RESOLUTION B3-1419 and 1472/92

The European Parliament,

A. appalled at the news that around 40 000 women and children, most of them aged between 10 and 16, have been kidnapped in Burma over the past few years and taken to brothels in Thailand where they have been abused and forced to have sex under life-threatening conditions,

B. whereas 5 million tourists per year visit Thailand, many of whom ensure the continued existence and growth of the sex industry there,

C. appalled that Burma has thus become another link in the 'AIDS route', the supply lines in the traffic in human beings for prostitution,

D. deeply concerned at the report by a representative of the Swiss International Centre for the Dignity of Children (CIDE), that women or girls who have fallen ill or are for other reasons 'unusable' are being shot by pimps in the border town of Rangong and that women who attempt to escape are tortured,

E. concerned at the uncertain fate of 95 women and girls who, on their release from brothels in Thailand, were interned in camps and then deported to Burma on 15 September,

1. Calls for the creation of an independent international committee of inquiry to investigate the presumed murders and disappearances of Burmese women and girls and calls upon the Thai authorities to bring the guilty parties to justice;

2. Calls on the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) to conduct a complete investigation into the fate of the deported women and girls;

3. Calls on the EC to increase its aid programme for Burmese refugees in Thai border regions and to make resources available for medical aid and for the creation and maintenance of women's homes to provide a refuge for the women affected;

4. Calls on the Member States to make efforts to ensure that the authorities in Thailand effectively suppress the trade in human beings there, and calls on the Member States to take practical steps to end the scandal of sex tourism;

5. Calls on the Community to make resources available for training and employment programmes for Burmese women;

6. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the governments of the Member States, the UN Human Rights Commission, the SLORC and the government of Thailand.