Sudan: Darfur (Hansard, 28 April 2004)

§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)
My Lords, on 8 April the Sudanese Government, the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement signed a ceasefire agreement. Our priority now is to encourage the parties to implement that agreement. Given this progress, we do not consider that a resolution under Chapter VII would be appropriate but we remain in close contact with other Security Council members about Darfur.

§ Lord Avebury
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the ceasefire agreement is not working and that the massacres and destruction of property have continued? Will she say whether the report from the special envoy of the Human Rights Commission, who finally managed to enter Darfur on Saturday, will be published and whether it will be presented to the Security Council? If they are not prepared to take decisive measures, as the Secretary-General suggested more than two weeks ago, would it not be desirable that there should be a coalition of the willing to stop the ethnic cleansing in Darfur and to prevent genocide?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, I cannot altogether agree with that analysis. The noble Lord said that the ceasefire is not holding. As I understand it, the situation on the ground is now more stable and there is access for humanitarian agencies, which we hope are now starting operations. However, I agree with him that the situation is enormously fragile and very difficult. We believe the right approach is to prioritise the monitoring of the ceasefire agreement on the ground. That is the priority rather than going back to the United Nations under Chapter VII, which we think might jeopardise the ceasefire agreement.
778 I ask the noble Lord to look seriously at the downside of going back on this issue, which could undermine the ceasefire agreement. I understand that the human rights team from the UN is planning to visit Darfur. We shall be very interested in its recommendations and we support the calls of the United States for a special session of the commission on human rights in Darfur, once the UN team has returned.

§ Baroness Whitaker
My Lords, if the allegations are true that it was the Sudanese Government who manoeuvred the United Nations reports on human rights abuses in Darfur off the agenda of the UN Human Rights Committee, this is a matter of great regret. Can the Minister think of what the UK Government could do to strengthen the United Nations Human Rights Committee?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, there have been a lot of different and contradictory views about what happened over the report at the UN. At one point, the EU was criticised by certain NGOs. The EU sponsored a more condemnatory draft resolution but, rather than lose the vote again, as we did last year, as I am sure the noble Baroness recalls, we decided that it was better to vote in the way that we did. In any case, that has delivered a better outcome than last year, when the EU resolution was voted down, which ended the mandate of the special rapporteur on human rights in Sudan. So I think that the position has been strengthened this year.

§ Lord Astor of Hever
My Lords, will the Government be contributing to the recent appeal of the United Nations for 115 million dollars for the Darfur region?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, I am sure that all these appeals will be considered by my colleagues in the Department for International Development. In the expectation of a peace agreement, the UK has allocated some £35 million to Sudan for the year 2004–05. In addition, we have allocated some £3.5 million from the Africa conflict prevention pool.

§ Lord Hylton
My Lords, the Minister rightly mentioned supervision of the ceasefire. Can she confirm that there are monitors available to go in straightaway and that they have sufficient transport and aircraft to enable them to do a good job?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, I cannot confirm that there are people ready and waiting to go. I can say that the top priority of the Government of the United Kingdom is to ensure that the monitoring mechanism is available to us as soon as possible. If I have any more information on the readiness of a monitoring group, I shall write to the noble Lord, Lord Hylton.

§ Lord Rea
My Lords, my noble friend mentioned the ceasefire. There are on-going negotiations in 779 Naivasha, Kenya, on the long-standing conflict between the Sudanese Government and the SPLA. Is it not a tragedy that the conflict has now transferred to the Darfur region? Would it not be logical to link the two conflicts in negotiations to resolve them?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, I am bound to say to your Lordships that there was always conflict in Darfur. We discussed this matter in your Lordships' House on 15 and 28 January and on 9 February. At every point we have distinguished between the overall position in Sudan and the particular and very nasty differences in the situation in Darfur. As far as the main peace talks are concerned, they are continuing and we hope that a framework agreement will emerge in the next few weeks. It will then take some time to tie down the details before a comprehensive package can be signed. I say to my noble friend Lord Rea that I do not think it is sensible to try to stop those talks, which are showing some good progress, in order to pull in the Darfur peace talks. We should progress those talks and hope that we can work hard to reinforce the ceasefire in Darfur.