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10 Apr 2003 : Column 445—continued
Tony Worthington (Clydebank and Milngavie): The Prime Minister and the President of the United States made good progress earlier this week in saying that there is a vital role for the United Nations. Everybody is saying that humanitarian aid is necessary. Normally, that would be undertaken by OCHA— the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs—which is a well-established United Nations organisation. We now also have ORHA—the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Affairs—which was set up by the United States Government under General Garner. There cannot be two co-ordinators. Does my right hon. Friend believe that we are on the way to solving that problem?
Clare Short: A clear solution is available. The coalition's duties under the Geneva convention and the Hague resolutions are very considerable. To ensure that civilians are properly cared for in humanitarian terms, given the situation in Baghdad—[Interruption.] If the shadow Attorney-General, who appears not to understand the law, would stop heckling, he might learn something. We need to secure order, to get oil-for-food up and running and to get policing back. Those requirements are all covered by Geneva convention regulations on looking after civilians, keeping order and keeping civil administration running. That would be a proper role for ORHA. The UN's role is needed in the bringing into being of a legitimate Government with sovereignty. The UN can operate as soon as there is safety—it does not need any authority—and it should lead on humanitarian issues.
Mr. Simon Thomas (Ceredigion): I thank the Secretary of State and her officials for keeping hon. Members of all parties informed about the developing humanitarian situation—that is welcome. Will she confirm how much money is already held in the oil-for-food programme account unspent? That money could be released to the considerable benefit of the development and reconstruction of Iraq. Is a UN resolution required to release those resources and, if so, will the proposed new resolution that is being discussed include such provisions?
Will the Secretary of State confirm when sanctions on Iraq will be lifted? What steps need to be taken in the UN in terms of a resolution to that effect, so that there can be economic development that is not just based on the sale of oil? Will the UN resolution that she is discussing include the lifting of sanctions? Finally, what will she be doing in the next week or so to ensure that the resolution is finalised?
Clare Short: The oil-for-food programme involves all the oil that is legitimately sold from Iraq. All the money goes into a UN account that funds the purchase of food, medical supplies, basic repairs to water and sanitation systems, and so on. There is about $2 billion in the fund.
Since the passing of the UN resolution to which I referred, more food is being purchased. Much of the wheat comes from Australia and therefore has to travel by sea for some time. About $5 billion is tied up in outstanding contracts. An attempt is being made to weed out those contracts that will not be fulfilled to release the money so as to make more orders. Much of the oilfield has been secured, and when oil starts to flow again, money will flow again. We have to keep the system running until the economy can grow, then it can be wound down.The new resolution was required to give the Secretary-General the authority to act, because under the previous arrangements the Iraqi Government made orders, and they were in no position to continue to do so. That role has been taken by the UN. The authority was given for 45 days, and there will need to be arrangements to roll it forward. There is general agreement that sanctions should be lifted as soon as possible. We need a properly verified process for looking for chemical and biological weapons and for getting rid of them. Sanctions should then be lifted as rapidly as possible so that the economy can start to recover and trade with neighbouring countries can resume.
We are all working on the UN resolution that will help to bring into being a legitimate interim Iraqi authority. The main thing is to improve the atmosphere of relationships in the international system. I am going to the World Bank spring meetings with the Chancellor this weekend, and we shall do some work on that so that the World Bank can engage with the situation.
Ann McKechin (Glasgow, Maryhill): I strongly agree with my right hon. Friend about the necessity of the UN's involvement in the creation of the interim authority, especially to aid reconstruction. Does she share my concern about the comments made in the past 24 hours by the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, to the effect that the coalition, not the UN, should determine the membership of such an interim administration? Such moves are likely to make a UN resolution to support it more difficult, which will in turn make reconstruction much more difficult.
Clare Short: I agree with my hon. Friend that there have been many different voices in Washington that are amplified into New York, and they do not help. However, what President Bush said at Hillsborough did help. He made very strong and clear comments about the need to involve the UN in the process. He is the President, so the right guy is saying the right things.
Gregory Barker (Bexhill and Battle): The Secretary of State said in her statement that reconstruction requires the authority of a legitimate government authority. Does she realise that under the fourth Geneva convention of 1949 and the Hague regulations of 1907, the coalition forces represent a legitimate authority? Would it not be appalling if the serious business of the reconstruction of Iraq and the absolute imperative for re-establishing civil society were held up for a day, let alone weeks or possibly even months, while horse-trading went on at the UN?
Clare Short: The hon. Gentleman might find international law irritating, but we need a law-abiding
world with strong multilateral institutions. Under the law that we have, the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Iraq can move forward very well. The real safety of that country depends on Iraqis feeling that they are in the leadership as regards the reconstruction of their country, and the UN is needed to bring that about. That is the view of virtually every Government in the world, but not, clearly, of the hon. Gentleman.
Mr. Harry Barnes (North-East Derbyshire): The peculiarity of the oil-for-food programme is that the distribution of food was in the hands of the Ba'ath party, as it was coterminous with the state. That gave it a tremendous amount of extra influence over the 60 per cent. of the population who depended on that programme. The Secretary of State said that the World Food Programme has contracts for a further 400,000 metric tonnes of food that will replenish the existing distribution system. Will that distribution system be subject to radical change? If the individuals from the Ba'ath party who terrorised people turned up again, that would not be helpful in establishing a peaceful Iraq.
Clare Short: My hon. Friend is right. That is one of the tragedies involved in the prolongation for 12 years of what was meant to be a short-term sanctions regime. The people of Iraq became increasingly dependent on an overweening state, and as the economy shrivelled, hand-outs were all that most people had, and the regime was strengthened. That is a regrettable feature of the prolongation of the sanctions regime. We have to get the programme up and running because of the sheer scale of the operation that is needed to keep people fed in the short term. My hon. Friend is right that it was used punitively, and we have to ensure that people who were excluded are included in future distribution. We need to get it up and running again in order to phase it out as rapidly as possible. Without it, however, getting food to everyone in need would be an enormous task, and the international system has never done anything on that scale.
Mr. Paul Marsden (Shrewsbury and Atcham): I congratulate the Secretary of State on her commitment to getting humanitarian aid into Iraq. Although I agree that Iraqi hospitals are in a terrible state, that is the result not only of the bombardment, but of 12 years of economic sanctions. What more can be done to give those injured civilians access to specialist medical facilities in this country and across the west?
Clare Short: The hon. Gentleman is right. The state of the hospitals and the water and sanitation systems was terrible before the conflict began. Since then, there has been some cutting off of energy supplies and power supplies. Many people are without water. Hospitals with large numbers of injured people have no power and no water, and are running out of drugs. The International Committee of the Red Cross is the heroic organisation that is operating in that situation. It has supplies pre-positioned throughout the country, and its people have been enormously brave throughout the conflict in reconnecting power, bringing in generators
and moving water in. The biggest worry is that the Red Cross is not operating in Baghdad. That is the priority; then we must go step by step. At the moment, we have to maintain supplies of water and basic drugs—hospitals are running out of painkillers.
Mr. Tom Clarke (Coatbridge and Chryston): May I declare an interest as chairman of the all-party Kurdistan group? At our annual general meeting on Tuesday, a number of Kurds who attended expressed huge admiration for the tremendous work that the Secretary of State has done and continues to do. They understand, as common sense suggests, that there will be a period of transition before formalisation and the involvement, for example, of the United Nations. Does my right hon. Friend agree that, when that occurs, it is right to accept her advice to try to build bridges with all other nations, including the neighbouring state of Turkey? Without that, it will not be possible to rebuild northern Iraq, and the whole of Iraq, in the way that that was done following the conflict in the early 1990s.
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