§ 1. Lady Olga MaitlandTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement regarding United Nations sanctions on Iraq. [30842]
§ The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Malcolm Rifkind)Sanctions will stay in place until Iraq fulfils its obligations under the relevant UN Security Council resolutions. Implementation of resolution 986 will give welcome relief to the Iraqi people, whose suffering Saddam has caused.
§ Lady Olga MaitlandIs my right hon. and learned Friend aware that implementation of United Nations resolution 986 could be misinterpreted by the Iraqis as weakness? I mention that particularly in the light of the fact that, yesterday, United Nations inspectors were deliberately obstructed by the Iraqis when they went to visit a site in west Baghdad, where they believed that there were weapons of mass destruction, and the Iraqis are still holding more than 600 missing Kuwaitis and prisoners of war. One woman was released just a month ago, having been taken when she was only 14 years old. She is now a wreck. She had been raped and tortured. Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that we must, with all diligence, press the Iraqis to comply with all United Nations resolutions before we give them any more assistance?
§ Mr. RifkindYesterday's incident confirms, as my hon. Friend has shown, why it is necessary for general sanctions to remain against Iraq until it fully complies with United Nations resolutions, including resolutions with regard to those who have been unlawfully detained in Iraq since the end of the Gulf war. Resolution 986 was concerned purely with humanitarian matters, and it is because the United Kingdom and the United States were determined to ensure that no loopholes could be exploited by Saddam Hussein that the negotiations took a long time. I am pleased to say that there was a satisfactory result.
§ Mr. DalyellWhat about the 500,000 or more Iraqi children who have died in the past few years as a result of disease and malnutrition? What does the Foreign Office have to say about the reports of the most recent travellers to Iraq which confirm the appalling stagnation of water and waterborne diseases that occur there?
§ Mr. RifkindAs the hon. Gentleman well knows, sanctions have never applied to food or medicines. Therefore, if aid has not reached people in Iraq, that must be entirely the responsibility of the Iraqi Government.
§ Mr. John MarshallDoes my right hon. and learned Friend agree that the Iraqi regime is one of the most evil— if not the most evil—regimes in the world? It ill behoves any hon. Member to give it any comfort when it has ignored the plight of its own people, the plight of the Kurds and the 292 plight of the Kuwaitis, and when it rained down Scud missiles on innocent Israelis in 1991. It is an evil regime and it should get no help from anyone in the House.
§ Mr. RifkindI strongly agree with my hon. Friend, whose views will be commended to the House as a whole.