§ Dr. TongeTo ask the Prime Minister what is the Government's policy on the export of spare parts for British Hawk Jets to Zimbabwe. [107090]
§ The Prime Minister[holding answer 27 January 2000]: Following an interdepartmental review, the Government's policy on export licences for countries intervening in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been tightened.
We will not grant export licences for new military or dual-use equipment where there is a clear risk that it would be used in the DRC.
185WWe will remove intervening countries from the coverage of open licences for any equipment that might be deployed in the DRC and will not issue new Open Individual Export Licences (OIELs) for such equipment to any of these countries.
We will continue to implement rigorously our national criteria and the EU Code of Conduct for all applications for Standard Individual Export Licences (SIELs), examining each on a case-by-case basis.
This will include applications to provide spares for UK equipment already supplied under pre-existing contracts. In reaching decisions on such individual applications, we will take into account the wider implications of forcing UK companies to break existing obligations.
This policy applies to those countries who have signed the Lusaka peace agreement, ie Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC itself, plus Burundi which has acknowledged that it has troops in the DRC. Details will be included in the "Summary of Additional UK Restrictions on the Export of Strategic Goods", an annexe to the "List of Sanctions Regimes implemented by the UK", which are available on the FCO website at www.fco.gov.uk/news/newstext.asp?2163. Copies are also in the Libraries of the House.