HC Deb 25 March 1998 vol 309 cc489-90
8. Rev. Martin Smyth

What representations she has made to the Government of Sudan on obstacles to non-governmental aid programmes. [34633]

Mr. Foulkes

We take every opportunity to press the Government of Sudan on the need for non-governmental organisations and other humanitarian agencies to have full access to vulnerable people. The United Nations, acting on behalf of all donors involved in the international relief effort in Sudan, exerts similar pressure.

Rev. Martin Smyth

Although I welcome the Minister's answer, does he agree that aid has not always reached its destination at the right time, and that some has been blocked, which causes great hardship? Does he also agree that, in other spheres of life, that would be called misappropriation or even stealing?

Mr. Foulkes

We now channel our aid through a number of organisations in which the hon. Member for North Wiltshire might be interested—Oxfam, CARE, the Red Cross and Save the Children. They are effective in getting aid to the poorest and most vulnerable people.

We applied pressure about the stopping of flights to the south, and I am glad that they have been reinstated, which will help to get aid to people who face the severest threat.

Mr. Flynn

Hon. Members owe members of the Select Committee a great debt of gratitude for visiting Rwanda. Is it not extraordinary that, despite extraordinary carnage, there have been fewer deaths there than in Sudan over a slightly longer period? Should not we and the non-governmental organisations redouble our efforts to assist the two halves of Sudan, where murder and slavery exist, and every kind of atrocity takes place?

Mr. Foulkes

I assure my hon. Friend that we are doing everything possible to find a political solution. We support regional efforts to find a lasting solution to the conflict through the Intergovernment Authority on Drought and Development. The lives of the poor people who are suffering will be improved only when such a lasting solution is found.