George Monbiot, in today's Guardian, on the deafening silence of European politicians as Serbia takes the chairmanship of the Council of Europe, the body, entirely independent of the European Union, which runs the European Court of Human Rights: the reason, he says, is that everyone is afraid of having their own human rights record called into question:
But who will cast the first stone? There is scarcely a government that does not have something to hide. The UK, Germany, Italy, Macedonia and even Sweden have been assisting the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" programme, kidnapping people and delivering them to states that will torture them on the US's behalf. Poland and Romania seem to have let the US use secret detention centres on their soil. Austria, Germany and the UK rely on worthless diplomatic assurances to justify handing refugees to governments that torture prisoners. Poland warns that "teachers who reveal their homosexuality will be fired from work". France supports African genocidaires. Spain repatriates unaccompanied children. Ukrainian police torture sex workers and force them to confess to crimes they did not commit. The UK bans peaceful protest and continues to occupy the country it illegally invaded.
Lift a stone to throw at Serbia anywhere in Europe and you will find something unpleasant cowering there. Better to leave it on the ground. The price of being left alone by other states is the tolerance of mass murder. When I discussed these matters with Terry Davis, he admitted that he had "not heard anyone in the Council of Europe suggest any form of action against Serbia as a result of its failure to hand over Mladic". The only action they could take, he claimed, is to expel Serbia from the council. Once you have become a member, you have the right to chair it when your turn comes up. I am not convinced this is true. The council's statute says that a member which has seriously violated human rights and fundamental freedoms "may be suspended from its rights of representation". Surely this could apply to its right to be represented as chairman of the council?
The price of being left alone has been the tolerance of mass murder
Meanwhile, a hard-line nationalist has been elected as speaker of the Serbian parliament.
Update: In today's paper, Terry Davis, current secretary-general of the Council of Europe, defends Serbia's membership, saying that excluding the country would only hurt ordinary people and that the Serbian war criminal, Vojislav Seselj, has taken the same position of opposing Serbian CoE membership.
What a difference 3 years makes.
Following the Greek Cypriot Sabotaged Annan Plan referendum The European Councils issued statement on 26 April 2004 stated its determination to put an end to the isolation of the
Turkish Cypriot community and to facilitate the reunification of Cyprus by
encouraging the economic development of the Turkish Cypriot communityand
for the Commission to bring forward comprehensive proposals to this end.
After 3 years the EU has failed to end a single embargo but is a
collaborator to the ongoing inhumane isolation of Turkish Cypriots leaving
250,000 of the EUs newest citizens to live under apartheid conditions
Britain is one of three original Guarantor Powers in Cyprus and has a
special responsibility to treat the two sides equally and to protect the
balance of power created in 1960. It has failed miserably (again) Today the
British Government treats the Greek Cypriot side as the sole proprietor of
the whole island, while condemning the Turkish Cypriots to life as an
excluded community without access to their basic human rights. This is a
completely unacceptable.
And when the UK embarks on another Boys Own military expedition to bomb
another Muslim country back 65 years and starts to ask why Muslims are
saying that these are wars against Muslims and Islam let them ponder on the
words Kashmir, Palestine, Northern Cyprus, Iraq and Chechnya. Then when
Muslims start to mobilise politically against the Labour Party and the
fascists start popping up encroaching on Labour territory it will, of course,
all be down to Muslims not being "Good British Citizens"
What is the position of the British Government on the unacceptable treatment of the people of Northern Cyprus ?