Mr President, on 26 October of last year, Colombia’s President, Mr Pastrana, spoke here in the European Parliament. He maintained that he wanted to work for human rights in his country and for a situation in which activists involved in issues affecting human rights are offered protection and in which those responsible for murders and crimes of violence, which are mainly committed by paramilitary groups, are not granted immunity from prosecution but are held responsible. Less than a month later, the murders that form the backdrop to today’s debate took place. A paramilitary group attacked the organisation Peace and the Third World, an organisation which, with the support of the ECHO programme, works to provide humanitarian aid to farmers driven off their land. A Colombian priest and a Spanish aid worker were killed. The latter worked for the peace brigades whose presence is supposed to protect human rights activists against violence. These murders are just a few in the long list of excesses in Colombia, but this time a citizen of an EU country was also killed. Murders and disappearances are part of everyday life in Colombia. Just recently, for example, two prominent spokespersons for the peasants’ movement disappeared. They had been carried off by a paramilitary group and they have not been found. Behind the greater part of this terror are paramilitary groups with more or less obvious links to the country’s own military and power structures. It has been repeatedly demonstrated how the country’s military has been directly implicated in various acts of violence. The victims are the civilian population in areas where the guerrillas have support, the political , union activists and those who work for human rights. The legal in the country has been hit hard. Thousands of its representatives, including mayors and parliamentarians, have quite simply been murdered. Very seldom have the perpetrators been punished. In a country like that, it is not surprising that many people turn to the guerrilla movement and the armed struggle. It should be emphasised, however, that the guerrillas too are responsible for acts of violence which it is impossible to defend. Achieving better respect for human rights in Colombia is absolutely crucial if a peaceful solution to the country’s civil war is going to be possible. The peace efforts must be supported, at the same time as the Colombian government must be put under constant pressure, especially from the European Union, when it comes to the issue of human rights. Foreign, that is to say American, military involvement must be rejected. Our Group, the Confederal Group of the , has not been able to subscribe to the compromise resolution which has been negotiated. We think it is quite inadequate in its criticism of the Colombian government. It is striking that paragraph D of the resolution refers to the occupation of a Red Cross office by farmers, while the thousands of political murders which have taken place in Colombia are not discussed in any clear way. We have tabled two amendments together with the Group of the . In the first amendment, we want aid to the Colombian government to be made dependent upon respect for human rights, and those who work with these questions to be protected. In the second amendment, we want to increase humanitarian aid through organisations which are independent of the Colombian government, for example the various civilian peace corps. If these amendments are adopted, the present resolution will be somewhat better and clearer.

Political group: GUE-NGL