B3-0326/94

Resolution on strengthening Commission programmes to consolidate democracy and human rights in Cambodia

The European Parliament,

A.whereas the current atmosphere of insecurity, directly associated with the aftermath of the war, the spread of poverty and a weakening of state institutions, is a threat to democracy in Cambodia,

B.having regard to the positive action taken by the EC following the Paris agreements,

C.whereas some 5 to 7 million mines are still killing and mutilating almost 300 Cambodians every month, the majority of whom are civilians, and whereas the mines are one of the main obstacles to rural development and to reintegration of the 350 000 refugees and the hundreds of thousands of persons displaced by the civil war,

D.whereas with almost 36 000 amputees and paraplegics, the victims of anti-personnel mines, Cambodia has the world's highest percentage of physically handicapped people,

1.Expresses its appreciation at the work already carried out by the Commission, the United Nations and NGOs in the difficult area of mine clearance;

2.Calls for additional substantial resources to be devoted to mine clearance in association with rural development programmes;

3.Calls for these resources to be used principally as a means of reinforcing national CMAC (Cambodian Mine Action Centre) structures, while enabling specialist NGOs to extend their aid programmes to the communities most at risk;

4.Calls for an effective embargo on all future supplies of anti-personnel mines to Cambodia;

5.Calls for neighbouring countries, in particular Thailand, to play an active role in enforcing this embargo;

6.Urges the Commission to integrate in its bilateral aid projects its exemplary assistance to the numerous amputees and paraplegics who are victims of the mines and of the war;

7.Calls for a special effort to help restore the rule of law through immediate support, in technical and material terms and in terms of human resources, for state institutions;

8.Calls for assistance in developing education programmes in the human sciences, to encourage education in human rights in schools and to promote such rights in the media;

9.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and the Council.