Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-07-Speech-4-188"
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"en.20060907.25.4-188"2
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".
Mr President, one thing that has remained constant in this House throughout all the years that I have been a Member of it has been the debates on Zimbabwe and its constantly worsening social, economic and political conditions. Appeals to Mugabe have proved no more effective than calling on his country’s neighbours – South Africa in particular – to commit themselves more to doing something about it, and the action we in the EU have taken has not made much of an impact on those it was meant to affect.
How do things stand? According to estimates, some two million people have fled to neighbouring countries, and most are living in them illegally. The so-called ‘Operation Restore Order’ alone had the effect of – in the truest sense of the word – uprooting 700 000 people; four million people do not have enough to eat; unemployment stands at 70%, and the inflation rate is the highest in the world. One effect of the forced resettlements is that the fight against AIDS is being made more difficult, with 3 200 people a week dying of it. There is now as much legislation on the control and oppression of the people as there was before independence.
What can we do? We can see to it that the international agencies operating on the ground on behalf of the UN give aid directly to the people wherever possible; we can ensure that the Red Cross can continue its work with the minimum of interference.
What I want – and I say this to the Commission in particular – is for us also to give aid under the Budget heading of the European initiative for democracy and human rights to Zimbabwean civil society, to the many courageous people there, be it in the trade unions, in the human rights organisations, in the churches or in the independent media. Let us ask the Chinese with whom in Zimbabwe they want to have long-term dealings – with the government or with the people? – and let us take every opportunity to tell our South African partners in dialogue that they, through their failure to act, are neither making things easier for themselves nor doing the people of Zimbabwe any kind of service."@en1
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