HL Deb 22 March 2004 vol 659 cc78-9WA
Lord Avebury

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether, in light of the United Nations Security Council presidential statement S/PRST/2003/21, they will seek the assistance of the Secretary-General in obtaining information about the early history of Oryx Natural Resources, a British-registered company alleged to have been involved in the exploitation of diamond resources in Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[HL1782]

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean

In its final report of 16 October 2003, the UN Expert Panel on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth in the Democratic Republic of Congo stated that its allegations against Oryx Natural Resources were unresolved, and it referred the allegations to the UK's national contact point (NCP) for Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines. In its capacity as the UK's NCP, the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) subsequently received a letter from the chairman of the expert panel explaining the "unresolved" status of the panel's allegations. He said that the allegations were largely resolved, but the panel could not close its file on Oryx because two Oryx employees were engaged in a related libel case in the UK.

The DTI wrote to the UN expert panel on 17 November 2003 and to the UN Secretariat on 16 January 2004 requesting all the information the UN holds relating to the allegations against Oryx, and all other UK companies and individuals named in the reports. The DTI has not received a response to either letter. The UK mission to the UN in New York raised the matter with the UN Secretariat on 24 February 2004, and the UN has undertaken to reply directly to the DTI.