§ 6. Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow)Pursuant to the answers of 10 December 1997, Official Report, column 615, and 16 March 1998, Official Report, column 454, what progress has been made in her plans to develop sanctions which hit elites rather than the mass of the people. [46870]
§ The Secretary of State for International Development (Clare Short)Work is being undertaken within Whitehall and we are working with other countries in the UN to ensure that future sanctions are as closely targeted as possible on offending regimes and that, when sanctions are agreed, appropriate humanitarian exemptions are included. I will, as I have promised, write to my hon. Friend when our review is complete.
§ Mr. DalyellBefore there is another crisis in October or November in Iraq, will the Department and my right hon. Friend make inquiries about the behaviour of United Nations Special Commission personnel in Baghdad, information on which I have given to her Department?
§ Clare ShortI am grateful to my hon. Friend for informing me earlier today of the allegations about UNSCOM staff. I have checked with my officials, and we have no knowledge of any such behaviour, so I should be grateful if my hon. Friend would let me have as much information as he has. We will most certainly check it out. However, I have to say that the real answer to the suffering of the people of Iraq is for Saddam Hussein to cease manufacturing weapons of mass destruction. We must all do all that we can to bring that about as rapidly as we can.
§ Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham)Further to the hon. Gentleman's question, does the Secretary of State agree that, if a country's human rights record is bad, there is often a compelling case for shifting aid previously given to it to a neighbouring country in a similar income category in order conclusively to demonstrate that aid is linked to governance, respect for human rights and the concept of an ethical foreign policy?
§ Clare ShortI agree, as I said to the hon. Member for Macclesfield (Mr. Winterton), and we are keen to back Governments who have serious good intent to reduce poverty, which requires good governance, respect for human rights and successful models of development. When Governments do the right thing, they succeed, and the international community gets behind them. Then there is sustained and successful development. We cannot turn our back on people who live under bad Governments. We have to find other ways of bringing relief to them through non-governmental organisations, not through Governments. The hon. Gentleman is right. We must back good Governments and achieve success in development. In the other cases, we can bring relief, but we shall not achieve development where there is not good Governance.
§ Rev. Martin Smyth (Belfast, South)I appreciate the concerns about looking after the poor. One of the arguments against the Jubilee 2000 campaign is that wiping out debt will increase the money for bad Governments, who will just take it. Are any steps being taken to mobilise world banking communities to watch out for money being invested in their banks that was sidetracked from aid by bad Governments?
§ Clare ShortThe hon. Gentleman is right. There are conditions on debt relief in the HIPC initiative that Governments must have a good track record. That means that good Governments get debt relief and not bad Governments, who might spend the relief on more arms 347 or more prestige projects. The hon. Gentleman is also right in that the OECD is calling for a great tightening up by all our Governments and institutions on corruption. It calls on all our Governments to make it an offence to offer a bribe overseas to a public official. Banks do not deal with corrupt regimes. We back successful Governments and freeze out the unsuccessful so that we get a better world order.