CONFIDENTIAL
This
methods and in exposing them to the high professional standards and
democratic values which prevail in Western Europe from where the
majority of students come. We have, of course, stipulated that candidates should be professionally and personally suitable.
offer is wholly consistent with our support for the Contadora process; similar training facilities are offered by all the Contadora Group countries. It does not imply, as some critics allege, UK military intervention in Central America.
We have supported the efforts of the Government of El Salvador to improve the human rights situation and have acknowledged the improvements made. However, at the UN Human Rights Commission in
Geneva on 12 March we voted in favour of a resolution, which was
adopted with no votes against, which called for continued improvements in the human rights situation in El Salvador and extended the arrangements for UN monitoring of the situation there.
Our only reservation, which we made known formally at the UN, was
that the resolution did not take sufficient account of the
destructive insurgent campaign and the increasing resort to acts of terrorism by the FMLN guerrillas.
In addition, Ministers have continued to express their humanitarian
concern to the Salvadorean Government about continuing abuses and
have left them in no doubt about the importance we attach to a
further improvment of the human rights situation, including the treatment of individuals detained by the Salvadorean authorities.
As a party to the International Covenants on Human Rights,
El Salvador has an international obligation to maintain the
standards set out in them.
We shall continue our support for President Duarte, and the efforts
of the moderate elements in El Salvador to secure democratic progress and stability, both in El Salvador and in the region.
23 June 1986
CONFIDENTIAL