B4-0045, 0064, 0074, 0081, 0091 and 0099/96

Resolution on Afghanistan

The European Parliament,

A. recalling that Afghanistan has been ravaged by war since December 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded the country,

B. recalling that in the 1980s huge quantities of arms were supplied to the various Afghan combatants by the Soviet Union and the United States, as well as by EC Member States, including Germany and Great Britain, and by Islamic countries, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran,

C. recalling that the Geneva Accords of 14 April 1988 led to the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989, followed by the defeat of President Najibullah in 1992 by the various mujahedeen factions,

D. noting that, although the mujahedeen factions signed the Islamabad Agreement in March 1993, there was a renewal of hostilities among various factions,

E. noting the sudden rise of the Taliban movement of Afghan Pashtoun refugee students from the fundamentalist Islamic schools in Pakistan who seized the southern provinces of Afghanistan in late 1994,

F. having regard to the fighting now going on between the Kabul Government and the fundamentalist Islamic students known as Talibans,

G. distressed by the reports of further heavy civilian casualties, mainly due to attacks carried out by the Talibani army which has used artillery and warplanes to hit civilian targets,

H. concerned in particular at the air raid launched against Kabul on 26 November 1995 from the southern city of Kandahar, controlled by the Taliban, where the use of cluster bombs led to the death of 39 civilians (including 13 children) and where more than 140 people were injured,

I. distressed by the implementation of a hardline fundamentalist interpretation of the sharia in the areas ruled by the Talibani authorities,

J. considering the evidence that the Talibani students have been trained and supplied in Pakistan, a country which has generously provided shelter for millions of Afghan refugees since 1979,

K. whereas the Union and its Member States are a major donor of aid to Afghanistan but do not seem to have a coherent political approach aiming at bringing peace to the Afghan people,

L. whereas the war has now been in progress for 16 years and nearly two million people have been killed and millions of others made refugees; whereas murder, torture and outrages of all kinds against women and children, brought about by the fanaticism and intolerance of the warring factions, have become a part of everyday life for this much-suffering people,

M. considering Afghanistan is now an almost totally devastated country in which all the productive infrastructure, communications, health and education facilities have been destroyed,

N. recalling that Afghanistan is one of the countries worst affected by landmines and anti-personnel mines, which daily claim civilian victims,

O. noting the growing problems of drug trafficking and smuggling in general in the region which now constitute the basis of the Afghan economy and that this trade serves both to finance the military purchases of the various factions, as well as undermining the economies of neighbouring countries, especially Pakistan,

The European Parliament,

1. Expresses its solidarity with the Afghan people, first victim of the ongoing wars on its territory, and strongly condemns the continuance of the war, the violations of human rights and the atrocities committed by all sides in this conflict;

2. Expresses its indignation at the Talibani military offensives, the avowed aim of which is to overthrow the ruling authorities and set up a fundamentalist Islamic regime by force, and condemns in particular the air raid carried out by Talibani forces on civilian districts of the capital, Kabul, on 26 November 1995;

3. Calls on the Government of Pakistan to exert pressure on the Talibanis to halt their military offensive;

4. Invites the Government of Afghanistan, the Uzbeki militia, the Talibani army, the Shia mujahedeen groups and the other parties to come to a common agreement to stop fighting and reconstruct the country;

5. Urges the governments of Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, India, Uzbekistan, Russia, the USA and the Member States of the Union which sell or supply arms, or facilitate their transit, immediately to desist from such activities and from any acts of interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan;

6. Calls on the European Union and its Member States to decide on an immediate embargo on the supply of weapons to Afghanistan and to initiate, through the UN, a worldwide arms embargo;

7. Welcomes the recent initiative by the UN mediator for Afghanistan, Mahmud Mestiri, in persuading the parties to the conflict to negotiate and urges the European Council to do everything in its power to lend weight to his mission;

8. Invites the Council and the Commission, as well as the governments of the Member States, to use all their influence with the various parties to the conflict, both inside and outside Afghanistan, to bring about an end to hostilities and to the atrocities committed against the civilian population, and to organize an international contact group, under the auspices of the United Nations, to this end;

9. Calls on the EU and its Member States to provide assistance both to the Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran and to the internally displaced people in Afghanistan, and especially to the civilian population of Kabul, the need for which is particularly acute in winter, and with special attention being paid to the vulnerable social status of women and girls;

10. Calls again on the EU and its Member States to continue to provide and to increase technical and financial assistance for the removal of landmines and anti-personnel mines in Afghanistan;

11. Insists that the desperately slow pace of de-mining in Afghanistan makes a total international ban on landmines ever more urgent;

12. Calls on the United Nations and its members to step up their efforts to control drug trafficking in Afghanistan and urges the European Union to provide assistance to the efforts of the Government of Pakistan in this regard, including assistance to the Special Anti-Narcotics Task Force;

13. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, USA, Iran and India, and to the Member States of the Security Council of the United Nations.