Hailing the efforts of Central African Republic president Faustin-Archange Touadéra and his government to make peace and reconciliation possible, MEPs invited them on Thursday 19 January to continue their work and redouble their efforts.
Work should focus on dialogue with armed groups, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of former combatants into society, along with reform of the security sector and restoring of judicial and penal systems to tackle impunity, explains a joint resolution from the S&D, ECR, EFDD and EPP groups adopted by the MEPs. The resolution urges the government to immediately set up, with the aid of its international partners, a recovery and peace consolidation plan.
Recalling the crucial importance of security, the European Parliament stresses the need to introduce reforms to turn the country’s armed forces into a professional, ethnically representative army under democratic control. It welcomes the decision by the Council of Defence Ministers on 19 April to establish a military training mission in CAR (EUTM RCA) to aid in transforming the country’s defence sector (see EUROPE 11535).
The MEPs firmly condemn violations of human rights and demand that the government rapidly launch impartial investigations and deal with perpetrators in an appropriate manner. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)