GUE/NGL condemns French military intervention in Mali
Date
Sections
Strasbourg 15/01/13
GUE/NGL condemns French military intervention in Mali
In response to a statement from EU Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton on the recent French military intervention in Mali, GUE/NGL MEP Sabine Lösing said:
"The situation in Mali is dangerous and we don't want to see any expansion or entrenchment of Islamist hegemony. Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world despite its raw material resources and we have to ask why so little is getting to the people. The link between poverty and civil war has been proven."
"The EU has been right to stand back on intervention to date," she continued. "Now French intervention is supposed to be seen as standard procedure, but we know how little disastrous intervention in the past has helped people in countries like Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan."
"So what are the vested interests we are fighting for? Uranium resources are of vital strategic importance as they are mined for nuclear power companies in Europe against the wishes of the people."
Lösing also condemned the fact that European Development Fund (EDF) money is being used to pay for military training through the African Peace Facility.
She concluded: "Mali needs dialogue and social justice and not military intervention."
GUE/NGL Press Contacts:
Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20