A3-0236/94

Resolution on the situation in Sri Lanka

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the motion of resolution by Mr Saby and others on the situation in Sri Lanka and the problem of the LTTE (B3-1275/92),

-having regard to its resolution of 16 September 1988 on the political situation in Sri Lanka,

-having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Security and the opinion of the Committee on Development and Cooperation (A3-0236/94),

A.recognizing the interest and duty of the European Union to help protect democracy and to promote respect for human rights in Sri Lanka, where universal adult suffrage has existed since 1931, longer than anywhere else in Asia,

B.recognizing that for many years democracy has been under attack from terrorist organisations and alarmed by the resurgence of violent actions by the LTTE in the Jaffna Peninsular, which cost hundreds of lives in October and November 1993,

C.recognizing that, at the height of the second JVP insurgency in 1988-1989, when the government resorted to the raising of locally recruited and controlled (and largely untrained) militias, widespread abuses of human rights, especially indiscriminate murder and disappearances, were perpetrated by both sides and that the recent discovery of a mass grave at Suriyakande is a sad reminder of this period,

D.recognizing the determination to maintain democracy in Sri Lanka, demonstrated by the holding of free and fair regional elections in May 1993 less than a month after the assassination of the former President, in which the opposition won control of three out of seven Provincial Councils,

E.recognizing the determined efforts of the Indian Government to curtail the illegal activities of the LTTE in Tamil Nadu,

F.recognizing that the withdrawal of Indian forces from Sri Lanka, through agreement between Colombo and Delhi, has greatly improved inter-state relations,

1.Calls upon the Government of Sri Lanka to implement in full the recommendations of the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances and of Amnesty International;

2.Calls upon the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure that the media function in an unfettered manner, free of intimidation and coercion;

3.Calls on the Commission to establish, without further delay, a permanent Mission in Colombo, which has been under consideration since the mid 1980's;

4.Calls on the European Union, as part of its common foreign and security policy, to close all offices of the LTTE in the territory of Member States, since they are used to propagate terrorism against a friendly country and to extort funds from Tamils living in the territory of the European Union for the pursuit of violent actions;

5.Calls on the European Union to assist those of all communities in Sri Lanka who are struggling to defend human rights and democracy and, in particular, urges support for the Jaffna University Teachers Association, whose members, at great risk, keep a record of human rights abuses by both the LTTE and the security forces in the Jaffna Peninsular, and for the Council for Liberal Democracy, a non-party organisation actively engaged in trying to bring all parties to come to a democratic settlement of the ethnic conflict;

6.Appeals to the Sri Lankan Government and Parliament to put into force legislation to protect human rights, including the Human Rights Commission Bill;

7.Calls on the Sri Lankan authorities to bring to justice those responsible for grave abuses of human rights, especially during the suppression of the JVP rebellion, and to ensure that those believed to have been guilty of human rights abuses, or of condoning them, whether directed at Sinhalese, Tamils or other Sri Lankans, are removed from positions of power;

8.Calls upon the Government of Sri Lanka to issue death certificates to the next of kin of persons reported missing or believed to be dead, after one year or more of such disappearance;

9.Reminds the Sri Lankan Government that it accepted a recommendation of the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances that if corpses were discovered, believed to be those of people who had disappeared, it could ask for the help of international forensic experts, and believes that such experts should be employed to examine the mass graves at Suriyakande;

10.Urges the Sri Lankan authorities to end the practice of repeated arrests of people who have already established that they are not supporters of terrorism;

11.Urges the Government of Sri Lanka to consider teaching of the Tamil language in schools in the South and correspondingly to make available facilities for the teaching of the Sinhala language in the North and East of the country;

12.Believes that a useful form of aid from the European Union to Sri Lanka would be the provision of books and educational equipment for the teaching of the English language;

13.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the Governments of India and Sri Lanka.