§ 45. Mr. Gowasked the Minister of Overseas Development what is the total amount of Government assistance to Mozambique during the current year; 27 and for what purposes that assistance has been given.
§ 52. Mr. Kimballasked the Minister of Overseas Development if she will make a statement on her recent visit to Mozambique.
§ 53. Miss Joan Lestorasked the Minister of Overseas Development which areas of development the recent aid to Mozambique is intended to cover.
§ Mrs. HartBritish aid to Mozambique consists firstly of two programme loans, each of £5 million. The 1976 loan, which was offered following the Mozambican closure of its border with Rhodesia, was to buy British goods, notably vehicles including bus chassis and trucks, textile machinery, electrical generating equipment and transformers, and spare parts. The 1977 loan was made in response to the appeal of the Security Council of the United Nations last June and will be for spares and maintenance items.
Secondly, we are providing £10 million of project aid to finance three electric power projects and for rural roads, to help agricultural development. Thirdly, we have provided 5,000 tonnes of food aid. I am publishing further financial details in the Official Report.
My visit to Mozambique was for the purpose of signing the 1977 programme loan agreement and of discussing the most useful way of directing our aid programme.
§ Mr. Robert HughesNonsense.
§ Mr. Gow—about Government financial assistance to the Marxist régime in Mozambique, and that she has no guarantee that part of this very substantial aid is not being used by the Mozambique Government for the furtherance of the terrorists who are based there and who are murdering the Queen's subjects in Rhodesia?
§ Mrs. HartNaturally, I appreciate the hon. Gentleman's point of view. Let me tell him, however, that there is total control over both the project aid and the programme aid to Mozambique, and no part of it is in fact going for anything 28 that can be construed as assisting warfare. Second, may I say that perhaps it might be better if the hon. Gentleman took a little less notice of what I can only call the somewhat irresponsible and mischievous reports that appear from time to time in the Press about Mozambique.
§ Miss LestorI congratulate my right hon. Friend on the aid that the Government have agreed to give Mozambique. Is there not a degree of hypocrisy in the attitude that has been taken in certain quarters, since there was complete abandonment of any interest in the amount of arms supplied to South Africa and the use to which they were put in relation to holding down blacks and perpetuating apartheid in that country?
§ Mrs. HartI would, of course, entirely agree with my hon. Friend. The facts and assessments upon which we base our aid to Mozambique—certainly the programme loans and the most recent one which I signed in Mozambique on my recent visit—are based on very detailed United Nations assessments of the cost to Mozambique of sanctions against Rhodesia and the cost to Mozambique of, among other things, armed attacks from Rhodesia. Indeed, we expect today—I cannot be quite certain—to be one of the co-sponsors at the United Nations in New York of a resolution which will endorse the conclusion of a United Nations report saying that an additional $87 million of assistance plus food support is urgently needed by Mozambique on these counts.
§ Mr. LuceIf it is right for the Government to cancel a £19 million aid project to Bolivia on the grounds that that régime has abused human rights, how can it possibly be right for the Government to provide £20 million of taxpayers' money to support a regime which is providing a base to enable guerrillas to attack Africans and Europeans in Rhodesia? How can the Minister support a régime which is advocating a militant and violent solution in Rhodesia while her colleague the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is advocating a peaceful solution in that country?
§ Mrs. HartThe hon. Gentleman and I were both present at the debate on Friday 29 on the Rhodesia sanctions order. He heard, as I heard, what my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary had to say. It is clear that there are two views about this matter. Plainly, there is a war situation in Southern Africa— it is not of our doing, but it is a fact—and that war situation means that there are guerrilla fighters stationed in Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique. Our aid to Mozambique is not concerned with that; it is concerned partly with the poverty of Mozambique and partly with the direct economic consequences to Mozambique of playing its part in what we hope will be a peaceful solution to the Rhodesian problem.
§ Mr. Robert HughesIs my right hon. Friend aware that many people in this country appreciate the sacrifices made by the people and Government of Mozambique in carrying out a sanctions policy against an illegal régime? Would it not be better if Conservative Members spent less time defending those who are in rebellion against the Crown and more in supporting those who are carrying out the policy of this Government?
§ Mrs. HartHon. Members opposite would be well advised to read the United Nations report and to understand the very real economic sacrifices imposed upon an already difficult economic situation in Mozambique by the closing of the border with Rhodesia. They would do well to read some of the factual evidence on this subject.
§ Sir Bernard BraineIs the Minister aware that those of us who regularly read United Nations reports on the state
| MOZAMBIQUE—PRESENT STATE OF COMMITMENTS, AND DISBURSEMENTS DURING UNITED KINGDOM FINANCIAL YEAR 1977–78 UP TO 30TH SEPTEMBER | ||
| Programme | Date Agreement Signed/Commitment Agreed | Disbursement during UK F/Y 1977–78 (First half) £'000; |
| 1976— | ||
| £5m. Programme Loan | August 1976 | 957 |
| 1977— | ||
| 5,000 tonnes UK Food Aid under EEC Food Aid Programme | July 1977 | 623 |
| £10m. Project Loan | July 1977 | — |
| £5m. Programme Loan | October 1977 | — |
| Bilateral Technical Co-operation | Ongoing | 18 |
| Balance of special Rhodesian Refugee Relief Programme in Mozambique (channelled through UN High Commission for Refugees) | October 1976 | 50 |
| Contribution of up to £0.3m. to Commonwealth Fund for Mozambique | October 1976 | — |
§ of the human condition see that there are many parts of the world where aid could be used in much less controversial circumstances? Have not the Government got their priorities on this matter hopelessly mixed? How can the Minister defend aid on this scale to Mozambique at a time when there are many poorer countries in the world and within the Commonwealth that need British aid? In particular, how can she defend the continued failure to provide the British colony of Falkland Islands with the minimum development that it requires?
§ Mrs. HartThe gross national product per head of Mozambique puts it well within the category of the poorest countries of the world. Falkland Islands, I am afraid, does not quite fall into that category.
Secondly, I wish that some hon. Members opposite would take the opportunity to visit Mozambique—I do not think that any of them have done so—and see just what poverty there is in the rural areas of Mozambique, following 50 years of Portuguese colonialism when nothing was done to benefit the ordinary people of Mozambique. I wish that hon. Gentlemen opposite would go and see for themselves rather than rely on mischievous reports in the Daily Telegraph.
§ Mr. GowOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. In view of the gravely unsatisfactory nature of the Minister's reply, I give notice that I shall seek to raise the matter on the Adjournment.
§ Following are the details: