Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-18-Speech-4-266"
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"en.20081218.38.4-266"2
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"As the report says, according to 2007 estimates Zimbabwe has a population of 12 million, and almost half of them are starving. Life expectancy is 36 years. Only 40% of the country’s teachers are working and only one third of students attend classes. This shows that Mr Mugabe is not only killing the present: he is killing the future.
Repression and the trampling of human rights are also part of the daily agenda. People who uphold human rights in Zimbabwe have been systematically targeted with arbitrary detention, arrest and torture. Government legislation has severely curtailed the freedoms of expression, assembly, movement and association.
I would like to mention a few examples, since the government has introduced increasingly repressive laws that have been used against these activists defending human rights. They include the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, used by the government to effectively silence journalists; the Public Order and Security Act, which has severely curtailed the freedom of assembly, and hundreds of defenders of human rights, including workers of independent means, have been arbitrarily detained; and the Private Voluntary Organisations Act, brought back by the government in 2002 and presumably used to intimidate and harass NGOs.
Madam President, in my mother tongue Euskera – Basque – which is not official in this House, ‘mugabe’ means ‘without limit’, a good motto for this individual.
The dictator of this African country is not just one more name on the long list of dictators that we have had the misfortune to have on this planet, but I would dare say he is up there among the top ten dictators. In my opinion, we in the EU have to do our utmost for this individual to step down and end his days facing a Court of Human Rights.
We therefore wish Zimbabwe a happy 2009 without Mugabe."@en1
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