throw a massive amount of weight behind democracy and human rights in Ethiopia. It is not often that I find myself agreeing with Mr Kohlíček, but today I have to add my voice to his. We have to support decentralised projects in agriculture and in irrigation, thereby preventing it from being only those at the centre and the bureaucrats who benefit, but, on the contrary, enabling a new community to come into being, from the bottom up, on the strategically vital Horn of Africa."@en1
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