APPENDIX 1
Letter from the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office to the Committee on Hawk Spares to Zimbabwe
Thank you for your letter of 24 January concerning
the licensing of spares for Hawk aircraft operated by Zimbabwe.
I draw your attention to the Prime Minister's reply to a Parliamentary
question on this subject from Dr Jenny Tonge on Wednesday 9 February,
the text of which is attached.
In light of this announcement, HMG have decided
to approve a number of licences for exports in fulfilment of existing
contracts for the support of Hawk aircraft in service with the
Zimbabwe Air Force.
We have previously sent you the requested details
of licences for Zimbabwe and a transcript of the Secretary of
State's remarks to the Press in Cairo on this subject.
10 February 2000
WRITTEN ANSWERS.
9 FEBRUARY 2000
184W
PRIME
MINISTER
ARMS
EXPORTS (ZIMBABWE)
Dr Tonge: To 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
dual-use equipment where there is a clear risk that it would be
used in the DRC.
We 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 from 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.
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