§ Miss Joan Lestor (Eccles)(by private notice): To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on what aid the Government intend to offer Nicaragua in the aftermath of the recent hurricane.
§ The Minister for Overseas Development (Mr. Chris Patten)Following consultation over the weekend with international relief agencies, I am now making available £250,000 to Nicaragua and other countries in the region affected by Hurricane Joan.
This assistance is in addition to the initial £10,000 I authorised over the weekend for our ambassador as a very first contribution in the form of cash to meet immediate local requirements. This new money will be channelled through international agencies such as the Red Cross and United Nations Disaster Relief Office as well as British voluntary agencies such as Oxfam. The European Community is also providing emergency relief of £430,000 for Costa Rica and Nicaragua—our share of which is some £86,000.
We are now discussing urgently with the agencies the precise allocation of the £250,000 as emergency needs and priorities start to become a little clearer. As I have said, I am ready to respond to requests for assistance from any of the countries, including Nicaragua, that are suffering as a result of this hurricane. As always, we will keep the situation under very close review and do whatever we can to help.
§ Miss LestorI was glad to hear the Minister's announcement, which represented an increase on the figure announced in the press.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Tim Eggar)The hon. Member for Eccles (Miss Lestor) has got the wrong end of the stick.
§ Miss LestorJust a moment. Presumably the figure announced in the press was an initial reaction pending the statement that has been made to the House today. Okay? Is the Minister's friend happy?
§ Miss LestorThank you—then I shall continue.
We also welcome the Minister's statement that the matter is fairly open in respect of any further request that may be made.
As most people are aware, the latest reports are that there are about 50 dead in Nicaragua, that 300,000 more people have been affected, and the Hurricane Joan is moving at a colossal rate, leaving behind a trail of destruction that has devastated timberlands, cattle ranches, rice fields and, as I understand it, most of the coffee harvest. The country is in a very grave state. The British Government made a rapid and generous response after Hurricane Gilbert in Jamaica, although I know that the devastation there was greater than it is at the moment in Nicaragua.
However, I ask the Minister to comment on information I have received, that the Nicaraguan embassy has said that the British Red Cross has a plane loaded with 38 tonnes of emergency aid ready to go to Nicaragua, but 24 that it needs £160,000 to send it there. I understand that a request has been made to the Ministry to fund that exercise. Will he make a favourable response, and include in his statement today an undertaking that he will consider sympathetically any further requests that come his way?
The Minister mentioned the fact that it was recognised that other countries have been affected and are likely to be affected in the future, so I shall not pursue that point. However, I urge the Government to use their good relations with the United States Administration and to advise them to accept the democratically elected Government of Nicaragua. After the 1979 earthquake, the United States-sponsored civil war and Hurricane Joan, the people of Nicaragua need peace now more than ever before. Support for the Contras against the democratically elected Government is totally unacceptable.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. These comments are somewhat wide of the question.
§ Miss LestorI accept that they are wide of the question, Mr. Speaker: I was trying to make the point that the hurricane comes on top of all the other disasters that have confronted Nicaragua, and that the things that are now taking place there stand in the way of assistance being used effectively.
Finally, has the Minister considered using the garrison in Belize and whether it has a role to play in the relief effort? Perhaps he will comment on that point.
§ Mr. Chris PattenPerhaps I can answer those five questions fairly briefly.
First, the hon. Member for Eccles (Miss Lestor) was right to say that the £10,000 is what we normally provide immediately to whoever is on the spot so that they can buy medicines and blankets and meet early emergency needs. Perhaps the fact that, unusually, the amount was announced at the weekend gave the hon. Lady the wrong impression about our overall contribution towards dealing with the disaster in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and conceivably elsewhere.
Secondly, the precise scale of the devastation in Nicaragua is not yet clear. It looks as though the hurricane hit the Atlantic coast with particular force and did the greatest damage there: it seems that it did not do as much damage as it moved across the country to the Pacific coast. It has, however, taken off again off the Pacific coast under another name. [Interruption.] It would not be tremendously funny if one was living on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. We shall obviously need to take account of further developments, because we may need to provide more assistance.
Thirdly, we have been in touch with the Red Cross. That is one of the first agencies that we contact in cases such as this. We shall look at the issue mentioned by the hon. Lady of the supplies that may or may not be about to fly with the Red Cross from Heathrow.
Fourthly—this goes slightly wide of my brief and remit —I assure the hon. Lady that the Government, like the rest of the European Community, support the peace process in central America. I am sure that she will have read the exchanges in the House on the subject last week, in which I know that the hon. Member for Newham, North-West (Mr. Banks) played a distinguished traveller's role.
§ Mr. Tony Banks (Newham, North-West)Thank you. At least I have been there.
§ Mr. PattenI shall not dwell on the way in which the hon. Gentleman got there.
Finally, we have had no requests about the use of the garrison at Belize, but obviously we deal with any requests for the use of MOD facilities, or our armed forces, as promptly and helpfully as we can.
§ Mr. Jacques Arnold (Gravesham)In making this welcome contribution to the assistance being given to central America, will my hon. Friend bear in mind our long-standing connection with the Bluefields area through the Mosquito protectorate that this country had with the area some years ago? When considering the distribution of potential additional amounts, will he give some thought to assisting that area and the Caribbean Commonwealth countries to prepare for the all-too-frequent hurricanes that occur there, both with emergency planning and with preparations for future events?
§ Mr. PattenI know how much my hon. Friend knows about the region, and the area to which he refers seems to have been the most affected by Hurricane Joan. I am pleased that my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs was able to meet a delegation from the area last week, and I am sure that we shall have its needs very much in mind when it comes to the allocation of disaster relief assistance.
The issue of preparedness is of course particularly important, and we have just allocated $250,000 to UNDRO for a study that it is doing on preparedness in the Caribbean. I hope that that will help the countries in the region that are affected so frequently by hurricanes to prepare more adequately for limiting the amount of damage that they do.
§ Mr. David Steel (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale)The people of Nicaragua will be grateful for the Minister's prompt response to the disaster. Will he bear in mind, however, that our regular aid programme to Nicaragua has declined considerably from about £400,000 10 years ago to £100,000 now? There is clearly scope for generosity. Will he examine the reports coming in of the economic disaster to the cotton and coffee crops on which Nicaragua depends for her exports, and if necessary give expert as well as cash aid?
§ Mr. PattenIt is true that our bilateral aid programme to Nicaragua peaked 10 years ago. That, of course, was when the last Labour Administration gave about £400,000 to the Somoza regime—a point which, I am sure, features prominently in the memoirs and the diaries of the period. The main contribution that we now make to Nicaragua is multilaterally, through the European Community.
Altogether, the EC had a programme in 1986, which is the last year for which we have figures, of about $9.2 million, to which we contributed about 20 per cent. In addition, we are supporting about 40 non-governmental organisation projects in Nicaragua.
§ Mr. Neil Hamilton (Tatton)Does my right hon. Friend agree that, whatever the damage caused by this hurricane, it is tiny compared with the economic catastrophe imposed upon the people of Nicaragua by the Marxist economic policies of their Government? If we are to give aid to countries in the Caribbean area, would it not be better to give it to those countries that support pro-Western policies, such as Jamaica, rather than to those that are in thrall to the Eastern bloc, which could support them itself?
§ Mr. PattenOne can make a valid distinction between humanitarian assistance and long-term development aid. However, I agree with my hon. Friend about the damage done by the economic policies which I believe are now associated with the name of Mr. Ligachev and are not widely regarded as being terribly successful.
§ Mr. John Fraser (Norwood)As the Member of Parliament for Lambeth, which is twinned with Bluefields, Nicaragua and which has given a great deal of help already, I ask the Minister if he would consider matching the private contributions made to the disaster relief funds initiated by boroughs such as Lambeth. Secondly, does he appreciate that one of the great problems in Jamaica and in Nicaragua is that a hurricane cuts out income from foreign exchange for tourism and cash crops because of the immediate destruction that it wreaks? Will he consider making sufficient foreign exchange available from this country, or together with other countries, for the immediate import of essentials, such as lumber, zinc and spare parts to make good some of the damage caused by this catastrophe?
§ Mr. PattenFirst, we already match, through our joint funding scheme, on a pound-for-pound basis, and I would be reluctant to extend that principle. The joint funding scheme has been successful, which is why we have increased it by about 200 per cent. in the past two or three years.
Secondly, I believe that foreign exchange is more of a problem for Jamaica, which has a more substantial tourist industry, than for Nicaragua, but, obviously, contributions made in sterling by outside donors are of some help to the foreign exchange position of the assisted countries.
§ Mr. Ian Bruce (Dorset, South)Does my hon. Friend agree that one of the additional modes of aid that we give to the Caribbean is having a ship always on station from Her Majesty's forces? In fact, I had the honour of being on the Caribbean guard ship HMS Newcastle until a few days ago and I saw the plans being made by the Ministry of Defence to go to the aid of people hit by hurricanes. Does he not agree that it is excellent that, after Hurricane Gilbert, we had a ship in the Cayman Islands the day immediately after the hurricane? It gave immediate aid there and then went on to Jamaica to give continued aid. Does he agree that this form of aid, where Ministry of Defence money is being used for humanitarian reasons, is an excellent way for Britain to play its part in this work?
§ Mr. PattenSpeaking as the Member for a landlocked Navy city, I am delighted to endorse what my hon. Friend has said. The Navy provided considerable assistance after Hurricane Gilbert, especially to the Caymans and Jaimaica. It does an outstanding job. We also have reason to be pleased about the contribution that the armed forces have made after other emergencies and disasters.
§ Ms. Dawn Primarolo (Bristol, South)I visited Bluefields in Nicaragua in May and, speaking to the Minister as a Member of Parliament for the next constituency along from his landlocked one, I remind him that the Atlantic coast region was almost totally devastated by this hurricane. Seventy-five per cent. of Bluefields and 95 per cent. of Corn Island have been completely destroyed. Bluefields, which is a substantial city on the Atlantic coast, and has existed since 1620—its connections with Britain have been stated previously—has 27 been destroyed to the extent that it may have to be abandoned as a community. We appreciate that the Government have made an issue—[Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. This is a private notice Question.
Ms. PrimoroloI was coming to the question, Mr. Speaker, but some of the points have not been made.
Will the Government and the Minister accept that what is needed for Nicaragua is substantial Government aid now? People do not have shelter. I urge the Minister to reconsider so that the Government can make available now massive aid to the Atlantic coast region through the ODA. The Government should consider the use of Belize and the possibility of an emergency unit within ODA to fulfil our obligations.
§ Mr. PattenWith respect to the hon. Lady, I am not sure whether she has raised any additional points. We are providing immediate emergency assistance and, as I have said, we will keep the situation under urgent review. I am sure—at least, I think I am—that the Opposition would be just as concerned if the hurricane had hit Panama.
§ Mr. Tony BanksMay I remind the Minister that the greatest damage to Nicaragua has been caused by the state-sponsored terrorism of the Reagan Administration.
§ Mr. SpeakerIs this about the hurricane?
§ Mr. SpeakerThe question should be about the hurricane, please.
§ Mr. BanksThe amount of money that the Minister has announced this afternoon is pathetic in comparison with the problems that exist. Will the Minister pay a visit to Nicaragua? Perhaps he would take with him the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, who says a great deal about Nicaragua but has never ventured there. If they encounter any difficulties with travelling, I could perhaps have a word with General Noriega and he could take them in his jet.
§ Mr. PattenIt is conceivable that I tend to be rather choosier than the hon. Gentleman about whom I hitch lifts with.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. We have had a good run on this private notice question.