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18 Oct 2006 : Column 268WH—continued
10.20 am
Jeremy Corbyn (Islington, North) (Lab): I shall be brief, because we need to hear those other speeches.
I welcome the debate and congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Dumfries and Galloway (Mr. Brown) on securing it. I congratulate also the hon. Member for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh) and my hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley (Judy Mallaber) on their excellent contributions. I wish that we had a system that would allow us to show large photographs or film in debates such as this to accompany what we are saying, because it is hard to convey to a European audience the true horror of life for ordinary people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—the sense of hopelessness and the complete sense of insecurity that surrounds their lives in every way.
I am pleased that the Secretary of State is here to reply to the debate, and I thank him for his huge personal commitment to give genuine and serious support to aid development in the poorest and most war-torn parts of Africa. That is appreciated and understood by many.
Like my hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley, I was an election observer in the first round of the presidential and parliamentary elections in the DRC. Our visit was funded by Christian Aid. We met a number of non-governmental organisations on our visits to Kinshasa and where we were monitoring elections in Bas-Congo, which was an extremely interesting experience. I agree that the administration of the election on the day in the area that we saw was not too bad, although I have some misgivings about the quality of the counting at regional counting centres and the sheer chaos that surrounded much of that. However, there was clearly an understanding and a wish that the election process should be fair, open and properly run. The training levels and equipment provided were impressive given the situation and the circumstances.
There are nevertheless questions in my mind. On my visits to a number of villages in the Bas-Congo region, I saw that there was no water, poor roads, no schools, no police, no army and no health service, so I wonder what the election is all about. The people are electing representatives to go to some distant place, but will those representatives bring any real improvements to those communities or will they follow the grand tradition of corruption that has bedevilled Congo for the past 30 years and merely feather their own nests by fiddling contracts in Kinshasa, while the people of their areas do not benefit in any way?
Serious questions must be asked about what should happen after the election, because if there is to be any confidence in a democratic process, it has to bring about real improvements and changes for the people living in what is a very poor situation in an incredibly wealthy country. There is no question but that the wealth of Congo is astronomical compared with any other African country—indeed, almost any other country in the world. The population is small: as the hon. Member for Gainsborough pointed out, the country is the size of western Europe, it has a population the size of Britain’s, and it has resources that no European country has, so the potential is enormous. The money and wealth that has been taken from Congo, all around the world, is astronomical.
Those serious issues must be addressed, but the debate is about the more specific issue of children in Congo, particularly the victims of the war. When my hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley and I went to a number of children’s centres, such as that in Kinshasa, I felt a sense of deep depression and hopelessness for those children. They are victims of war, AIDS, famine, being child soldiers, exploitation, prostitution and crime. Those who are lucky enough to get into some kind of centre at least have a modicum of security for part of the day, but the only way that they can survive is to go out and sell things on the streets of Kinshasa. I asked someone, “How does the economy of the DRC work for most people?” They replied,
“Well, you buy things in small quantities and you sell them in even smaller quantities.” It goes on like that. There is very little manufacturing—it is all trading in bits and pieces of imported goods—so there has to be some serious economic development through which genuine jobs are provided in manufacturing and agriculture and all that comes with that.
In relation to the children, several issues must be raised. I welcome the support given by Save the Children, War Child and other charities and organisations which are doing a good job in supporting children in a difficult situation and in challenging the nonsense talked by a number of pastors, their exploitation of faith and religion, and the abominable way in which they treat children. Some of the illegal churches become quite good businesses: a person can set up a church, denounce someone as a witch and then exorcise Satan from their body, and they make quite a bit of money through the exorcisms. That is a vile and cruel business. The nearest example that I can think of is in the novel “Elmer Gantry” and the way in which people are treated in the United States.
What goes on is vile, but it is the product of the society. The hon. Member for Gainsborough explained quite well what goes on: if the police, army, teachers and civil servants are not paid, how on earth are people supposed to survive? The highest priority in Congo has to be the development of universal, free, secular primary education run by the state for the whole country. I do not know the figures—I do not think that anyone does—but I would be surprised if more than 30 per cent. of children go to school. Half the population are teenagers or younger. Logic tells me, and I am sure that everyone would agree, that illiteracy and the number of people with no education whatever is rising. If no education is offered, how are we to challenge the nonsense put forward by some of the pastors? I know that the support given by DFID and others concentrates on those areas, and I hope that the outcome of the election will be peaceful and will develop a Government who are serious about development and providing decent education and health opportunities for the people, particularly the children who have suffered so much.
It is hard for anyone outside Congo or who has never seen it to understand the sheer hopelessness of life for many of the children. They are growing up in a war-torn country and they have to migrate large distances. Often there are no family structures, but even where they exist, as Members have explained, children are commonly thrown out of them and have to survive on the streets of Kinshasa where the public health is appalling and the drainage, sewerage, refuse collection and health systems do not work. The only available health care is the sale of water tablets or bottled water in order to prevent them from contracting some horrible disease from polluted water or the fetid swamps alongside all the major roads in the city. There is a huge job to be done in that respect.
In a sense, the children are the absolute victims. I do not know the death rate or life expectancy figures—again, I do not think that anyone does—but I do know that large numbers of them die and large numbers of them live terrible lives. What kind of adults will children brought up in such an environment turn out to be? Those who have read “Lord of the Flies” by
William Golding will have an idea of the horrible situation that those children have grown up in. Logic tells me that if the only life they have known is of begging, dealing, violence, drugs and prostitution, when they become adults they will become the abusers of the next generation of children. We create a cycle of depression and violence and the horror that goes with it.
I want to see enormous change in Congo. Everyone is agreed on the need for that. Some of it can be produced by overseas aid, but, above all, serious political structures that run public services and administration, and that are honest, open and accountable, must be developed. They have been sadly lacking in Congo for most of the past 40 years, and even those who are lucky enough to escape to another country and survive somewhere else suffer from the accompanying disruption.
I have also visited the neighbouring countries of Rwanda and Angola on different occasions. They have also gone through huge levels of disruption and, in many ways, are still dislocated societies. One thing that appeared to be developing quite well in Angola was a fostering system for the large numbers of orphans by way of a small amount of state support given to foster parents. I do not know whether that happens in Congo, but we could look at that area. If we do not, hundreds of thousands of children could grow up in an awful environment, which then creates the cycle of deprivation and violence from which they thought they were escaping in the first place.
I thank the House for having this debate, because the least we can do is support what the Government are trying to do by giving aid to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Above all, we hope that the politicians in Congo who are lucky enough to be elected to local authorities, the presidency or some other body understand that they have a duty to start delivering the wealth of Congo to the people of Congo.
10.31 am
Susan Kramer (Richmond Park) (LD): This is one of the most distressing debates in which I am likely ever to take part in this House. All the same, I congratulate the hon. Member for Dumfries and Galloway (Mr. Brown) on bringing it to the Floor of this Chamber, on taking us, in such a comprehensive way, through the issues and on setting the stage for the debate. It is the beginning of end child poverty month, so the timing could not be more apt, even if it could not be more upsetting.
As the hon. Member for Amber Valley (Judy Mallaber) said, this debate is also happening in the context of the second round of presidential elections between President Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba. There is a desperate hope among us all that the elections will be the basis for real progress, but I must say to the Secretary of State, who in a sense sits here for the international community, that the great challenge will be to persuade the loser to lose with grace and not to return the situation to civil war, because if they do that, we will be back where we started.
As Save the Children and others report, the primary victims of the years of civil war, instability and complete economic collapse have been the children of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As the hon.
Member for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn) said, basic services such as health, education, clean water and social services are beyond the reach of most Congolese children. That is crystallised for many of us in the statistic that one child in five dies before the age of five. He also mentioned that that is perverse in a country that is so rich in natural resources and minerals; it is the country’s curse when it could be its hope.
War and the mass population movements have separated thousands of children from their parents and families. Most appalling is that these impoverished, separated and sometimes abducted children are recruited into armed groups as child soldiers and, in effect, sex slaves. Save the Children has identified 30,000 such cases, but we all know that that must be an understatement. By the end of last year, some 17,000 children had been demobilised and, it was said, reintegrated into their communities. That leaves many more, particularly in the more remote forests where the Mai-Mai militias are, who are completely out of reach.
We are hearing about extensive re-recruitment of those children, their engagement in the demonstrations and violence that have been part and parcel of the presidential elections and their then being rejected, drifting to the cities and ending up as part of the street child population.
I was also concerned about informal estimates that 12,000 girls are part of the armed groups and that they are in sexual servitude. Many more have been raped. They are unable then to rejoin society because of the stigma. We hear nothing about the sexual abuse of boys. The reality must be that it is a widespread practice. Are we not at the point where that must be confronted head on? Mention of it seems to be absent in every piece of literature on which I can lay my hands, and I assume that that is for cultural reasons. We must confront and deal with the damage done to the boys, as well as the damage done to the girls.
Yesterday, I was talking to a woman from Sierra Leone—the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Mark Simmonds), who is the Front-Bench spokesman for the Conservatives, was present at the same meeting—about how poverty drives families to put their children into the sex trade as the only means of generating some income. Obviously, with that goes HIV/AIDS and its repercussions in the collapse of families and of economic and social structures.
As the hon. Member for Amber Valley said, the abandonment of children in urban areas has been the underlying and most fundamental cause of the street children phenomenon, which is the subject of today’s debate. The hon. Member for Dumfries and Galloway gave some numbers. Some 40,000 children are said to be living on the streets of Kinshasa, but other organisations put the numbers far higher. There have been accusations that witchcraft and fetish preachers play a key role in that process. We must take that seriously on a different level. I have dealt with such a case in my constituency. We must recognise that the power of some of these movements extends far beyond the borders of Congo, and that there is an interlinking set of issues. Something like this is inexplicable to me, but we have no choice but to take it head on. While one
must recognise cultural norms, I cannot think of an acceptable one that allows children to be treated in that way.
Among the numbers I find no reference to disabled children. One of the issues that I have raised with the Secretary of State is disability, which is so often treated as a cross-cutting issue, but never finds itself on any priority list. I cannot believe that it is not wrapped into many of the problems and issues involving these children in Congo. Disabled children must be the most vulnerable group of these thrown-away kids.
As the hon. Member for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh) said, this has been going on so long that there is a second generation on the streets and it is becoming institutionalised. There is little local sympathy. Descriptions such as “feral children” and “vermin” are used. Before we condemn that too heavily, I have heard the same comments in my community about children who are considered to be engaged in antisocial behaviour. We must be careful about our use of language. We can see how, in a sense, it could be extrapolated in situations and we can recognise how appalling the consequences are.
Even for parents who care about their children and want a future, education is beyond reach if they are poor, which is the overwhelming definition of people in Congo. The hon. Member for Islington, North said that he was not sure about the figures for public investment in education. I believe that in the 1980s more than 90 per cent. of children were in primary education, and now the figure is well below the 60 per cent. mark—I assume that it has dropped below half in the most recent years. The investment in education used to be a public subsidy of more than $500 per child, and now the figure is $18 per child. A poor family must find a way to make up that missing number. Some 3.5 million children in Congo are not in primary school and 6 million adolescents are not in education, so the problem is huge. We cannot separate any of those issues from the total collapse of the state, which we will have to address. That falls very much on the doorstep of the Department for International Development.
The hon. Member for Islington, North talked about the importance of focusing on economic development. Given the resources of Congo, if some measure of security can be established, there is surely the potential to find solutions to that issue. It is a credit to the British Government that they have been the largest bilateral donor. I am sure that the Secretary of State will take us through the numbers involved in the commitment, but it is one of which we can be proud.
I close simply by echoing some of the calls that have been made in this Chamber. There have been calls to engage the multilateral community, including the European Union, in ensuring that this remains a priority issue. We require programmes that listen to the needs of children and give them some degree of empowerment, programmes that examine reintegrating the kids and finding ways to get them into jobs, so that there is a change for their future, and programmes that reach girls and disabled children. We need to work with civil society, local non-governmental organisations and Churches. Above all, we must ensure, whether through
pressure, the structure of aid programmes or the use of influence, that the Congolese Government have and use the resources and expertise, and that training is in place to provide genuine protection for street children and to ensure that people who commit crimes against them are pursued and pay the price.
10.40 am
Mark Simmonds (Boston and Skegness) (Con): I join other hon. Members in congratulating the hon. Member for Dumfries and Galloway (Mr. Brown) on securing this significant debate. He set out clearly the main issues that we should consider and debate today. There were many other significant contributions, particularly from my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh), who powerfully articulated the extent and depth of the near collapse of the governmental infrastructure in Congo. We all hope that the fledgling democratic process that is taking place at the moment will be a new beginning for the country. I am sure that the Secretary of State agrees that the second round of elections at the end of this month will be not the end but the beginning of the international community’s support.
The hon. Member for Richmond Park (Susan Kramer) said correctly that there will be great dangers immediately after the election and we hope that the rule of law will be sustained and that the losing party will acknowledge that it has lost and will take a constructive role as a loyal Opposition. However, sadly, that is not the history of Congo.
I shall not speak for long because I want the Secretary of State to reply to the many good points that were made, but it is important to state that many factors contribute to the number of displaced children and street children in the capital and elsewhere in Congo. The situation is not a simple one of witchcraft, although that is a significant contributory factor. There have been two civil wars and many children were conscripted into various armed groups. If I have time, I shall return to that.
There has been a sharp deterioration in state services and the hon. Member for Richmond Park rightly highlighted the worrying fall in the number of children in primary education during the past decade and certainly during the past 30 or 35 years. There has been a significant increase in poverty and unemployment, which makes it impossible for parents to afford to look after, feed and clothe their children. Rapid urbanisation and a breakdown in the traditional African support culture have been exacerbated by the conflict, and a significant number of displaced people inevitably find their way to urban areas, which is making the situation more difficult.
There has been a significant increase in the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and it is estimated that 1 million Congolese children have been orphaned by that disease, while 30,000 children die from malaria each and every year. The Secretary of State will be well aware that a lot more could be done with the provision of bed nets, which are not expensive.
An increasingly high prevalence of divorce rates means that children from previous marriages and liaisons are not always welcome in a new marriage. We
have heard a lot about the accusations of sorcery and witchcraft and the terrible abuse that takes place as part of that.
All that has led to an estimated 250,000 children being homeless in the DRC and 40,000 in the capital. Fifty per cent. of the population are children under the age of 14. The situation has reached crisis point and has been exacerbated by the presidential and parliamentary elections because the political structures have used street children to destroy their opponents’ campaigns and rallies. Therefore, there has been further unacceptable exploitation, often supported and encouraged by the police who, as my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough said, are not remunerated by the state.
One area that has not been covered sufficiently during this debate is the reintegration of child soldiers into the community. The Opposition welcome the investment in the multi-country demobilisation and reintegration programme. However, estimates suggest that at least one third of child soldiers—11,000—are not reintegrated with their families and communities. If the Secretary of State has time, will he explain what his Department is doing to try to improve the number of children who are reintegrated? Obviously, there is great suffering, abuse and trauma, much of which needs special mental and medical treatment.
It has been estimated that at the end of June 2006 CONADER, which is charged with the reintegration of child soldiers into the community, had not implemented a single community-based economic reintegration project for children, leaving non-governmental organisations to bear the brunt of the burden of the reintegration programme. I thank the NGOs that are operating in Congo for all their hard work. What steps is DFID taking to assist the reintegration, and to ensure that CONADER meets the criteria that were set down and uses its funding properly for the purposes for which it was intended? What is the time scale for that programme?
Corruption is another big issue that must be addressed—my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough made several points about corruption. The structures of the state must be rebuilt and reinvigorated, so that the Government can deliver and implement some of the new legislation that they have been trying to get through, particularly to reform the legislative and judicial system to protect street children.
I have a couple more questions for the Secretary of State. What progress is being made to develop the DRC poverty reduction strategy paper and will he encourage the DRC Government after the elections to make a commitment to street children in that poverty reduction strategy? My understanding is that there is no such commitment.
In May 2006, only 20 per cent. of the current humanitarian action plan for the DRC had been funded—$682 million was required to fund humanitarian needs and the shortfall could leave 10 million people without the life-saving funding that they require. It would be helpful if the Secretary of State could say what his Department is doing to try to put pressure on others to ensure that that commitment is fully met.
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