"el Congo" in English

Finally, I should like to echo the desire that solidarity with Africa should not be overlooked.

Thank you, Commissioner, for your encouraging and highly technical comments.

The head of the delegation is still in the city.

It should also speed up the integration and the training of its national army in order to effectively disarm the ex-FAR militias.

Rwanda, which meanwhile for its own security has moved its borders up to between 200 and 300 km into the Congolese interior.

We may expect Kabila to finally initiate an inter-Congolese dialogue, and carry through the process of democratisation.

Only if such measures are taken can we hold out any hope that the elections due next year will make any difference to the tragic situation in that country.

Yet the weakest among us should not be provided with aid that is merely a sham, and takes the form of moral devastation, contraception and abortion.

‘ Fighting poverty in Europe: last week, in Paris, the elections were deferred at short notice, and hundreds of thousands of people protested, facing violence at the hands of police units.

This white ribbon is a symbol, it is also the symbol of the carnation that recalls the fight of Congolese women against the suffering they undergo every day - they were here just now.

Although MONUC's mandate has been strengthened and there are extra troops, they are poorly trained and there is a serious lack of information and technical assistance.

And it is a compendium of exceptions – there are more exceptions than there are Member States – and it is such a weak Directive that we will have to wait to see what this Parliament does with it.