HC Deb 30 November 1987 vol 123 cc373-4W
Mr. Foulkes

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list all the cases on which the ambassador in Chile or his staff have made direct representations to the Chilean Minister of the Interior, indicating for each whether the intervention was on behalf of another Government.

Mr. Eggar

Her Majesty's ambassador and his predecessor in Santiago have spoken to successive Ministers of the Interior as well as to other Ministers and members of the military junta on many occasions about our concern over human rights in Chile. A full list of these representations is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. One intervention, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has been made this year on behalf of another Government. It concerned the arrest and detention of Sr. Luis Tricot.

Mr. Foulkes

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if, pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Houghton and Washington (Mr. Boyes),Official Report, 18 November, column 593, he will list the dates of the meetings held with and the letters delivered to the Chilean authorities on his own behalf and on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Ireland.

Mr. Eggar

On 16 September 1987, Her Majesty's embassy in Santiago delivered to the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs an aide memoire expressing concern about Sr. Tricot's arrest and detention. This action was taken formally on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Ireland where Sr. Tricot had refugee status prior to his return to Chile.