§ The Earl of Sandwichasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have evaluated the effect on the Department for International Development's programmes of (a) Uganda's; and (b) Rwanda's defence spending in the Congo. [HL2516]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Amos)The Government have been actively involved in promoting peace in the Great Lakes region. We have given full support to the inter Congolese Dialogue, which successfully concluded at its recent plenary session in Sun City, South Africa, providing for the early establishment of a transitional national government in the DRC, with a view to democratic elections in two years' time. The UK is an active member of the international committee tasked with supporting this process.
The UK, through the FCO, has also been actively supporting the United Nations Observer Mission to DRC (MONUC), which is currently considering how best to deploy its mandated peace-keepers on the ground in the DRC. We are also a major contributor to the Multi-Country Demobilisation and Reintegration Programme for the Great Lakes. In Rwanda, contributions totalling £5.047 million were made from the Africa Conflict Prevention Pool in 2002–03 to support the World Bank Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Programme.
In the next few weeks, we hope to agree with Government of Rwanda a Memorandum of Understanding covering UK support for Rwanda's security sector reform process. The MoU sets out how the UK could support the reform of the police, military, paramilitary and intelligence services, and the civilian structures responsible for their oversight and control, to improve the security of poor and vulnerable Rwandans.
In Uganda we are actively engaged with a systematic review of defence policy and the resulting needs. The process is fully owned by the Ugandans and a draft White Paper on Defence is due in mid-2003. The paper will address both defence needs and the affordability of the various options set against the government's poverty reduction goals. In the interim we continue to engage with the government over the scale of their defence expenditure to ensure that these poverty reduction programmes are not affected.
§ Lord Moynihanasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress has been made in setting up a pilot project between the United Kingdom and Cuba in the Democratic Republic of Congo to explore how Cuban doctors might be engaged in the fight against AIDS; and what is the timetable for the start up of this project [HL2546]
§ Baroness AmosThe FCO recently funded a scoping visit to the DRC by a UK/Cuban consultancy team to review the Cuban proposal and consider longer-term94WA collaboration between the two countries on this project. Prospects for developing a pilot project from the scoping visit are currently under review by the FCO, as is the possibility of the Cubans working with established international NGOs in DRC. No start date for the project has as yet been set.