Iraq (Hansard, 13 July 1994)

§ 31. Mrs. Clwyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the effect of sanctions on Iraq.

§ Mr. Douglas Hogg
Sanctions are imposed on Iraq in order to ensure that the regime meets its international682W obligations. Iraqi co-operation with United Nations weapons inspectors resulted from sustained international pressure including the determined application of sanctions.
We are concerned by reports of suffering among the civilian population. For that reason food and medicines are exempt from sanctions and we have contributed over £66 million to international relief efforts since April 1991.
We call on the Iraqi regime to make the purchase of humanitarian supplies a priority, to lift the internal embargo on northern Iraq and accept United Nations offers to allow a limited sale of oil in return for further aid.

§ Sir Michael Neubert
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations he has received about the continued detention of Kuwaiti prisioners in Iraq; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Douglas Hogg
I met a delegation from the Kuwaiti National Assembly on 29 June to discuss this issue. We raise the plight of Kuwaiti and other missing persons at the United Nations at every possible opportunity, for example when the Security Council last reviewed sanctions against Iraq on 17 May. Our acting head of mission at the United Nations told the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister in New York on 12 July that British Ministers remained seriously concerned about the detainees and expected Iraq to produce information on all the outstanding files. The International Committee of the Red Cross chaired a meeting of the tripartite commission—coalition countries, Iraq and the ICRC—in Geneva on 1 July at which the Iraqi delegation gave its initial response to 71 out of the 609 inquiry files passed to Iraq by the ICRC over 18 months ago. We are demanding that Iraq offer information on the other files very soon. A further tripartite commission will be held in two months' time to review progress.