Mr President, yesterday the Greek Presidency stated that the priority under its mandate is to put the motto ‘‘Our Europe’’ into effect, and share the future in a community of values. However, values should not just be described; justice, the fight against poverty and peace must be pursued in difficult circumstances. In reality, the more we talk about peace, the more war there is; there is talk of negotiations while troops are being prepared. When will this duplicity end? How much longer will bullets kill Palestinian children, suicide bombers kill Israeli citizens, Russian soldiers kill people in Chechnya and the USA kill wherever it thinks it has an interest, and so on? I shall not give any further examples, since the world is such a big and terrible place. Is this rhetoric or sentimentality? No. I am expressing political and moral outrage, a stern warning against creating a Europe which has a forked tongue, as an American Indian chief once said while his people were being wiped out and moved to reservations. One year on from the Bonn Agreement and clearly many positive steps have been taken. The Commission’s facts and Commissioner Patten’s outstanding analyses, which I shall not dwell on as he read them out very clearly, are impressive. We all know that in a situation where there is devastation such as this, there are no shortcuts to achieving common interests without destroying specific aspects. We need to develop civilian infrastructure, rebuild houses, roads, schools, hospitals, not allow returning refugees to die from starvation and cold and attack the cultivation or sale of opium but give the population an alternative. I have personally seen the progress made this year, especially in Kabul – schools reopened, girls studying journalism – but at the same time, I have seen and heard that key figures such as military leaders and the United States have allowed human rights failures, which are still apparent. I am not just referring to abuse and discrimination against women at work, in the streets, in the media and not just, moreover, in the Herat area – land of the infamous Khan – but all over the country; I am also referring to social discrimination, to favour-based politics and nepotism, applied to everyone, but especially – and the USA is primarily responsible for this – with regard to the supply of arms, aid and political support for military leaders who should be before the International Court. We need to help the central government, the Ministry of Social Affairs – the Minister for Equal Opportunities, Habiba Sarabi, has appealed to us all to increase aid and support for gender policies and women’s policies within the European Commission too – and enable democratic elections to take place in 2004: these are all essential things. Moreover, it is also essential, as Commissioner Patten said, to extend central power to the various areas of the country, above all separate military power from civilian power and encourage the Human Rights Commission, not just the Afghan one – Sima Samar is a courageous woman who bravely continues her work – but also UNAMA. I met UNAMA representatives in Kabul who could not travel round the country for fear not only of warlords, but also of marines, for fear of speaking out and exposing human rights violations, in which we were also complicit. We must therefore carry out investigations for UNAMA. The passage of time does not, however, help democratic forces: Commissioner Patten also said this, just as he said we are arriving late; perhaps we could have done more in 1980. Donor countries should pay greater heed to the government, but above all to women’s organisations which are saying loud and clear that the warlords’ power must be cut off and the country must be reconstructed on the basis of law and democracy, because there can be no democracy if there is torture or massacres such as the one at Mazar-i-Sharif. Europe must continue to do its part; we cannot take a different path: we must give continuity to our work and our commitment.

Political group: GUE-NGL