Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-07-12-Speech-4-220"
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"en.20070712.28.4-220"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, Iraq is today in a catastrophic abyss and the Iraqi people find themselves in a state of utter despair and shock. The confirmed statistics provided by international agencies, such as the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq and other UN organisations, are truly grim and heartbreaking. Every day on average one hundred people are killed and two hundred wounded; 50% of the population is living on less than one dollar a day and unemployment affects more than 80% of the population. Only a minority have access to adequate water supplies and effective sanitation. Electricity supply is severely restricted and is subject to frequent interruptions without warning. Four out of five doctors have left their hospitals and three out of four children are not at school.
Almost three million people are internally displaced, i.e. they are refugees in their own country, and this number increases by about 2000 every day. A further two million Iraqis are refugees in neighbouring states, namely Syria, Jordan, the Gulf region, Egypt and Iran. These people have no formal refugee protection status.
The EU and the international community in general have a moral duty to show compassion and understanding for the miserable circumstances the Iraqi refugees find themselves in. Additionally, and more importantly, they must take much more effective measures to ensure that these poor people are given the help and support they so desperately need in order to survive indignity and the calamity that has fallen upon them.
This joint motion for a resolution lists a number of measures that are of importance in helping the Iraqi refugees have a more human existence.
So far, I have spoken as a representative of my group, now permit me to say a few words on a personal basis. Iraq is a relatively new country: it only became independent from Britain in 1932. It then followed a history of turmoil and, eventually, Saddam Hussein came to power. He was a tyrant and a criminal but he was assisted in gaining power by the West, including, unfortunately, some European states.
Sadly, though, even the worst days of Saddam Hussein’s totalitarian rule seem nothing in comparison to the death, destruction and suffering that has fallen on the Iraqi people following the Bush-Blair invasion and continued occupation of the country. These two ‘peacekeepers’ ordered an attack on Iraq, promising to bring happiness and prosperity to the Iraqi people. Instead, they succeeded in bringing a calamity of gigantic proportions. Yet some EU circles continue to applaud this invasion and, recently, they have even agreed to rewarding Mr Blair for his ‘peace’ services to the Arab world by appointing him Special Representative of the Quartet to the Middle East. May God bring some sanity to such circles and may God save us from the Bushes and Blairs of this world !"@en1
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