September 2001

LESSONS FROM AMERICA

The shocking carnage that engulfed America on 11 September will mark a watershed in attitudes to terrorism in the Western democracies. There was a catastrophic failure of Western intelligence agencies to uncover an operation that must have taken months to plan. Dozens if not hundreds of terrorists must have been involved in plotting the military-style operation and in carrying out its surgical execution. Trained teams of hi-jackers armed with bombs and knives were able to penetrate US security, airport security and even airborne security to perpetrate their horrendous act of cowardice and brutality. Each of the four teams of hi-jackers must have contained a trained pilot, capable of handling a Boeing 767. The level of sophistication and depth of training involved is breathtaking and points the finger squarely at Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi terrorist leader currently hiding in Afghanistan. No other person would have the networks or the massive resources necessary to mount such an operation and few other terrorist leaders are filled with such a depth of hatred for all things American.

There will be many lessons to be learned from this disaster. The first will be the need for a root and branch review of our security services throughout the West. Clearly we have placed too much emphasis on technical surveillance and have become slipshod at human intelligence or good old spying! We need to shake up state security agencies to ensure that such an outrage can never be allowed to happen again. The second lesson must be to tighten up airport and aircraft security. It is outrageous that armed terrorists managed to breach airport controls, but it is equally alarming that hi-jackers were able to enter the cockpits of four separate passenger aircraft.

However, the most fundamental lesson of all concerns Western attitudes to terrorism. For far too long we have allowed ourselves to become beguiled by the mealy-mouthed, 'softly softly' approach to terrorism espoused by the politically correct, liberal establishment. We have nurtured terrorists in our midst. In the UK we have even rewarded IRA commanders with high ministerial office and we have released scores of murderers and bombers from prison. That approach has now cost the lives of thousands of Americans.

I was pleased to hear President George W. Bush say that he will make no distinction between those who harbour terrorists and the terrorists themselves. The same goes for the sponsors of terrorism. The time for action, not words, has finally arrived. Unless we are prepared to strike back against the Taleban who protect Osama Bin Laden and any other sponsors or allies of terrorists wherever and whoever they may be, we remain vulnerable to another horrific attack. The terrorists have declared war on western democracy. We must be prepared to fight back.

TORY MEPs SLAM BRITISH GOVERNMENT ON FMD

At an urgency meeting held in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Tory MEPs called for an in depth review of the UK government's handling of the Foot and Mouth disease in England and Wales. We demanded that Tony Blair and his ministers should be held to account for the staggering incompetence of the British government and we suggested that this could best be achieved by an EU-wide enquiry.

The Tory delegation of Euro MPs supported a resolution, which highlighted the British government's failure to control the disease and highlighted the new spate of outbreaks in England. I also voiced my concern, as a Scottish MEP and farmer, over the apparent inadequacy of control measures implemented to prevent the disease spreading across borders and into other EU Member States. Indeed, these failings have resulted in continental MEPs demanding that the European Commission should force a policy change on the UK, including a discussion on the viability of ring vaccination as a possible control measure.

The renewed outbreak in Northumberland once again raises the possibility of the disease spreading across the border into Scotland and current weather conditions increase this risk. The EU must ensure it takes the most effective preventative action and the best way to determine what this should be is a full-scale inquiry.

ZIMBABWE: CONSERVATIVE MEPs DEMAND ACTION

In the light of the escalating situation in Zimbabwe, I joined Conservative MEPs in Strasbourg in demanding that tough action be taken against the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe.

A resolution tabled by Tory MEPs and supported by the full parliament demanded that concrete EU measures against the Mugabe regime be implemented. Such measures include a travel ban to EU countries on President Mugabe, his family and henchmen and freezing of their overseas assets. We also called for suspension of all EU aid managed through the Zimbabwean government.

Mugabe has brutalised the people of Zimbabwe for too long and wrecked the country's economy. His apparent agreement to a peace deal brokered by Jack Straw, which includes a cash gift of £30 million, has not been mirrored by action on the ground in Zimbabwe, where his so-called 'war veteran' thugs continue to murder and intimidate white farmers and their Zimbabwean workers.

Mugabe faces defeat in the Presidential election next year, but he will do anything to cling to power. He has tried using the land issue for political gain and conducted a campaign of brutal intimidation against his political opponents. There have been over 100 murders of those that haven't supported the ruling clique.

I empathise deeply with the people of Zimbabwe. It is my belief that we, as Europeans, have a collective responsibility to aiding their cause.

But this is not a matter for Britain alone. Mugabe's regime is a destabilising factor in central Africa and his human rights record is of international concern. The Parliament's resolution has been sponsored by MEPs from most EU countries and was backed by the whole Parliament, representing 350 million people across Europe.

THE SOVIET NUCLEAR TESTING LEGACY IN KAZAKHSTAN

In late August this year, I attended a major international conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the ending of Soviet nuclear bomb tests. I as joined at the seminar by Mikhail Gorbachev, the former President of the USSR, and by President Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan.

Between 1945 and 1991, the former Soviet Union exploded a total of 607 nuclear bombs in a vast area of Kazakhstan near the city of Semipalatinsk. Soviet scientists would wait until the wind was blowing in the direction of local Kazakh villages before detonating the bombs above ground and in the atmosphere. Teams of military medical personnel would then spend years monitoring the effects of radiation on the local population in top secret medical experiments controlled by the KGB. As a result, the legacy of the Soviet nuclear testing programme has had an appalling impact on an area of Kazakhstan the size of France, with widespread radioactive pollution, high levels of cancers and birth defects, grinding poverty and despair. Suicide is widespread, particularly among young people.

Last year, I visited the epicentre of the test site, known as Ground Zero. Having seen the horrific conditions encountered in day-to-day living in the area, I have campaigned ever since for emergency aid for the people of Semipalatinsk. I also visited some of the Kazakh villages worst affected by the radioactive fallout.

During a private meeting I held with Mikhail Gorbachev, he pledged his full support for my campaign to help the people of Semipalatinsk. Mr Gorbachev reminded me that he was instrumental in brokering the Test Ban Treaty with President Reagan, which effectively ended the Cold War and finally put a stop to the horrific nuclear testing programme in Kazakhstan. He readily agreed that I should use his name as a high-profile supporter of the campaign and he also resolved to meet me in the European Parliament in Brussels to discuss further ways of finding financial aid for Semipalatinsk. He said he knew there was a vast amount of money spent by the EU and sometimes wondered where it all went! He hoped that I could secure some money in this year's EU budget for Semipalatinsk.

As a result of these discussions in Almaty I have now submitted two amendments to the 2002 Draft EU Budget in an effort to secure assistance for the beleaguered victims of the Soviet nuclear testing programme in Semipalatinsk. The first amendment seeks to provide help for the victims of radiation in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The second amendment seeks to widen the scope of the assistance presently targeted at the victims of Chernobyl, specifically to include victims of radiation in the region of Semipalatinsk.

The EU has, until now, concentrated its help on the victims of Chernobyl. We sometimes forget that although Chernobyl was a great tragedy, it was nevertheless a single nuclear explosion. The people of Semipalatinsk have had to endure 607 nuclear explosions and yet their plight remains relatively unknown in the West. They are the real victims of the Cold War and we have a moral obligation to help them wherever we can.

Although Kazakhstan is developing an oil industry and will, in ten years' time become important oil exporting nation and an essential strategic partner for the EU, it is still in a precarious economic state. 43% of the populace are living below the poverty line of $300 per year income. The Kazakh government is trying to do its best. It has so far provided $13 million to Semipalatinsk. A further $43 million has been pledged from abroad of which only $3 million has so far been realised in actual projects. The need for help is therefore extremely urgent. I was deeply concerned to discover that things have deteriorated even further since

I was in Kazakhstan a year ago. Now the government has decided, on financial grounds, to shut down the only hospital serving the whole, massive region around Ground Zero. 90% of the people affected by the nuclear tests live in this area and rely on Khurchatov hospital for treatment. If the threatened closure goes ahead on 1 January 2002, the nearest hospital will be over 120 miles away, over roads which, in many places, have collapsed or been washed away in winter floods. One of the 30 doctors from Khurchatov Hospital came to Almaty last week and begged me to intervene.

I visited Khurchatov hospital last year and although it is old and decrepit and forced to run on a shoestring budget, the dedication of the young doctors and nurses is awe-inspiring. In an area blighted with radioactive pollution, a collapsed infrastructure and an 80°C swing in mean temperatures from +40°C in the summer to -40°C in the winter, it will be catastrophic to allow this hospital to close. Even pregnant mothers and babies will be placed at risk and basic medical care will be denied to the majority of the local population. I protested about the threatened closure to several senior Kazakh Ministers, including the Foreign Minister Mr Idrisov and went on Kazakh State TV to demand a postponement to the closure until we can organise some help from the West.

Olzhas Suleimenov, one of Kazakhstan's most famous poets, spoke to me after the conference. He risked his life in 1989 when he led a mass strike of 130,000 Kazakh miners and other workers to protest about the Soviet nuclear tests. He even travelled to Moscow and made his protest in front of the Supreme Soviet Council in the Kremlin, chaired at that time by Mikhail Gorbachev. It was this brave man's leadership of the first ever anti-nuclear movement in the Soviet Union, which started the process of perestroika.

Mr Suleimenov is now regarded as a great hero in Kazakhstan and his words to me were deeply moving. He said that during the Cold War we created an atmosphere of mutual fear between East and West. "Now", he said, "it is time to create a world of mutual trust." "

TORY MEP CALLS FOR IMPORT OF 1.5 MILLION TONNES OF GM SOYA FROM USA & SOUTH AMERICA

Last June, the Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament appointed me as rapporteur 'Options for promoting the cultivation of Plant proteins in the EU'. In my Report I have controversially called for the importation of up to 1.5 million tonnes of Soya-bean meal from the USA, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, much of which is genetically modified. The meal would mainly be used in pig and poultry feed.

The Report was requested by the European Commission and the Parliament to establish ways of making up the anticipated shortfall in protein feeds arising from the ban on meat and bone meal (MBM) in the wake of the BSE crisis. My conclusion was that the deficit in protein should be covered through additional imports of Soya-bean meal which contains high protein and energy but low fibre content, and is extremely suitable as animal feed."

In the Report I argued that there is a need for greater public acceptance in the EU of genetically modified products and I called for a full and frank debate on this question. I also rejected proposals to increase aid for additional protein crop production within the EU on the grounds that such aid would breach WTO rules, increase costs to the European Commission and lead to environmental problems through increased nitrate leaching and consequent water pollution.

I also rejected the use of set-aside land for protein crop production on cost grounds, although I suggested the Commission should fund an extensive research and development programme into the increased yield potential, utilisation and nutritive value of pulse crops and brassicas. Once again, any such programme should examine improvements to these crops through the utilisation of appropriate plant genetics and breeding programmes aimed at the production of modern cultivars which could help the EU become self sufficient in protein crop production.

Ultimately, I concluded that the most cost effective answer to the protein feed shortfall in Europe will be to import Soya-bean meal from the US and South America. However, up to 89% of US Soya-bean output was from genetically modified crops last year so we need to brace ourselves for the inevitable backlash from the pranks of the politically correct.

Struan Stevenson is a Conservative Member of the European Parliament for Scotland. He is Front-Bench Spokesman in the European Parliament on Scottish Rural Affairs and Deputy Front Bench Spokesman on UK Agriculture. He is also Front Bench Spokesman on UK Fisheries and is a Member of the EU Delegation for Relations with the People's Republic of China.