91997E2488

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2488/97 by Nikitas Kaklamanis (UPE) to the Council (28 July 1997)

Subject: Acts of brutality committed in Somalia by soldiers from EU Member States

According to international press reports, soldiers from EU Member States taking part in the multinational force of twenty-one states under the aegis of the UN committed unprecedented and inhuman acts of violence and torture against the civilian population of Somalia.

The purpose of this force was supposed to be to protect and help the people of this African country ravaged by civil war, but the charges levelled against it - torture, executions of women and children and brutal beatings - strongly suggest that the behaviour of soldiers from certain Member States was far removed from the image European states should be projecting in today's world.

Will the Council say how it intends to react to these reports of unprecedented acts of brutality by soldiers from Member States (and notably, founding members) of the Union, acts which have dealt a devastating blow to its prestige as a whole and which give its declarations about 'protecting of human rights' a hollow ring?

Answer (13 November 1997)

The question put by the Honourable Member does not fall within the purview of the Council.