B4-1067, 1068, 1069 and 1071/95

Resolution on Srebrenica

The European Parliament,

A.deeply shocked by the fall of Srebrenica, the latest in a long series of predictable humiliations of the United Nations,

B.greatly concerned for the safety of the 40 000 people living there and by the seizure of the Dutch UN contingent responsible for the UN peace-keeping mission in Srebrenica,

C.stressing the fact that Srebrenica was the first of six safe areas established by the UN, with the agreement of the Bosnian Government and of the Bosnian Serbs, which "should be free from any armed attack or other hostile act",

D.emphasising that the UN, after disarming the population of Srebrenica, has failed to guarantee the security of the enclave and, in consequence, the other safe areas are now in great danger,

E.recognizing that if this disaster is not rectified and aggression continues to be successful, the consequences for Bosnia, for the stability of the Balkans as a whole, for the prospects of a secure and prosperous future for Europe and even for world peace will be extremely grave,

F.recognizing that the capture of Srebrenica has increased the risk of an all-out war in many regions of the former Yugoslavia,

G.hearing the call of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina to come to the rescue of his people,

1.Condemns in the strongest possible terms the capture of Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb troops;

2.Demands the immediate retreat of the Bosnian Serb troops to positions outside the safe area;

3.Rejects the 'neutrality' tantamount to complicity which makes no distinction between those practising ethnic cleansing and their victims, and believes that the UN can in no way still look on passively at the present situation of Bosnia without being considered as an accomplice to the ongoing slaughter;

4.Calls on the UN Security Council to take the necessary measures to guarantee the safety of the UN troops in Bosnia-Herzegovina and of the civil population in the so-called safe areas;

5.Demands that UNPROFOR be strengthened and not withdrawn, so that it has the means to fulfil its mandate to protect the free circulation of humanitarian aid, end any blockade and stop the shelling of the safe areas, and calls also for a new mandate for the Rapid Reaction Force so that it can help to carry out these tasks;

6.Demands that the UN puts an end to its ambiguous policy of containment which, on the one hand, prevents Bosnia from providing itself with the means of self-defence and, on the other hand, is not capable of guaranteeing protection for the Bosnian population;

7.Fully recognizes the Bosnian people's right to legitimate self-defence pursuant to Article 51 of the UN Charter;

8.Believes that the people of Bosnia are risking their lives to defend the values on which the European Union is founded;

9.Insists that no peace plan can be based on the ethnic partition of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which would be totally opposed to the principles on which the European Union is based and which are subscribed to by all the members of the OSCE;

10.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the parliaments of the Member States, the member states of the UN Security Council, the Government and Parliament of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Secretaries-General of the UN, NATO, WEU and OSCE.