Mr President, the forced absence from the Sakharov Prize award ceremony last year of one of its most honourable recipients, Osvaldo Payá, is the best possible argument for speaking out on behalf of those people inside and outside of Cuba who are fighting for their freedom and dignity, and for this Parliament, Mr President, to be very forceful in its demand for freedom, as it has always been.

The ECHO office in Podgorica was officially closed during a ceremony, in the presence of Montenegrin Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic.

16. Disapproves in the strongest terms of the USA's 'unsigning' of the Treaty establishing the International Criminal Court; considers this unilateral decision to be all the more serious as it comes soon after the 60 ratifications needed for the Rome Statute to enter into force on 1 July 2002, and for the ICC to assume jurisdiction in respect of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, were obtained; welcomes the swift reaction by the EU High Representative for the CFSP and calls on the Council and the Commission to do whatever is necessary to make this disapproval known to the US authorities and to reiterate the EU's support for the establishment of the International Criminal Court, in particular by taking pa ...[+++]rt in the ceremonies organised for 17 July 2002 to mark the Statute's entry into force on the fourth anniversary of the adoption of the Treaty establishing the International Criminal Court;

The European flag stood next to Pierre Pflimlin’s coffin, and at the end of the service, which was not a mournful service but one of hope and confidence, the European anthem was played and sung by a choir.

From the veterans marching in procession to the graveside to the careful placing of Canadian soil on the casket, to the bugler sounding the haunting notes of the " Last Post," to the piper playing the " Flowers of the Forest," from the moment when their loved one's posthumous medals and a neatly folded flag were handed to a representative of each family, to the touching moment when Mark Kyle laid a white rosary on the casket that held his uncle's remains, the entire ceremony was emotional and moving.

On May 28, 2000 in a dignified and fitting ceremony televised for all Canadians from coast to coast, the body of this young soldier was finally given his rightful burial spot at the War Memorial.