Iraq (Hansard, 3 March 2004)

§ 4. Mr. David Stewart (Inverness, East, Nairn and Lochaber) (Lab)
If he will make a statement on aid to Iraq. [157874]

§ The Secretary of State for International Development (Hilary Benn)
May I first express the House's deepest sympathy to the victims of the appalling bomb attacks that took place in Karbala and Baghdad yesterday? Those responsible clearly chose the Ashura festival as their target and cynically intended to cause the deaths of as many people as possible in an effort to disrupt Iraq's progress towards reconstruction and democracy. That cannot be allowed to succeed.
In my written statement of 23 February, I announced the publication of DFID's country assistance plan for Iraq. It sets out how the Government will help the reconstruction of Iraq over the next two years by supporting rapid, sustainable and equitable economic growth; effective and accountable governance; and social and political cohesion and stability. At the same time, I announced an initial UK contribution of £65 million to the United Nations and World Bank's international reconstruction fund facility for Iraq.

§ Mr. Stewart
Does my right hon. Friend share my view that debt relief is a vital ingredient in the rebuilding of the Iraqi economy? Iraq owes about $200 billion in debt and reparations payments, while ordinary Iraqis exist on about $2 per day. Of course, aid is a vital ingredient, but does my right hon. Friend share my view that we must break the millstone of that crippling Iraqi debt?

§ Hilary Benn
I do indeed agree with my hon. Friend on this subject. A lot of work is going on to try to achieve that. It will need to be dealt with through the Paris Club. I think that most major creditors now recognise the need for substantial debt reduction and restructuring.

§ Mr. Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)
May I on behalf of the official Opposition express total support for the Minister's comments on the ghastly events of the last 24 hours and make it clear that, as the House knows, the official Opposition support the Government in their determination to see this through? Nevertheless, does not the Secretary of State now regret saying, never mind the planning when we can see the product of the improvement that results from the work that has been done". —[Official Report, 12 November 2003; Vol. 413, c. 292.]? Does he also regret saying that the security situation is improving throughout the country as a whole. The majority of insurgency attacks remain largely confined to a limited area to the north and north-west of Baghdad"—[Official Report, 19 January 2004; Vol. 416, c. 944W.]? Is not the truth that the Iraqis and our armed forces are suffering from the lack of post-conflict planning?

§ Hilary Benn
I do not accept that and I do not regret a word that I uttered on either of those two occasions, 885 because it is self-evidently the case that reconstruction in Iraq is progressing and is succeeding, despite attacks such as the awful one yesterday. Of course our forces, the Iraqi forces, the police officers and the emerging Iraqi army are particularly in the firing line because the people who are planting these bombs do not want the reconstruction to succeed; they do not want the Iraqi people to have the chance of a better life.
However, it is important that the House recognise that those two things are happening in parallel, and that the process of reconstruction is taking place. Schools and hospitals are being rebuilt. The economy is growing. The increasing freedom of expression is evidenced by the growth of newspapers. Only last weekend the governing council attained the great achievement of agreeing a transitional law, which shows what can be done when the Iraqi people work together to carve out a better future for their own country.

§ Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow) (Lab)
In his answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Inverness, East, Nairn and Lochaber (Mr. Stewart), the Secretary of State said that the intent of those responsible for the attacks could not be allowed to succeed. Will he take it from one who was shown round his mosque by the imam in Karbala that it is not a simple question of Sunni versus Shi'a? That is over-simplistic, and such things should not be said by people in the west who should know better. But how are we going to stop it succeeding?

§ Hilary Benn
I agree with my hon. Friend that this is not a simple matter, and nobody said that the reconstruction of Iraq after the 30 years of trauma and suffering that its people had experienced was going to be easy. This is a process, which we have to be determined to see through. What is necessary to maximise the chances of its success? First, it is necessary for the ordinary Iraqis to see that life is getting better as a result of the reconstruction work; that work is happening and people can see that.
Secondly, and most importantly, there must be a clear political process, which shows the Iraqi people that this is about enabling them to take their own decisions about their own future—something that has been denied them for the last 30 years. With the appointment of the governing council, the appointment of the Ministers, the agreement on the transfer of authority to take place on 1 July this year and, most recently, the agreement on the transitional administrative law, the process demonstrates that the Iraqi people, when they work together, are perfectly capable of charting that path towards a better future. We need to get on with it, because that is the best way in the end for us to undermine those people who are trying to disrupt that process.

§ Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington) (LD)
Yesterday's cold-blooded terrorist outrage makes it even more important that funding for aid in Iraq is guaranteed. Can the Secretary of State confirm what financial arrangements are in place to ensure that the work that, for instance, the Salvation Army is doing can continue beyond the 30 June cut-off point? Does he 886 expect aid to Iraq to increase as a result of yesterday's incident, and if so, where would he expect that additional funding to come from?

§ Hilary Benn
On the first point, I do not anticipate that there will be any difficulty in the continuation of the programme that the hon. Gentleman mentioned after 1 July. If there is a specific problem that he wishes to draw to my attention, I readily undertake to look into it. On the second issue, we have already made clear the extent of our financial commitment up to March 2006. Yesterday's events demonstrate the importance of the whole international community coming together to provide the support now, to further support the reconstruction and to back the political process, because that is the best way in the end of ensuring that Iraq has the better future that it desperately deserves after the nightmare that the people of that country have experienced in the past 30 years.