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Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What was the most recent occasion on which they discussed with the Government of Israel all of the following issues:
and whether they will ask the United States Government to discuss the above points with Israel.[HL462]
(a) the removal of settlement outposts from the occupied territories;
(b) Israeli plans for enlarging existing settlements and creating new roads for them; and
(c) the precise alignment of the security wall and fence;
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The Government regularly discuss key elements of the Middle East peace process with the Government of Israel, including our concerns over settlement policy and the route of the fence. We continue to urge the Government of Israel to reroute the fence away from Palestinian areas. My right honourable friends the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have made clear our concerns to the Israeli Prime Minister and Foreign Minister on a number of occasions. Most recently, I raised the question of the route of the fence with the Israeli Minister for National Infrastructure on 29 October.
I also discussed the issue of settlements at that same meeting, and raised our concerns with the Israeli Foreign Minister on 30 September.
There was no specific discussion on the creation of new roads, but our concern over the expansion of settlements forms a part of the regular representations made by our Embassy in Tel Aviv.
The Prime Minister discussed the Middle East peace process with President Bush during the latter's recent visit to London. In a joint statement on 20 November, they called on all parties to fulfil their obligations under the roadmap, and to refrain from steps which would prevent or prejudge the terms of a final settlement.
The Foreign Secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials and I continue to discuss these issues with the US Administration.
Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: On 7 December, the UN commenced the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration programme in Liberia. The United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General, Mr Klein, has said that all weapons collected through the disarmament programme and by the UN force in Liberia will be destroyed.
Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development (Hilary Benn) spoke to the President of Sudan on 10 December during his visit to Sudan, about the situation in Darfur. He expressed the British Government's concern at the deteriorating humanitarian situation and made clear that the parties needed to stop fighting and renew the ceasefire as a matter of urgency. He also called for the Government of Sudan to consider inviting international observers to monitor a renewed ceasefire.
We are urging all parties to engage constructively in the peace talks currently taking place in Abeche, Chad. At present the Government of Sudan, the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Chadian mediators are the only participants.
Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The UK is committed to supporting the work of the Verification and Monitoring Team (VMT) which investigates reports of breaches of the memorandum of understanding on the cessation of hostilities. We provide the VMT with three monitors and one Senior Liaison Officer and have, so far, contributed £490,000 to running costs and air support. The British Peace Support Team in Kenya has trained personnel appointed to the VMT by the Government of Sudan, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and other Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) countries, including Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations is currently carrying out an assessment mission in Sudan on the possible requirements for international monitoring throughout the country once a comprehensive peace agreement is in place. We are in close contact with the Sudanese, the UN and other interested parties on this matter. We plan to be at the forefront of the international effort to support Sudan through the transition to peace, and to help the Sudanese to rebuild their country.
On human rights I refer the noble Lord to the Answer I gave to the noble Baroness, Lady Williams of Crosby, today (HL359).
Baroness Williams of Crosby asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: We recognise the need to monitor the human rights situation in Sudan closely and we raise human rights issues on a regular basis, both bilaterally and as part of the EU-Sudan dialogue.
We were disappointed that, despite our hard work and that of our EU partners, the EU-sponsored resolution on Sudan at the UN Commission on Human Rights was lost on 16 April. The result of the vote (24 in favour, 26 against and 3 abstentions) was the first defeat of this resolution in 10 years and meant the termination of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur. We are currently considering how to approach the 2004 UN Commission on Human Rights.
Through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Human Rights Project Fund we have provided £50,000 to the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights for work in Sudan for 2003–04 and we are also helping to fund the work of the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT) which documents human rights abuses. We will consider further requests for funding as appropriate.
The Earl of Sandwich asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The UK contributed £650,000 to support the public consultation on the constitution and preparations for the Constitutional Loya Jirga which started on 14 December. UN figures suggest that about 75 per cent of the 19,000 district representatives originally selected for the Emergency Loya Jirga in 2002 took part in the selection of delegates for the Constitutional Loya Jirga. There are 502 Constitutional Loya Jirga delegates, over 100 of which are women.
Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether weapons surrendered to the United Nations Peace Keeping Force in Liberia and to ECOMOG troops will be destroyed; and, if not, what will happen to them.[HL337]
Whether they are pressing for international monitoring following recent fighting in the Darfur province of Western Sudan; and whether they will be represented in peace talks concerning Darfur in Chad.[HL338]
In what ways they consider that international monitoring, both before and after any peace agreement for the Sudan, could be made more effective; and whether they will press for monitoring to include human rights as well as military issues.[HL339]
Whether they are in favour of establishing an independent body to monitor human rights in Sudan, including the proposal to establish such a body through the United Nations Commission for Human Rights; and whether they would provide additional resources in order to fund such a body.[HL349]
What financial contribution they have made to the process of elections to the Constitutional Loya Jirga in Afghanistan; and what provisional assessment they have made of the extent of voter registration, turn-out and representation.[HL396]
What is their estimate of the numbers of military forces of Uganda, Zimbabwe and Angola still remaining within the Democratic Republic of the
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- Congo; and by when the Government and the United Nations Organisation Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo expect that such forces will have been removed or disarmed.[HL418]
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: According to the Governments of Angola and Zimbabwe, all their armed forces withdrew from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in late 2002. The last Ugandan troops left on 2 June 2003. We have no firm evidence to suggest that any of the above forces remain in the DRC.
Congo: UN Panel on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources
Lord Alli asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What progress is being made by the UN Panel on the Illegal Exploitation of the Natural Resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo.[HL490]
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The UN Panel on the Illegal Exploitation of the Natural Resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has now completed its work. It addressed one of the central and most contentious issues of the conflict in the DRC: the link between the causes of the conflict and the exploitation of natural resources. The panel's final report contains a number of important recommendations about how both the Congolese people and the international community should better manage the exploitation of resources to benefit the people of the DRC. Without losing sight of what has gone on before and the need for justice in appropriate cases, we need to build on many of its positive recommendations.
We agree with the panel that the international community must support the Transitional National Government (TNG) in the DRC. We are already working with the new government in Congo and with international and regional partners to help develop its institutions and to put in place effective management of the country's natural resources. The huge potential of the Congo's natural resources should be exploited legally and in a regulated way, for the benefit of all Congolese. We want to see trade in natural resources become a cohesive factor in regional stability and not a cause of conflict.
We are playing a leading role in helping the TNG make effective its Anti-Corruption Commission. We are helping the new government adhere to the Kimberley Process on the regulated trade in diamonds, which is the country's most significant export. We have funded Global Witness to research and publish an independent preliminary report on resource exploitation, and we are planning to fund further research in this field. We are talking to the TNG about the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which the Prime Minister launched in February 2003.
We are also engaged in promoting confidence-building measures in the region. We welcome the declaration on Good Neighbourliness made by the Governments of Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and the DRC in New York on 25 September, which includes that there must be no illegal exploitation of the natural resources of the DRC. We encourage the states concerned to continue to follow this up with steps to address bilateral and multilateral issues of mutual concern.
The illegal exploitation of resources in the DRC has served to fuel the conflict by funding arms flows. We need to ensure that the arms embargo on groups operating in the DRC is effectively implemented and monitored. We are playing a leading role through our Mission in New York in supporting proposals for an arms embargo monitoring mechanism.
As well as looking forward, we need to address what has happened in the past. We take seriously the allegations made against the British companies named in the report. We have already pursued these allegations: the DTI, as National Contact Point for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines has scrutinised the dossiers referred to it by the UN Panel and has been in contact with the named companies or their representatives to discuss the allegations. Her Majesty's Customs and Excise has studied the UN Panel's papers relating to the UK companies named in the report, but have been unable to take matters further, due to lack of evidence which would be sufficient to mount a criminal investigation. We are disappointed that despite numerous appeals to the panel to furnish detailed information to substantiate its allegations, we have not received any such information. We cannot now pursue the cases named in the report further without more specific information. There is so far no evidence that named companies have breached either OECD guidelines or UK law. We continue to ask the UN to supply us with the information on which the panel based its allegations. We also urge the NGO community to submit any specific information it may have to the National Contact Point.
We continue to press regional states to investigate and, where appropriate, take action on the allegations made in the panel reports. In this respect we welcome the publication of the conclusions of the Commission of Inquiry established by the Ugandan Government. We remain in close contact with the Government of Uganda on follow-up work to the commission's report. We also welcome the establishment of a Judicial Commission by the Rwandan Government and urge it to publicise the results of its investigations.
The panels's final report included a section which the panel chose not to make public, but which was submitted on a confidential basis to the Security Council. It is not appropriate for us to comment on this, but as far as we are aware, none of the companies or individuals named in the confidential section is of British nationality.
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