USSR (Psychiatric Hospital Prisoners)

HC Deb 22 March 1978 vol 946 cc1487-8

4. Mr. William Hamilton

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he has studied the report by Amnesty International concerning the imprisonment of workers in psychiatric hospitals in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; and if he will make representations in these matters to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Mr. Luard

Reports of the misuse of psychiatry for political purposes are a matter of serious concern. The Government have made private representations to the Soviet Government on this and other questions involving human rights, and my right hon. Friend has publicly expressed his views on the general principles at stake on many occasions.

Mr. Hamilton

Is my hon. Friend aware that this is the first known occasion, for a very long time, anyhow, on which ordinary workers in the Soviet Union are being treated in this sadistic fashion? Will he continue to make his protests to the Soviet Union? Moreover, will he consider consulting our own TUC in order that it may make representations to the trade union people that it has entertained from time to time?

Mr. Luard

I have already said that I agree with my hon. Friend that this is a very serious matter. I have explained that we have made our views known. It has been reported in the Press that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Services, when in the Soviet Union. took the opportunity of expressing his great concern on this matter.

Mr. Henderson

Is the Minister aware that there is widespread concern about this matter? Has he had any representations from the British Medical Association about its views on doctors who allow their medical skills to be prostituted for political purposes?

Mr. Luard

Many individual medical practitioners and psychiatrists in this country and other parts of the world have already expressed their profound concern about the matter. I understand that they have expressed their concern to their professional colleagues in the Soviet Union.

Mr. Heffer

Is my right hon. Friend aware that I had the opportunity of reading the relevant papers in translation before they were printed in this country, and that the workers involved are not in ideological conflict with the Soviet Union? What they wish to do is to form free trade unions without being connected with the State, in precisely the way that we have free trade unions in this country.

Is my hon. Friend also aware that some Conservative Members will undoubtedly try to use this situation and defend the rights of workers in the Soviet Union, though they did not defend the rights of the Grunwick workers and other workers involved in the struggle in this country?

Mr. Luard

I agree with my hon. Friend that one of the most disturbing features of this and one or two other actions that have been reported in recent months is that it looks as though this is a deliberate attempt to suppress the rights of workers to join in a free association of free trade unions of the kind to which we are accustomed in this country. It must be a matter of grave concern to the whole House if the detention of people, allegedly on psychiatric grounds, can be used as a substitute for arbitrary detention as a means of keeping out of the way undesirable political opponents.