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Overseas Development

Volume 225: debated on Monday 24 May 1993

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Sudan

37.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what additional resources his Department is able to deploy to relieve famine and starvation in the Sudan.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
(Mr. Mark Lennox-Boyd)

On 18 March, my right hon. and noble Friend the Minister for Overseas Development made a further pledge of £4 million to support the work of non-governmental organisations and international agencies in Sudan.

Does the Minister recognise that the appalling suffering in Sudan demands firm and concerted international action? What are the Government doing to help to bring maximum pressure to bear on the Sudanese Government to respect the rule of law and the rights of all their citizens and to allow free and unfettered access by the international aid organisations to bring aid to those in need?

As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister told the House on 6 May, the Government and, I am sure, the whole House, fully share the fears expressed by the hon. Gentleman about the suffering in Sudan. We have taken a leading role in measures adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights. We have warned the Sudanese Government in strong terms against further interference with the free passage of international aid. Only last week Dr. Garang, the SPLA leader, who was in London, was given a similar warning about those problems by officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

South Africa

38.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what additional resources Her Majesty's Government have made available for preparation and training for the introduction of democracy in South Africa following the end of apartheid.

The objective of our aid programme is to help prepare black South Africans for a democratic and non-racial South Africa. We expect to increase aid to support the process.

The Minister will have had discussions with Nelson Mandela when he was in this country recently. Obviously, the date and the timetable for the election are likely to be announced soon. Will the Government respond rapidly to ensure that the black people who will form the majority Government in South Africa in the near future are given every possible assistance with their responsibilities after that election?

As I am sure the hon. Gentleman is aware, it has been declared that by 4 June the date should be set for elections that must take place before 4 June next year. If there are requests from the transitional executive council for assistance with election work they will he favourably considered by my right hon. and noble Friend when the elections take place. No doubt the hon. Gentleman is aware that we provide substantial assistance for the education of young South Africans. Some 1,000 scholarships a year are provided through funds from our bilateral programme, which assists towards the future of South Africa.

Does my hon. Friend agree that as funds in the Exchequer are tight, it is wrong to divert money from our overseas budget for humanitarian aid simply to help train people in this area? Surely our priorities must be carefully considered when money is so tight.

Priorities must always be carefully considered. I take my hon. Friend's point. Our aid in this area is, however, expected to rise to reflect support for the evolving political, economic and social reform process.

While paying tribute to the work done by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy in promoting multi-party democracy, does the Minister agree that, in its first year of operation, it has tended to bias its expenditure—perhaps necessarily—toward eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union? Will the Minister give an assurance that Government funds will now be directed to Africa in general and South Africa in particular?

There are many demands on the aid programme and the Westminster Foundation is a necessary ingredient of the aid programme. I have no doubt that the problems of South Africa and Africa generally will not be neglected.

May I echo the remarks of the right hon. Member for Tweeddale. Ettrick and Launderdale (Sir D. Steel) about the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, having benefited from visiting South Africa under its auspices? There is much appreciation in South Africa for what this country and the European Community aid office is doing. Is it possible to help refocus the South African Broadcasting Corporation? At present, it is not trusted and, as it will be the principal means of getting information to the people before the elections, it requires a degree of respect, which can only come with help from the World Service and the BBC in general.

Do the junior Minister and the Government recognise the huge reconstruction programme that will be necessary in South Africa, once the elections have been held, for housing, education, health and employment services for the black majority? Will the Minister give an absolute guarantee—which he did not give in answer to a previous question—that any aid and development moneys now focused on South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa will not be transferred to Russia or eastern Europe, where average per capita incomes are 10 times higher? Will he press for the early establishment of the transitional executive council and make it his policy that there will be no further offers of loans, tariff concessions, debt rescheduling, or any similar aid, until the transitional executive council is in place? Above all, will the Minister make it clear that the Government have learnt from the bitter lessons of Angola and Mozambique that transition to full democracy for the first time cannot be achieved on the cheap?

I am surprised by the tone of the hon. Gentleman's question. lie knows that the African National Congress has asked for the lifting of trade and financial sanctions upon formation of the transitional executive council. To suggest that, somehow, we should delay any further—which is the hint behind the hon. Gentleman's question—is quite absurd. When that happens we will be pressing for precisely that. We are planning new programmes at the moment in areas such as rural development, health and small business development. As the hon. Gentleman knows, we are opening a new development office in Pretoria on 7 June to manage aid to South Africa and some of the neighbouring countries. Surely that is a positive step in the direction that the hon. Gentleman wants.

May I counsel my hon. Friend to be sure that he does not rob Peter to pay Paul, particularly given our strong commitment to humanitarian aid and disaster relief? I wonder why we should commit funds so heavily to the introduction of democracy in South Africa when we must bear in mind the fact that the whole of Latin America., with the notable exception of Cuba, returned to democracy without great financial aid from this country.

I have not made any commitment at all; we are having a debate in which pressure is being exerted that we should.

I take my hon. Friend's point. I have made no commitments—I do not intend to—and this matter will be discussed in the light of questions today and other debates.

Tuberculosis

39.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what response he plans to make to the declaration by the World Health Organisation of tuberculosis as a global health emergency.

We share the concern expressed by the World Health Organisation about the increasing incidence and severity of TB. We are considering with the WHO and other Governments the resources that should be made available and how they might be used most effectively to help reduce the spread of this disease.

May I encourage the Minister to make best speed with those considerations, given that about one third of the world's population is now infected with TB and that TB currently kills more people than heart disease and AIDS put together.

Is he aware that the World bank has estimated that the cure available for TB is one of the most cost-effective available? Does he accept that, unless the disease is also tackled in Britain and other industrialised countries—there is evidence of its coming back—there cannot be a cure in those countries where it is rampant: Latin America, Asia and Africa?

I fully accept the hon. Gentleman's alarm at the regrowth of the disease. I can accept the figure that he used—3 million deaths occur as a result of that dreadful disease each year. The United Kingdom is one of the largest sources of World Health Organisation extrabudgetary support. We contributed £11 million in 1992. We are anxious to see a better lead from the WHO in that regard, as the problem is of such great importance to the health of the world.