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Kenya
Mr. Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he plans to take to protect British citizens in Kenya from attacks by the Mungiki. [107493]
Mr. Hain: Our High Commission in Nairobi have been monitoring closely the activities of the Mungiki sect, but to date have no evidence of any direct threat to British citizens in Kenya. They will pass any such evidence on to the Kenyan security authorities, and our consular travel advice would be amended accordingly.
Pakistan
Mr. Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received of the number of Christians murdered in Pakistan under the Government of Nawaz Sharif. [107526]
Mr. Hain: We regularly raised our concerns about the position of Christians in Pakistan during the administration of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. There are no accurate and comprehensive statistics available about the number of Christians murdered in Pakistan during this period.
Mr. Maclean:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations he has made to General Musharraf about the treatment of Christians in Pakistan under the Sharia Law. [107521]
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Mr. Hain:
We have carefully noted General Musharraf's promise to Pakistan's minorities that their rights would be respected and that they would be treated as equal citizens. We have urged the Pakistani authorities to respect human rights, notably when I met Sharifuddin Pirzada, a civilian member of Pakistan's National Security Council on 8 December, and when our High Commissioner in Islamabad saw General Musharraf on 15 October and 15 November 1999.
Mr. Maclean:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list those countries from which he has received reports that Christians have been (a) murdered, (b) persecuted and (c) discriminated against because of their religious beliefs. [107506]
Mr. Hain:
We receive information from a wide range of sources on human rights abuses worldwide including instances of religious persecution, discrimination and violence. Over the past year we have received reports of abuse of freedom of belief in the following countries:
We urge all states to implement laws and practices which foster tolerance and mutual respect and to protect religious minorities against discrimination and intimidation.
Mr. Maclean:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received of the number of Christians murdered in the Eastern Islands of Indonesia in the last three months; and what related representations he has made to the Indonesian Government. [107505]
Mr. Battle:
The situation is highly volatile and there are no reliable casualty figures. The Indonesian media have reported that over 1,000 Christians and Muslims have been killed in Maluku since the new year. These tragic deaths highlight the importance of the new Indonesian Government's efforts to secure peace and reconciliation in Maluku in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme--a process we fully support.
We intend to raise our concerns about Maluku with President Wahid during his visit to London on 1-2 February.
Maria Eagle:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the UK proposals for international action in response to humanitarian crises which he is discussing with international partners. [108095]
Mr. Robin Cook:
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister made it clear in his speech at the Mansion House on 22 November that the international community needs an agreed framework on when and how it is appropriate to intervene in the face of massive violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. The United Nations Charter declares that armed force should not be
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used, save in the common interest. We need to build consensus on what that common interest is and how we define it.
We believe that the development of a set of pragmatic understandings on action in response to humanitarian crises would help the Security Council--acting on behalf of the Members of the United Nations--to reach consensus when such crises occur, thus ensuring effective and timely action by the international community. In this context, we have put to the UN Secretary-General and to key international partners a set of ideas, of which the key elements are:
Mr. Edwards:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the forthcoming business in the Council of the European Union for February, together with the major European Union events for the next six months. [108096]
Mr. Vaz:
The information requested is in the Library.
Mr. Burstow:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many cases of computer (a) fraud, including fraudulent use of computer chips and (b) theft his Department has recorded in the last five years. [106217]
Mr. Battle:
In the past five years, there has been: (a) one case of fraud involving improper use of the internet, (b) thirteen cases of theft.
Mr. Burstow:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on how many occasions in each of the past five years computer systems in his Department have been illegally accessed by computer hackers (a) within and (b) outside his Department. [106228]
Mr. Battle:
In the last five years, there has been no evidence of FCO staff accessing systems to which they are not authorised. Over this period there has been only one known unauthorised entry from outside the department. This occurred in 1995 when an unknown hacker gained access to an unclassified internal system.
Mr. Flynn:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what was the total amount spent in the course of reducing the illegal drugs trade in
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(a) South America, (b) Eastern Europe and (c) Africa and Asia in each of the past 10 years; and what assessment he has made of the effect of this expenditure in reducing the trade in drugs. [106185]
Mr. Battle:
A breakdown of spending on specific regions is available only for the last three years, as follows:
Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt, China, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Nepal and the Russian Federation.
first, any intervention is by definition a failure of prevention. Force should always be the last resort.
second, the immediate responsibility for halting violence rests with the state in which it occurs;
but, third, when faced with an immediate and overwhelming humanitarian catastrophe and a government that has demonstrated itself unwilling or unable to prevent it, the international community should take action;
and finally, any use of force in this context must be collective, proportionate, likely to achieve its objective, and carried out in accordance with international law.
The detail of these preliminary ideas is still under discussion with partners. Once we have had time to take account of their views and develop our proposals further, we will place a copy in the Library of the House.
| £ million | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | |
| South America | 0.29 | 0.74 | 0.9 |
| Eastern Europe | 0.65 | 0.67 | 0.82 |
| Africa and Asia | 1.74 | 1.65 | 1.96 |
The increased focus brought to our international counter-drugs activities by this Government's 10-year drugs strategy has resulted in targeting of assistance on the countries posing the greatest drugs threat to the UK. Recent UK assistance to Iran is helping that country to make the world's biggest seizures of opiates (180 tonnes in 1998), much of which would otherwise reach the UK and the rest of Europe. The close co-ordination of our international counter-drugs work helped HMS Marlborough and HMS Northumberland to seize more than 11 tonnes of cocaine in 1999, worth well over £1 billion at UK street prices.
Documents
Mr. Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) for what reasons documents FCO 9/1053 and FCO 42/342 have been retained by his Department; and when he expects them to be available to the public; [107449]
- (2) what is the subject matter of the Public Record Office files on (a) FCO 42/146, (b) FCO 42 342 and (c) FCO 9/1053; and if he will make a statement; [107785]
(3) for what reasons document FCO 42/146 deposited in the Public Record Office is to remain closed to public inspection until 2009. [107448]
Mr. Battle: The subject matter of these three files is UK policy concerning Gibraltar in 1967-69. The respective file titles, which are given in shelf-lists available at the Public Record Office and on their web-site, are: possible UN mediation on Gibraltar; possible investigation by the Crowther Commission into the Constitution; and Gibraltar dispute.
An application to close FCO 42/146 and FCO 9/1053 for 10 years after their due release date of 1 January 1999 has been made to the Lord Chancellor in accordance with Section 5(1) of the Public Records Act of 1967. This is because release of these documents would harm the United Kingdom's international relations. The application to close the files in our view meets the criteria for extended closure of public records set out in Chapter 9.10-14 of the White Paper on Open Government (Cm. 2290). In accordance with the requirements of the White Paper, these files will be re-reviewed for release in 10 years time.
FCO 42/342 has recently been cleared for release to the Public Record Office and will be available there shortly.
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