SUDAN
INTRODUCTION
1. Sudan is currently in the grip of a famine which
threatens 2.6 million people with starvation. The severity and
depth of the disaster have become apparent here only gradually,
already unimaginable numbers suddenly multiplied after each 'reassessment'
of the crisis. The response in the United Kingdom followed at
first its all too familiar course, television and newspaper reports
of the dying and the dead, questions in Parliament, public appeals
launched by the Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs). The Secretary
of State for International Development, the Rt. Hon. Clare Short
MP, did not, however, respond as typically. On 29 April in the
House of Commons she stated, "The problem is not providing
money; it is applying political pressure so that food can get
through to the people".[1]
This opinion was repeated by Clare Short on several subsequent
occasions and led her to criticise the public appeal for Sudan
launched by the Disasters Emergency Committee as "unnecessary".[2]
2. The comments made by the Secretary of State caused
considerable controversy. More importantly they raised significant
issues both about the analysis of the current famine in Sudan
and also about the appropriate response to such humanitarian disasters.
The Committee decided to conduct a short inquiry into the current
crisis in Sudan. We took evidence from the Rt. Hon. Clare Short
MP, Secretary of State for International Development, Mrs Barbara
Kelly, Head of Africa, Greater Horn and Co-ordination Department,
and Mr Graham Stegmann, Head of Aid Policy and Resources, Department
for International Development; from Mr Will Day and Mr David Bryer
of the Disasters Emergency Committee, Mr Robert Smith, Director,
and Ms Marie Staunton, Deputy Director, UK Committee for UNICEF,
and Ms Rosie Boycott, Editor of The Express; HE Mr Omer Bireedo,
Ambassador of the Republic of Sudan, and Dr Ali Al Haj, Deputy
Secretary General of the Sudan National Congress; and Mr Stephen
Bakk, Representative of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement
(SPLM) in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and Mr Bona Malwal,
Editor of the Sudan Democratic Gazette. We are grateful to all
our witnesses for their evidence.
3. Clare Short hoped that "the Committee [would]
focus on how we can bring help to the people of Sudan".[3]
She had met several NGOs the day before she gave evidence to us
and they had then agreed, she told the Committee, "that the
disagreements we may have had over the appeal got exaggerated
out of all proportion and the important issue is agreement to
halt the fighting, to get in more food and create more will to
seek political settlement in Sudan".[4]
There was a suggestion that the Committee wished "to stoke
an old row which has now been explained and dealt with".[5]
The Secretary of State has of course the ability to initiate public
debate. She does not have a similar prerogative to close it. Her
comments went to the heart of the current discussion on humanitarian
aid and deserve to be examined in detail. Furthermore, the Committee
is currently engaged in an inquiry into conflict prevention and
post-conflict reconstruction. Sudan is a telling instance of the
devastation and chronic humanitarian emergencies that conflict
generates. This Report is thus also an opportunity to make some
initial and provisional comments on these wider themes. We decided
that it was important to report promptly, and before the summer
adjournment, on Sudan, given the seriousness of the situation
there and the controversy surrounding the comments of the Secretary
of State. We can only touch therefore on the more important issues
to have emerged in evidence. The Report does not claim to be an
exhaustive analysis of all relevant matters.
1 OR 29 April 1998 c.333 Back
2
Media Conference Speech 3 June 1998 Back
3
Q. 15 Back
4
Q. 2 Back
5
Q. 66 Back
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