Necessity to cancel the "Sea Breeze" exercise

Written Declaration No. 258

Doc. 7856

26 June 1997

The undersigned, members of the Assembly,

1.On behalf of the members of the informal non-partisan Anti-NATO Enlargement Association of deputies-members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, call upon the bloc leaders, Mr Solana, its Secretary General and Mr Koutchma, the President of Ukraine, to cancel the Sea Breeze '97 military exercise in the Crimean Peninsula;

2.Consider that this exercise, which is to take place from 27 to 30 August this year in the area of the Crimean resort of Eupatoria, is giving rise to strong protests by the population, that the people of Eupatoria have already collected more than 13 000 signatures against this exercise and that the majority of the deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea have addressed the President of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada urging them to cancel the exercise;

3.Consider that the exercise scenario implies that there is a "power struggle" between some "local armed formations", "illicitly supplied by sea with armaments by one of the neighbour states in order to destabilise" the situation in the country and in the region as a whole and that the purpose of this marine landing operation of multinational forces is to "assist local authorities in restoring civil order". In other words, they will have not only humanitarian and rescue functions but also military and police ones. Thus, the provocative nature of the exercise to be conducted within the proximity of Russian borders is evident;

4.Deeply concerned by the fact that the site of the exercise is Eupatoria, a worldwide known resort, where children from Chernobyl and other regions affected by the disaster take their holiday and get medical treatment;

5.Consider that such an exercise is not only incapable of strengthening stability in Europe and enhancing the preparedness for the peace-making operations, but on the contrary would increase tension and disseminate mistrust throughout the continent;

6.Convinced that the steps towards the enlargement of one of the military blocs which survived from the time of the Cold War do not represent an adequate response to the challenges Europe is now facing;

7.Believe that the resources of European nations should be channelled not to new military preparations but to address acute social, environmental and other problems of the present, including the assistance to Ukraine in eliminating the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, idea that was supported by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 24 June this year;

8.Consider that it is only on the basis of mutual understanding and co-operation that it will be possible to advance to establishing a comprehensive system of democratic security in Europe of the 21st century.

Signed: (1)

Aushev, Russia, UEL

Carvalho, Portugal, UEL

Christodoulides, Cyprus, UEL

Chyzh, Ukraine, UEL

Glotov, Russia, UEL

Jirousova, Czech Republic, UEL

Laakso, Finland, UEL

Marmazov, Ukraine, UEL

Melnikov, Russia, UEL

Oleinik, Russia, UEL

Oliynik, Ukraine, UEL

Rakhansky, Ukraine, UEL

Savitsky, Russia, UEL

Symonenko, Ukraine, UEL

Vishnyakov, Russia, NR

Zhebrovski, Russia, NR

___________

Total = 16

Note: 1UEL : Group of the Unified European Left

NR : Not registered in a group