Howitt (PSE). – Mr President, in supporting the political dialogue with the Andean Community, let us recall that only a month ago Colombian President Uribe was in this Chamber championing his so-called democratic security policy. However, this is a policy that is not democratic, with violent intimidation leading to the withdrawal of candidates in 100 municipalities at last October's elections. It cannot bring the much-needed security that the Colombian people deserve. Uribe's policies for mass arbitrary arrest have shot prison numbers up by more than 10 000 in the last year. The countryside is flooded with military personnel, and orders have gone out to kill people in groups of four or less in a sickening attempt to reduce the number of recorded massacres without any real diminution in the grisly death toll afflicting the country. Indeed, evidence from the Colombian Commission of Jurists, backed up by the University of Bogota, shows that there has been no reduction in deaths at all.

Of course, we also condemn the murderous and brutal activities of the guerrillas, but two-thirds of the human rights abuses are perpetrated by the Colombian military or their paramilitary allies, which Uribe is now cynically seeking to legalise.

That is why we should use the political dialogue to maintain Europe's opposition to the military solution represented by Plan Colombia, to condemn human rights abuses on all sides in the Colombian tragedy, to insist that Colombia abide by all the commitments made in the London Declaration of 2003 and to act as advocates for grassroots projects, such as the EU-funded peace laboratories, which truly point the way to a just and lasting peace for Colombia.