Namibia: Election Negotiations (Hansard, 18 April 1983)

§ Lord Brockway
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, with our partners in the Five we are continuing efforts to achieve a settlement in accordance with Security Council Resolution 435. Progress still depends on separate discussions on regional security issues which continue between the parties concerned. We welcome the direct discussions taking place between the Angolan and South African Governments.

§ Lord Brockway
My Lords, in view of the fact that it is now six years since the United Nations passed the resolution to which the Minister has referred calling for supervised elections followed by independence, cannot the negotiation be speeded up? Will the Minister confirm that the difficulty is the demand by the United States of America and South Africa that the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola should be linked with a settlement? Has he noted the statement of the Secretary-General of the United Nations that that would be outside the terms of the resolution? Cannot there be separate negotiations to settle this matter?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, it is of course important to note that negotiations are continuing and that this can do nothing but good. The Americans and the Angolans have met twice this year. The South Africans and the Angolans met in late February. It is unrealistic to expect rapid progress when the issues at stake touch on the vital interests of all concerned. The noble Lord, Lord Brockway, referred to what is now known as "linkage". It is not part of Her Majesty's Government's position that an agreement on the withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola is a precondition for a Namibia settlement; but we accept the political reality that an agreement on this issue is necessary for a settlement and would also contribute more widely to the stability of the region as a whole.

§ Lord Hatch of Lusby
My Lords, I welcome the noble Lord's assurance that the linkage of the withdrawal of Cuban troops and a Namibian settlement are not the policy of Her Majesty's Government. Will the noble Lord ask his right honourable 397 friend to try to persuade the Americans to recognise that if Cuban troops are going to be withdrawn from Angola, as the Angolans would wish, then there must be defence guarantees for both Angola and Nambia in return, otherwise the agreement does not make any sense at all from the point of view of the safety of Angola?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
Yes, my Lords, of course I accept much of what the noble Lord, Lord Hatch, has just said. However, the American negotiators are well aware of the British Government's position in all this, and of course we are observers. These bilateral talks are confidential to the parties concerned, and we only know what has gone on in any particular set of negotiations when we are told about them.

§ Lord Molloy
My Lords, will the noble Lord agree that our country is in a special position, not only being a member of the Security Council, but being head of a great Commonwealth, and that with its experience and with the goodwill that is extended towards it, I believe that it could make a much superior effort in trying to resolve this difficult problem?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
Yes, my Lords, I have no doubt that that is why our advice on the subject is frequently sought.

§ Lord Campbell of Alloway
My Lords, would my noble friend agree that the Russians' threat to site nuclear arms closer to the territory of our greatest ally could now constitute a new element in this linkage?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
No, my Lords, I think that that is rather wide of the Question.

§ Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos
My Lords, while agreeing that there are the difficulties that the noble Lord has described, may I ask whether he agrees that the slow progress in achieving a settlement and, indeed, in reaching agreement to hold free and fair elections is extremely disappointing? Is the noble Lord aware that the South African representative in Namibia has recently indicated the possibility of internal elections in Namibia within a very short time? Can the noble Lord indicate the reaction of Her Majesty's Government to that proposal, and will he not agree that it would in fact be counter-productive?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, there are rumours of such things, but we have no direct evidence that this in fact will happen. We would not recognise the outcome of such elections if they were held, and we would not regard such a development as affecting the prospects for an international settlement.

§ Lord Brockway
My Lords, while welcoming the Minister's reply to my first Question, I should like to ask him this. What has been the Government's response to the proposal by SWAPO, submitted to all the Governments concerned, that there should be a convention of all political parties in Namibia to establish an interim government to carry out the supervised elections, as proposed by the United Nations?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, not for the first time I have to tell the noble Lord, Lord Brockway, that this is something which is currently under consideration.

§ Lord Hatch of Lusby
My Lords, on consideration, would the noble Lord agree that his statement in his answer to my question is somewhat strange, that, except for what they are told, the British Government do not know about the negotiations which are being conducted between the South Africans and the Americans, and the Angolans and the Americans? Are we not still a member of the Contact Group, and does that not indicate that in relation to the Contact Group it is time that this initiative returned to Europe, instead of being left almost solely to the United States?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
No, my Lords, I do not think that there is anything inconsistent or strange about the supplementary answer that I gave to the noble Lord, Lord Hatch. Bilateral negotiations are exactly what they say, and no matter what rights a third party might have as a result of being a member of a group with one of the parties involved, the third party knows only what it has been told about the discussions that have taken place.