RESOLUTION ON THE SITUATION IN Central America

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the following motions for resolutions :

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mr Balfe on the kidnapping of the Nicaraguan government Minister, Dr Ray Hooker and his colleagues (Doc. 2-759/84),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mrs Lizin and Mr Ulburghs on the resumption of the US-Nicaraguan bilateral relations (Doc. 2-1572/84),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mrs Lizin and Mr Lomas on the training of officers of El Salvador's army (Doc. B2-2/85),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mr Cervetti and Mr Piquet on behalf of the Communist and Allies Group on the situation in Nicaragua (Doc. B2-14/85),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mr Staes, on behalf of the Rainbow Group, on the US President's attitude to Nicaragua (Doc. B2-79/85),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mr Vandemeulebroucke and Mr Kuijpers on the repression in Guatemala of the GAM (Mutual Assistance Group) and many other citizens (Doc. B2-271/85),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mr Van Miert on the Mutual Assistance Group (GAM) in Guatemala (Doc. B2-274/85),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mr Vandemeulebroucke and Mr Kuijpers on the investigation of the shooting in Colombia of a Flemish priest, Father Gillard (Doc. B2-372/85),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mr Glinne on the Mexican general elections to be held on 7 July 1985 (Doc. B2-551/85),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mrs Dury and others on the economic embargo against Nicaragua declared by the Reagan administration (Doc. B2-567/85),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mr Vandemeulebroucke and others on the fate of Patricia De Bernal, her two daughters, Gilma and Katerina, and Mr M.A. Crespo in Colombia (Doc. B2-648/85),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mr Deprez on the Haitian regime's lack of democratic intentions (Doc. B2-661/85),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mrs Dury on violations of human rights in Guatemala (Doc. B2-743/85),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mrs de Backer-Van Ocken on the situation in Guatemala (Doc. B2-775/85),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mr Staes on the Contadora initiative (Doc. B2-1159/85),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mr Boesmans and others on the 'Day for Peace' in Central America (Doc. B2-1626/85),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mr Marck and others, on behalf of the EPP Group, on peace talks in Central America (Doc. B2-40/86),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mr Martin on the situation in Nicaragua (Doc. B2-49/86),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mr Glinne and others on the failure to bring to justice known leaders of' death squads' in El Salvador (Doc. B2-1039/86),

- motion for a resolution tabled by Mr Glinne and others on training in the United States and Europe of members of' death squads' from El Salvador (Doc. B2-1132/86),

- having regard to the LENZ report on the situation in Central America, which was adopted by the Political Affairs Committee on 20 March 1984 but lapsed as a result of the dissolution of Parliament,

- having regard to the report of the Political Affairs Committee (Doc. A2-271/87),

A. recalling the support which the European Parliament, in its concern to uphold the inalienable right to self-determination of sovereign peoples, has given on several occasions both to the Contadora initiative and to the judgment of 27 June 1986 of the International Court of Justice in The Hague condemning the United States for threatening to use and using direct or indirect force against Nicaragua, as well as to the Equipulas II Agreement on peace in Central America, signed by the five countries in the region,

B. noting that the international verification and monitoring commission set up by the Esquipulas II Agreement, unanimously supported by the five Central American Presidents, declared in mid-January that the definitive cessation of such assistance (from the United States Administration to the irregular forces operating in Nicaragua) was still an essential requirement for the success of efforts to achieve peace and of the entire peace process,

C. noting with satisfaction that, on 3 February 1988, the United States House of Representatives voted against supplying the aid to the Contras requested by the Administration for the period from 1 March to 30 June 1988,

D. stressing that all 'humanitarian' aid from Washington to the Contras could, henceforward, only be administered if it excluded all additional paramilitary equipment for the Contras (helicopters, jeeps, authority of the International Red Cross or non-governmental organizations which are above all suspicion of allegiance to any 'parallel service' or 'special services' controlled directly or indirectly by the United States or third-country authorities,

E. appreciating that, at the conclusion of the 'San José IV' Conference of 29 February/1 March 1988 in Hamburg, the Foreign Ministers of the European Community, Central America and the Contadora Group declared that the cessation of assistance by governments inside or outside the region to irregular forces or insurrectional movements was a necessary condition for the achievement of a full and lasting peace,

F. noting with concern that the involvement of foreign powers in the region threatens to jeopardize any efforts made towards peace and integration in the region,

G. reaffirming its concern for the rights of the individual, each nation and the community of nations in Central America, which have an urgent need for peace, in order to enable the large numbers of refugees to return home,

H. acknowledging the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Arias and confirming its resolutions of 17 September 1987 (1) and 30 October 1987 (2) endorsing the plan for peace and democracy put forward by President Arias, and its resolution of 11 February 1988 (3),

(1) OJ No C 281, 19.10.1987, p. 129.

(2) OJ No C 318, 30.11.1987, pp. 146 and 147.

(3) See minutes of that date (Part II, Item 2).

I. having regard to the speeches delivered by President Arias to the informal joint session of the US House of Representatives and Senate on 22 September 1987 and to the UN General Assembly on 23 September, in which he called for a political solution to the problem of Central America,

J. recognizing the awarding of the Nobel Prize to President Arias as an expression of support for his peace initiative,

K. pointing out that on 7 October 1987 the UN General Assembly gave its unanimous backing to the peace plan and that this plan also received the approval of the US Senate in a vote on 15 October 1987 (92 votes in favour to 3 against),

1. Observes that all peace negotiations, the restoration of democratic institutions, reconstruction, integration and development in Central America must be founded mainly on the political will of the governments and peoples of the region, whose concerted action and agreement deserve the practical support of the international community;

2. Considers that armed support by external forces to any of the sides involved in the civil wars in Central America is incompatible with the Esquipulas II peace plan;

3. Hopes therefore that an exclusively peaceful settlement will be reached by all the groups involved in the armed conflicts and the countries supporting them;

4. Welcomes the fact that the first elections envisaged by the Esquipulas Agreement will take place in 1988, the aim being to establish a Central American Parliament of 100 Members and that national commissions are being set up in several of the countries concerned to prepare the election;

5. Pledges its support for strengthening the sense of Central American identity and parliamentary democracy, which affords new prospects of initiating a lasting dialogue between the representatives of all countries of Central America, and proposes that a dialogue be established between the Central American Parliament and the European Parliament as soon as possible, on condition that in the elections to the Central American Parliament all parties that are willing to campaign without recourse to violence are enabled to do so in free and fair conditions;

6. Welcomes the technical and financial assistance planned for these elections by the Commission, and declares its willingness to send observers;

7. Observes with satisfaction that in accordance with the Esquipulas II Agreement, the appropriate commissions of reconciliation have been set up in a number of countries to promote a ceasefire and support freedom of expression and the right of association within a pluralist political, ideological and non-violent social framework, and hopes that all democratic groups will take part in these commissions of reconciliation;

8. Notes the importance of the simultaneous implementation of the measures contained in the Esquipulas Agreement, as stressed by the Agreement itself;

9. Condemns the present ambiguity of verification procedures for the assessment of the simultaneous implementation in each of the five countries of the clauses of the Arias Plan and regrets that some of the governments concerned insist on reserving the right to carry out their own verification in their respective countries, without the participation of an international verification and monitoring commission, and hopes that Europe will assist in this task if requested to do so;

10. Notes that the Government of Nicaragua has proposed that the international commission to verify the democratization, amnesty and cease-fire clauses enshrined in the Esquipulas II Agreement and the San José Declaration of 16 January 1988 should include representatives from Spain, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Canada, the Socialist, Liberal and Christian-Democratic Internationals, the United States Republican and Democratic parties, the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the Contadora Group;

11. Expects all the Central American Governments to confirm their acceptance of effective international verification procedures;

12. Observes with satisfaction that the first series of measures to this end has been adopted and hopes that political opportunities will created or preserved in five countries for dialogue with the unarmed forces of the democratic opposition, so as to organize and consolidate a genuinely pluralist system;

13. Calls on the armed opposition forces to participate in the ceasefire agreements;

14. Declares that it is more than ever essential to subject the military and security apparatuses to the will of the political power and to dismantle and take action against the death squads, any external aid for the latter being viewed with abhorrence;

15. Notes that in June 1987 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights indicted the Honduran Government for the disappearance, torture and assassination of the Honduran nationals Saul Gordinez Crux and Angel Manfredo Velasquez Rodriguez and the Costa Rican nationals Francisco Fairan Garbi and Yolanda Solis Corrales; notes that the Court established that responsibility lay with members of the armed forces working in 'death squads', and that the assassination of two witnesses, Ramon Custado and Miguel Pavon, on 2 January 1988 and 14 January 1988 respectively, represents an odious manner of impeding the conduct of the trial;

16. Support the approach made on 19 January 1988 by the Inter-American Court to the Honduran Government to persuade the latter to take serious measures to protect the surviving witnesses, and to carry out a detailed enquiry into the threats to which they are subject and into the murder of the two witnesses mentioned above;

17. Declares that it is also essential if democracy and peace are to be established that the governments concerned should respect the freedom of the media, of religion, of trade unions and the independence of the judiciary and insists that these principles are incompatible with the establishment of a Single Party State;

18. Values the clauses of the Esquipulas Agreement regarding the repatriation of refugees and displaced persons and underlines the need for verifiable guarantees for the safety of those repatriated, since their destination will be the same districts and areas from which their were forced to flee; condemns all attacks on and coercive measures against refugees, those being repatriated or the civil population in general;

19. Asks the governments concerned, the authorities responsible for applying the inter-American Convention on Human Rights and the International Red Cross Committee to do more within the framework of the Esquipulas Agreement to implement the fourth International Convention of 12 August 1949 on the protection of civilians in wartime and in accordance with Article 3 of the Conventions of 1949 and Protocol II;

20. Expresses its concern at the reports or allegations suggesting that the public and private aid from the United States for the 'Contras', and the activity of certain governmental authorities in the region, have been and are bound up with large international drug-trafficking operations; awaits with interest, therefore, the conclusions of the inquiries and hearings being conducted in the United States, in particular at the local police level, by the Drug Enforcement Administration; expresses the concern, voiced at the seventh EP-Central American Interparliamentary Conference, that international drug-trafficking is providing funds for both governments and resistance groups involved in the conflicts;

21. Considers a well-balanced economic and development strategy with regard to Central America on the part of the European Community to be an important factor in a global peace policy directed towards social justice, equality of opportunity and constitutional and democratic conditions, which will thereby undermine all forms of violence and all violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms;

22. Calls on the governments of the Member States of the Community to give political and economic support to the plan for the economic reconstruction of the area submitted to the San José meeting on 29 February and 1 March 1988 in Hamburg and calls on the Commission of the European Communities to submit proposals without delay for a phased plan for the integrated expansion of cooperation with the countries of Central America in the fields of economic, social and development policy; considers it desirable to establish a specific budgetary heading to ensure more effective budgetary control;

23. Attaches particular importance to enabling the Central American States to be involved in a Lomé system, as they themselves have requested;

24. Hopes that this plan, without discriminating between individual countries, will exclusively reflect the interests and needs of the peoples in the region and serve the following general aims;

- strengthening the independence and safeguarding the sovereignty of the countries in the region,

- creating the basic conditions for internal and external peace;

- promoting the development of a liberal and pluralist form of government and social order,

- establishing more social justice and decent living conditions throughout the region,

- supporting political and economic cooperation between the countries themselves, reviving the idea of a Central American common market and, possibly, drawing up an agreement modelled on the Andean Pact of ASEAN;

25. Therefore considers that in the context of cooperation and development aid, the Community should give priority to the achievement of the following specific objectives, which are of common interest to all five Central American countries :

- support for economic cooperation in the region, providing a fresh boost for the idea of a Central American common market and preferential measures in trade between the EEC and Central America,

- the promotion of projects connected with the agricultural reforms the approval and execution of which are encountering enormous difficulties in some countries in the area, and similar measures in the field of Community development policy, so that the replacement of outdated social structures may help to create balanced social conditions and comprehensive development of the rural sector,

- collaboration in projects for energy supply and development,

- collaboration in education and training programmes, especially in vocational training, so as to promote small-scale industry with the aid of qualified workers,

- emergency programmes for rebuilding housing and public amenities which have been destroyed,

- comprehensive humanitarian aid measures for the sections of the population which are in need and disadvantaged, particularly refugees;

26. Requests that, depending on the situation and needs of individual countries, Community aid programmes should preferably enlist the help of non-governmental agencies and institutions (church organizations the International Red Cross, the United Nations relief organization, etc.); calls on the Commission to draw up a thorough survey of aid programmes already carried out or planned and their effectiveness;

27. Expects that respect for human rights may also be strengthened by the execution of economic and social development projects;

28. Considers that improved dialogue and careful cooperation with the United States are needed in the following spheres :

- increased use of institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) or the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) as instruments for cooperation in the field of economic, financial and development policy,

- in view of the considerable need for financing, the coordination of all short, medium and long-term measures with other industrialized countries, in particular the United States, through a comprehensive economic and development policy programme for Central America;

29. Expects the United States, the Soviet Union and the whole international community to give active support to peace efforts in the region and provide more aid for the economic and social development of Central America, in order to help reduce the social and political tension which now threaten to frustrate any attempts to find peaceful and democratic solutions to the conflicts in the region;

30. Calls on the USSR and Cuba to support the efforts being made in the area for the restoration of peace and to act in accordance with terms of the Contadora Initiative;

31. Calls on the Council and the Foreign Ministers meeting in European political cooperation to recommend that all Member States of the United Nations discontinue arms supplies to the region;

32. Remains convinced that the problems must be solved internally and peacefully : therefore condemns any outside intervention which drags the East-West conflict into the region, and calls on the parties concerned to separate the existing causes of conflict from the East-West framework;

33. Welcomes the decision by the American Congress to discontinue military aid to the contras;

34. Notes with satisfaction the release of approximately one thousand political prisoners by the Sandinist Government and of eighty prisoners of war held by the Contras and hopes that all the political prisoners still being held in any country in the region will also be released;

35. Looks to European Political Cooperation, the Commission and the budgetary authority to augment substantially the funds made available for the Agreement on economic cooperation between the EEC and Central America, in view of the quality of the measures which are being or will be taken, country by country, to implement the Arias plan for peace and democracy and the priority which ought to be given to regional integration plans; considers that this would help to speed up the procedures involved in the implementation of the Agreement;

36. Hopes that European Political Cooperation and the Governments of the Member States, together with the European Parliament, will be involved to the fullest extent possible and desirable in the work of the International Verification Commission;

37. Welcomes the association of the European Parliament in the dialogue between the Foreign Ministers of the EEC and the Ministers of the Central American countries, as for example during the San José IV Conference in Hamburg, and wishes in particular to be kept informed on the whole procedure of the directly-elected Central American Parliament;

38. Stresses the importance of the San José meeting, held between the Ministers of the five Central American countries and the Contadora Group and the Foreign Ministers of the Twelve in Hamburg on 29 February and 1 March 1988, during which the Community and its Member Governments were able to confirm their political, economic and diplomatic commitment to the establishment of peace in Central America and to the long-term strengthening of the economic and social development of the countries of Central America;

39. Considers that the achievement of peace and the resulting demilitarization of Central America will make it possible to use the enormous resources which are now consumed by military expenditure in vital sectors of economic and social development in the area; also hopes that in this context the external powers may convert the military aid they now provide into contributions towards the integration of the Central American region and its economic and social development;

40. Calls on all governments to do their utmost to help to enforce strict observance of human rights by :

- establishing an independent judiciary,

- educating all public officials, the police and the armed forces to abide by the provisions of the law and the conventions drawn up by international organizations,

- not impeding, either legally, politically or through the police, the organization and development of independent national commissions for the protection of human rights, the recent assassination of Mr Anaya, chairman of the Salvadorean human rights commission, illustrating the risks run in this regard;

41. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Foreign Ministers meeting in European Political Cooperation, the governments which are signatories to the Esquipulas and Contadora agreements, the President of the Latin American Parliament and the governments of the United States, the USSR and Cuba.