(10/05/07) Schizofrene houding EU tov. Rusland

• 2007-05-11

Vandaag keurde het EP een resolutie goed over de komende top EU-Rusland. De Europese Groenen stemden tegen. De resolutie was niet evenwichtig en verwees niet duidelijk naar de schendingen van de mensenrechten in het land.

Terwijl politieke leiders van de lidstaten in eigen land niet hard genoeg kunnen roepen dat Rusland nu maar eens moet stoppen met deze schendingen, trekken ze op het Europese niveau hun staart in.

De Russische justitie moet ermee ophouden zijn mogelijkheden te gebruiken als politiek instrument. De Europese Groenen steunen de democratische krachten in Rusland. Zij leven in een angstklimaat en zien hun burgerlijke vrijheiden dag na dag verder beknot worden.

De EU moet deze praktijken durven veroordelen, zeker ook deze in Tsjetsjenië, waar mensen zonder meer vermoord worden of gevangengezet en waar nog gefolterd wordt.

EU-Russia relations
EU's schizophrenic approach to Russia should be criticised

The European Parliament today adopted a resolution on EU-Russia relations in advance of next week's EU-Russia summit. The Greens/EFA group voted against the resolution, which it felt was unbalanced and failed to properly address current human rights abuses in Russia. After the vote, Greens/EFA Co-President Dany Cohn-Bendit said:
"The EU is schizophrenic in its relations with Russia. While EU leaders acknowledge and are critical of human rights abuses in Russia when addressing their home audiences, they are all too quick to brush these concerns under the table when sitting across the table from Putin's administration. Tiptoeing around these human rights issues in its bilateral relations with Russia damages the credibility of the EU and the European Parliament should not be afraid to criticise this incoherent approach. In the absence of fundamental common shared values, we should avoid calling the EU's present partnership with Moscow 'strategic'."

Belgian Green and member of the EP's Russia delegation Bart Staes said:
"Russia must respect the rule of law and stop using the judiciary as a political tool. We express solidarity and support for the democratic forces in Russia that operate under a climate of fear and repression, with the growing erosion of civil liberties and freedom of expression. The EU must firmly condemn the continuing human rights violations in Chechnya where extra-judicial killings, illegal practices of compulsory detention, disappearances and torture are still commonplace."

Officieel persbericht van het Europees Parlement