Recommendation 889
(1980)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 30 and 31 January 1980 (24th and 25th Sittings) (see Doc. 4485, report of the Political Affairs Committee). Text adopted by the Assembly on 31 January 1980 (25th Sitting).
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
1. Gravely concerned at the serious deterioration in the international situation caused by the invasion of Afghanistan by the armed forces of the Soviet Union ;
2. Considering this intervention to constitute another flagrant violation of the principles of non-recourse to force, territorial integrity and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, and of fundamental human rights ;
3. Considering as totally unacceptable the public explanations given by the USSR in an attempt to justify its intervention, which was immediately followed by the murder of the then rulers of Afghanistan ;
4. Reaffirming its attachment to the idea of detente and to the process intended by, for example, the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), but recalling that the principles of detente, if fully implemented, are neither divisible nor limited to certain geographical regions and that Soviet aggression in Afghanistan must not lead to abandoning efforts for detente, which would harm the members of the group of non-aligned countries which are being called on to join one bloc or the other ;
5. Aware of the part which Europe can play in the extension of the policy of detente to the third world countries, which are suffering from under-development and are the most affected by the repercussions of the deterioration in East-West relations on international economic co-operation ;
6. Aware of the part which Europe can play in the extension of the policy of detente to the third world countries, which are suffering from under-development and are the most affected by the repercussions of the deterioration in East-West relations on international economic co-operation ;
7. Shares the doubts expressed by the Committee of Ministers, at an extraordinary meeting on 18 January 1980, as to the intentions of the USSR regarding detente, for which the Council of Europe has never ceased to strive, and supports the Committee of Ministers' call for an immediate, unconditional and total withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan ;
8. Appeals to the governments of Council of Europe member states to take immediate action, in association with the competent United Nations bodies, in order to give humanitarian aid to the Afghan refugees leaving their country as a result of the Soviet invasion ;
9. Declares its solidarity with the people of Afghanistan who should have the right freely to determine their own future without external interference ;
10. Stresses that the policy of detente is seriously jeopardised as long as the sovereignty and independence of a state are being violated by a power which is a signatory to the Helsinki Agreements ;
11. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers urge the governments of member states, guided by the above principles, to take a firm and vigorous stance on the events in Afghanistan, within the relevant international bodies, notably with a view to the Madrid Conference on the implementation of the Helsinki Final Act, and to affirm active solidarity with the countries of the third world.
