§ Mr. David Steelasked the Lord Privy Seal if the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian bodies are currently being denied access to Rhodesian prisons.
§ Mr. LuceThe ICRC has sought access to certain categories of detainees in Rhodesia, in accordance with its role of providing protection and assistance to detainees during and after hostilities. To grant this access would in practice involve granting access to all prisoners in370W Rhodesia, including those convicted by the ordinary courts, since the distinction between those whose detention relates to the hostilities and those detained for other reasons can only be made on a case-by-case basis. The Governor has concluded that to grant access to all prisoners would be to prejudice a decision which should properly be left to the independent Government and has therefore informed the ICRC that he cannot agree to this request. A programme of visits by British officials has been instituted to all institutions where martial law detainees are held and to as many as possible of the institutions where convicted prisoners are held.
§ Mr. David Steelasked the Lord Privy Seal if he will instruct the Governor of Rhodesia to review the cases of all those political prisoners who have been convicted by the now suspended martial law tribunals.
§ Mr. LuceThe Governor is already reviewing the cases of all convicted prisoners whose offences prima facie fall within the scope of his amnesty ordinance.
§ Mr. David Steelasked the Lord Privy Seal how many detainees are currently being held under martial law regulations in Rhodesia.
§ Mr. David Steelasked the Lord Privy Seal if he will make publicly available the names of all those executed in Rhodesia since 1965, with the dates and places of execution.
§ Mr. LuceI refer the right hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Mr. Hooley) on 17 January.—[Vol. 976. c.863].
§ Miss Maynardasked the Lord Privy Seal what percentage of the popular vote an African nationalist party will need to win in order to achieve a majority in the new Zimbabwe-Rhodesia Parliament, taking account of the fact that it will not have the support of the 20 seats reserved for whites.
§ Mr. LuceTo win an outright majority in the House of Assembly, a party contesting the common-roll elections must 371W win 51 of the 80 seats. These 80 seats are distributed among eight electoral districts, in each of which the seats will be allocated on a proportional basis. The percentage of total—that is national—popular vote is therefore not a critical factor.