B4-0105 and 0155/94

Resolution on the massacre of Tuaregs by the Malian armed forces

The European Parliament,

-having regard to its earlier resolutions on the situation of the Tuaregs,

A.profoundly shocked by the alarming news of the latest massacre of Tuaregs by the Malian armed forces in the Houardi region, where a number of Tuareg and Moorish tribes lead peaceful nomadic lives,

B.whereas these killings have sparked off a new influx of tens of thousands of Tuaregs and Moors, who are destitute and in a very poor state of health, into refugee camps in neighbouring countries (mainly Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Algeria),

C.whereas large sections of the Moor and Tuareg communities are unable to reach the refugee camps and are threatened by famine and disease,

D.recalling that before colonization these nomads lived in and moved freely around an area of 2 million sq. km extending from the Azaouad region in Mali to the borders of Fezzan (in Libya) and from the Sahara to the extreme north of the Sahel,

E.recalling that the colonists, disregarding the traditional organization of the nomads into confederations without frontiers, artificially split the country into areas which, on the granting of independence in the early sixties, were incorporated into five different States - Niger, Mali, Libya, Algeria and Burkina Faso - and that this division is the root cause of most of the Tuareg community's present problems, both socio-economic and political, since their movements are now hindered by the existence of borders and rigid administrative rules,

F.whereas the situation of the Tuaregs is now most serious in Mali; the massacres resumed in May 1994 and since 7 September 1994 a company of red berets has been working its way systematically through encampments in the Houardi region, the first survivors to escape reporting several hundred dead, most of them women and children,

1.Strongly condemns these massacres and calls for an international committee of inquiry to be set up to investigate these crimes and for those responsible to be brought to justice;

2.Calls once more on the international community to make representations to the Malian authorities with a view to stopping the massacres;

3.Calls on the international community to demand that the Malian authorities set up an independent international committee of inquiry into the massacres which have occurred in the past five months (May, June, July, August and September);

4.Calls on the Malian Government to resume talks with Tuareg and Moor representatives with a view to reaching a peaceful and democratic settlement;

5.Welcomes the current talks between the Tuareg resistance and the Government of Niger and is following developments closely;

6.Calls on the Commission to provide humanitarian aid to the population groups concerned without delay;

7.Calls for the Tuareg and Moor peoples to be included in development projects funded by the Commission, with due account being taken of the high rate of illiteracy, particularly among children;

8.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Government of Mali, the UN Secretary-General and the Secretary-General of the OAU.