Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-11-19-Speech-3-013"
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"en.20081119.3.3-013"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, first, in the middle of these quiet debates, in this very comfortable atmosphere, I want to paint the scene for you, as I have been over there three times in recent months.
Over there, as we hold our discussions, there is violence, rape and death. Today, that is daily life for many citizens living in this horrible part of the world. For me, this is no time for rhetoric, it is time for action. This dirty war is not at all, in my opinion, an ethnic war, as some are beginning to say; ethnic wars can always be created, because it suits us, the Europeans, because when there is talk of ethnic wars, that means the Africans are fighting amongst themselves and that it is not our problem. No, the origins of the war going on over there are to be found at the bottom of the mines – the diamond mines, coltan mines and gold mines – which, despite the massacres, continue to operate calmly and efficiently. Their minerals are exported, under the noses of the UN forces, from Goma airport or down the road to Kigali, and so they are still making some people very rich. That is the war.
To stop this war, this is the first issue which needs to be looked at. How can these mines be closed and what measures are needed to stop this scandalous trade? We could go back to processes, such as the Kimberley process, which was introduced for diamonds. I suppose some of our fellow Members will talk about that here.
Roughly speaking, over the last ten years, and while this figure is contested by some, I assure you that it can easily be verified, over 5 million Congolese have suffered violent deaths in this region, either direct victims of the war or victims of the collateral damage, such as disease and so on, brought about by the war. The question then is to know whom this war suits and who will benefit from its continuation. I think that is the first major point.
As for the European Union, I and my group think that there are three important questions. First, we must indeed support the peace efforts that are underway – not in recent weeks, but they have been going on for some time. We have nominated Abbot Malu Malu for the Sakharov prize, because this gentleman has, for a very long time, been committed to trying to find peaceful solutions in this region. In Goma, he brought together not only the CNDP – because the CNDP came, went, came back and went again – but all of the rebel movements and the DRC government. This is something that I consider to be important. There is the Nairobi process and the recent Nairobi Summit, to which the Commissioner alluded.
I believe it is, of course, necessary to support these efforts and support our Commissioner, Louis Michel, who, and I say this as a socialist whilst he is a liberal, is making huge efforts in this area.
Secondly, we must defend this population, at all costs. We are told that MONUC is not there to wage war, that it is there to keep the peace. Maybe, but MONUC has a ‘Chapter 7’ mandate. It is not like 1994 in Kigali, where nothing could be done, where we had to stand and watch impotently as massacres occurred. Now there is a chapter 7, and MONUC’s mission is to defend the civilian population. Well, the civilian population over there is being massacred and MONUC has not budged. A short time ago, in a village whose name escapes me for the moment, a real massacre occurred in Kiwanja, on the edge of a MONUC camp.
MONUC must therefore be reinforced by European forces; that is my group’s opinion. We will, in any case, be tabling an amendment to this effect.
Finally, I believe, and I will have to say it very quickly in conclusion, there is, of course, a need to proceed to the decisions required to halt the exploitation of, and the trade in, minerals which, in essence, are responsible for all the massacres which are being perpetrated over there."@en1
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