§ Dr. TongeTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many export licences for military dual-use equipment have been refused to 245W (a) Angola, (b) Namibia, (c) Zimbabwe, (d) Rwanda, (e) Uganda and (f) Burundi on the grounds that there was a possibility it would be used in the Democratic Republic of Congo. [146831]
§ Mr. WilsonDetails of export licensing decisions between 2 May 1997 and 31 December 1999 have been set out in the Government's Annual Reports on Strategic Export Controls. These reports list by country of destination the numbers of export licences issued and refused in each equipment category and give details of the military equipment for which licences have been granted.
Between August 1998, when the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) started, and 9 February 2000 one application for a Standard Individual Export Licence (SIEL) was refused to Zimbabwe. This application was set out in the 1999 Annual Report and was refused against Criterion 4 (preservation of regional peace, security and stability) of the EU Code of Conduct. We judged it highly probable that the equipment would be used by Zimbabwean forces deployed in the DRC.
Between when the Prime Minister set out the basis of our new tighter policy on arms sales to countries intervening in the DRC, 9 February 2000, Official Report, columns 184–85W, and 17 January 2001, two applications for a SIEL were refused to Uganda. These applications were refused on the grounds that there was a clear risk that the equipment would be used in the DRC. These will be set out in the 2000 Annual Report on Strategic Export Controls in due course.