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PETITION
Solicitors (Unprofessional Conduct)
10 pm
Sir Andrew Bowden (Brighton, Kemptown): With your permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I beg leave to present a petition, signed by more than 3,700 people, requesting that an independent regulator consider complaints against solicitors for unprofessional conduct. The petition states:
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.--[Mr. Heathcoat-Amory.]
Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow):
This is a debate about sanctions against two countries with which the United Kingdom has, historically, enjoyed excellent relations. Many of the decision makers in Libya and Iraq were educated in this country. As we debate the issue of sanctions, we also debate our country's long-term relations with two very important areas of the Arab world.
Anyone who visits Iraq must be dismayed that a once sophisticated society should be reduced to grinding poverty in many areas. Every recent visitor to that country--including the right hon. Members for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Sir E. Heath) and for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale (Sir D. Steel), the former leader of the Liberal party, and many others--is appalled, as I was, by the terrible conditions in the children's hospital in Baghdad or the conditions in another hospital at Um-Kasr on the Kuwaiti border. Infants, who cannot conceivably be responsible for any of the horrors of the past 10 years, expired in my presence--and I do not exaggerate.
The most recent visitor to Iraq with whom I have been in contact is Riad El-Taher, an Iraqi-born British subject. He is concerned about the British Government's entrenched support for United Nations Security Council resolution 986. He writes:
I sensed that during my visit.
One is forced to take the view that UNSCR 986 was not intended to provide humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people, in view of five factors. Both the UK and USA hold substantial Iraqi frozen assets, which could be controlled effectively for the sole purchases of badly needed food and medicine from their respective countries and for immediate release. Even if Iraq were prepared to agree to UNSCR 986, there are no guarantees that funds would be available from the sale of oil or for the purchase of humanitarian requirements, due to the complexity of
the contractual demands. The reparations burden should be set aside at this stage, as Iraq can tackle that issue when sanctions are lifted. The rest of the argument is well known to the Foreign Office.
I simply say to the Minister, and through him to the Foreign Secretary, that the right hon. and learned Gentleman the Foreign Secretary should go to some of his constituents, the Church and Nation Committee of the Church of Scotland--he represents many of the leading members of the Church of Scotland in the Pentlands constituency of Edinburgh--and speak to them about their detailed knowledge and their knowledge of the humanitarian position.
Hansard records that, on 21 December 1988, I raised the subject of Libyan sanctions in the House. From new year's eve 1988, for reasons that I have outlined in seven previous Adjournment debates, I have had a deep interest in the subject.
Tonight, I make two requests. First, is it not time, after seven years, that the crucial timing device is produced?
Let independent experts examine the timing device, because so far only photographs have been produced, and the head of the firm of manufacturers, Edwin Bollier, and his engineer, Ulrich Lumpart, have not even been allowed to see it.
I ask specific questions of which I gave notice to the Lord Advocate and the Crown Office in Edinburgh, which they undertook to pass on to the Minister. Is the Minister aware that Thomas Thurman, the Federal Bureau of Investigation officer who claims to have identified the timing device, is under investigation by the US Justice Department regarding allegations by a fellow FBI officer, Frederick Whitehurst, that he fabricated evidence and committed perjury in a murder trial in the USA? That was outlined in The Scotsman by a remarkable reporter, Stephen Breen. I have cross-checked with other sources, however.
Does the Thurman/White House situation lead Her Majesty's Government at least to question the credibility of Thurman, and the credibility of the Crown's identification of the timing device? Should Thurman be found guilty of perjury, would the Crown reassess the evidence and case against the two Libyans, given that the timing device is the key evidence linking the Libyans and the bombing?
The whole story of so-called evidence from Mary's House in Valletta, and the 18 different identifications of Tony Gouchie, would be very flimsy in any court of law. Where, we ask, is this timer? Has it ever been out of the United Kingdom? Who found it? When was it found, and where? The imagination boggles. A timer supposedly in pristine condition was out in a Scottish winter for 15 months or so. I do not believe that the timer on the Pan Am clipper "Maid of the Seas" is in the possession of the authorities; I believe that they have a photograph of a rather different timer.
I have done my best in regard to my next point, and I also understand the Prime Minister's reasons. Before my question to him about the last issue that I shall raise is dealt with, let me issue a request that serious consideration, at least, be given to the Libyan suggestion of a trial in The Hague, under Scottish rules of evidence
and under a Scottish judge. I feel that, after seven years, there is a strong argument for considering that as a serious possibility.
I am pleased to see that my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull, East (Mr. Prescott) is present, because he has had a deep interest in Malta ever since we worked together when he led the Labour European delegation to the European Parliament. He had a good deal to do with Malta then. I shall not speak for my right hon. Friend, however; I shall speak for myself.
I do not believe that there ever was a Malta connection. We had hoped, yet again--along with the relatives, who have been steadfast and will not go away--to see the Prime Minister before these questions were asked. I do not believe in yah-boo Prime Minister's Question Time. The Prime Minister wrote to me:
That until the Law Society and the Solicitors Complaints Bureau are made accountable to an Independent Regulator members of the public remain open to abuse from the legal profession. A long overdue requested Public Inquiry into the handling by the Law Society and the Solicitors Complaints Bureau of Mary Blakeman's long standing complaints regarding a solicitor's unethical, unprofessional conduct will bring justification to bear on the issue. Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your honourable House will give urgent consideration to this Petition to make effective its desire because in all areas JUSTICE A 'MUST' IS!
Libya and Iraq (Sanctions)
10.1 pm
"Can I bring to your attention . . . the long term erosion of trust and historical ties taking root among the upcoming generation".
"The majority of UK educated Iraqis are reaching retirement age and are being replaced by a generation fed on suspicion of the West and particularly Britain's continued support of sanctions."
I mentioned that issue at Question Time, and I say as gently as I can, and I hope without giving offence, that I wonder whether the Minister, his colleagues and his civil service advisers really realise the extent to which a generation is growing up about to hate the west--people who have been trading partners and friends. It is tragic.
"UNSCR 986 is heavily biased, being intrusive, divisive and certainly not addressing the chronic humanitarian shortages of food and medicine. These shortages are felt most strongly among the young generation . . . and the salaried sector in general. The financial benefit, if Iraq manages to sell the allocated oil, after deduction of the heavy burden of reparations, administration and allocation to the Northern Governorate under UN supervision, will be in the region of 7-8 US$ per person per month (outside Iraq)."
That places seriously in question the assertions that it is simply up to Saddam Hussein to change policy, and all will be well. I fear that the detail of what is happening shows that that certainly would not be the outcome.
"I have considered carefully whether I might meet Jim Swire, Pamela Dix and Martin Cadman before your question. Unfortunately I fear that my diary is such that there will be no possibility before then."
The offer has been made, but I hope that the Government will look carefully at the possibility of a trial in The Hague to bring the matter to a head.
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