Strasbourg, 15/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - MEPs, who rejoiced Monday evening on seeing among them their colleague Olivier Dupuis, member of the Bonino list, released having been in prison in Vientiane since 24 October with other Radical militants (see EUROPE of 14 November, p.6), adopted a resolution on Thursday presented by Elmar Brok, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, in which they raise the broader question of democracy in Laos and call for the convening of the Joint Committee provided for by the EU/Laos Co-operation Agreement.. According to the resolution, the arrest of five Radical militants who were demonstrating peacefully for democracy in Laos and the disappearance of five Laotian student leaders, arrested on 26 October 1999 and of whom there is still no news (Olivier Dupuis and the other five members of the Transnational Radical Party were precisely in Vientiane on 26 October last to demonstrate in their favour) clearly constitute a "serious violation of the principles of democracy as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights". Before releasing the Radical militants, the Foreign Affairs Committee had drawn up a tougher resolution, calling for the suspension of aid to Laos. The resolution that was finally adopted on Thursday simply condemns the conduct of the Laotian authorities and calls for the Joint Committee to obtain: - precise information on the fate of the five Laotians who disappeared, and who were meant to be assured a trial, as quickly as possible, "in the full respect of international standards"; - the commitment by the Laotian Government to guarantee the respect of civil and political rights recognised by the Universal Declaration on Human rights and to comply with the requests contained in the EP resolution of 15 February of this year, notably abolition of Article 59 of the criminal law that provides for one to five year prison sentences for "anti-government propaganda".
Tuesday already, Commissioner David Byrne had told plenary that the European Commission was, with the diplomatic missions of Member States, following closely the human rights situation in Laos, and had recognised "flaws" existing in the "administration of justice" in the country. These problems are in part exacerbated by the "poor training of people working in the judicial system", reason why the Commission had offered assistance to the Government of Vientiane in reforming the system and developing its human resources, Byrne added. In a short debate, the CDU member, Hartmut Nassauer recalled that, since 1975, Laos had been a single-party country, and that it was not therefore "democratic in the way we understand". Meanwhile, Mr. Nassauer also noted that the EU financed projects that were precisely to encourage democracy and the Rule of Law, and that the EP/ASEAN delegation (which he chairs) was able once again to convince itself this year that the aid was useful; for that reason, he considered that co-operation with Laos had to continue. Olivier Dupuis, on the other hand, noted that, in the early 90s, Laos had begun a process of openness, but that since 1995, "we are assisting an extremely serious set back, a transformation of this Communist regime into a genuinely "clepto-Communist" regime, or rather a "hybrid between clepto-Communist and narco-Communist". According to him, the EU must therefore, "instead of continuing to back politically correct projects (…) which have no useful context (..) go straight to the heart of the problem, that is to say democratisation".