Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-15-Speech-4-202"
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"en.20070215.26.4-202"2
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".
Mr President, in Guinea, since 17 January, an old senile dictator has been massacring his people with complete impunity in order to protect his regime, his corrupt friends and his waning power.
Guinea is in complete decline. Despite its status as the leading exporter of bauxite and despite its deposits of gold, diamonds and iron, its people are among the poorest in the world. Its wealth is consumed by corruption, and bad governance does the rest. Repression beats down on a people who no longer accept it. President Conté’s only response to the January strikes was to have the crowd fired on, to imprison the trade unionists, then, having pretended to negotiate on 27 January, to go back on his commitment to appoint a consensus prime minister and to declare a state of emergency. There have now been more than one hundred deaths, and the massacre goes on.
Europe cannot remain silent and do nothing. We cannot wait for Guinea to descend into chaos with unforeseeable consequences for the region. Europe has a responsibility to fulfil.
We call on the Commission to implement the provisions of Article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement, applicable in the event of violation of human rights and democratic principles. We must now support the people of Guinea and demand that the authorities end the massacres immediately, release those arrested during the demonstrations, restore civil liberties, lift the state of siege, open negotiations with the trade unions and civil society, and, in cooperation with the opposition parties, appoint a consensus prime minister and government.
Furthermore, I believe that the European Union must call for elections to be convened under international supervision, with missions sent by the European Union and the United Nations. That is what is currently being done in Mauritania, involving our fellow Member, Mrs Isler Béguin, to whom I pay tribute in this House, and it was what was done in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with results that have been extremely effective and significant.
Finally, we must indeed support the proposal for an independent committee of inquiry, led by the United Nations, into the violence of recent months. After twenty-three years of dictatorship, enough is enough; the European people must stand alongside the people of Guinea in their fight for freedom and dignity."@en1
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