Africa: Support

Baroness Cox Excerpts

Wednesday 6th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sugg]

My noble friend will be aware of the programme that we have in this country to tackle fake news, but we have also announced support to tackle false claims and conspiracy theories in Africa, which may spread rapidly on social media and may even promote dangerous behaviour. Our support will be going to the Humanitarian to Humanitarian Network, which addresses the spread of misinformation during epidemics and will help to tackle specific mistruths in Africa.

[Baroness Cox (CB)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware of the devastating effect of the combination of Covid-19 and famine caused by locusts sweeping across east Africa? As PPE is needed to fight coronavirus and locusts—both are growing simultaneously—supply chains are being badly affected in the worst affected countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan. Can the Minister give some assurance that this lethal combination of locusts and coronavirus is being addressed as a priority?

[Baroness Sugg]

I can assure that the noble Baroness that it is. We are deeply concerned about the potential second wave of locusts coming into east Africa. We are working with other donors to support UN agencies, the Red Cross and NGOs to respond to coronavirus, and with the FAO on locusts. That includes helping the world’s poorest countries to access critical medical supplies, including PPE.

Pakistan: Aid Programmes and Human Rights

Baroness Cox Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd July 2019 Grand Committee

[Baroness Cox (CB)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for securing this important debate. As he emphasised, the brutal application of sharia law, in conjunction with the failure of the authorities to ensure due legal process, has resulted in horrendous violence. Blasphemy laws have been used by extremists as a pretext for murder. Young girls have been abducted and forced to change their religion or have been forced into marriage. Others are in prison or have been sentenced to death for apostasy.

Countless families have been forced to leave their homeland. For example, as my noble friend said, thousands of Christians have sought asylum in Thailand. They arrive in Bangkok on cheap tourist visas, but as soon as their visa expires they are technically classified as illegal aliens and are subject to arrest and detention in horrendous conditions. Given the plight of Pakistani refugees in Thailand, have Her Majesty’s Government raised concerns with UNHCR about the failure to resettle them in safe countries?

I had the painful privilege of meeting some of the families who had escaped to Bangkok. I sat and wept with those who have endured horrendous suffering. One man, called Cale, was accused of blasphemy in Pakistan. He described how he was arrested by the police and taken to a remote location where he was tortured, hanged upside down, shackled and beaten for seven days. After a month in prison he was cleared of the charges, yet the local mob wanted to kill him. He told me, “They want to punish me with a very painful death such as no one has ever seen before. They want to kill me in a way that the Christian community will always remember”.

I also met a courageous man called Hosea. He was kidnapped by a mob in Pakistan for being an apostate. The mob shackled him with metal chains and attempted to amputate his leg. He eventually escaped with his wife to Thailand, but his relatives in Pakistan are still in danger. He told me, weeping: “Even last week my brother and my 16 month-old nephew were taken captive. They grabbed the baby, repeatedly smashed him into a wall and demanded to know my whereabouts”.

These testimonies are indicative of the wider context of Pakistan’s serious violations of human rights, yet our abject refusal to insist that minorities are prioritised only reinforces Pakistan’s culture of impunity because it gives the impression that the UK does not care when victims are subjected to unspeakable violence. Where is British aid money being spent? Will Her Majesty’s Government specifically tackle the plight of minorities? That includes support for adherents of different religious faiths who suffer at the hands of extremists, including Shia and Ahmadi Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Buddhists as well as Christians.

On a related point, which was also raised by the noble Lord, Lord Alton, did Her Majesty’s Government refuse asylum to Asia Bibi because of fear that that would prompt unrest in the UK and attacks on embassies? If that is so, does the Minister agree that such an appeasement of militant extremism indicates a serious threat to our democracy and a betrayal of the fundamental principle of providing asylum for refugees under threat of death?

Grooming Gangs

Baroness Cox Excerpts

Tuesday 14th May 2019 Grand Committee

Asked by

[Baroness Cox]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made in the prevention of grooming gangs in Rotherham and elsewhere; and what assistance they have offered to victims and their families.

[Baroness Cox (CB)]

My Lords, I am profoundly grateful to all noble Lords speaking in this debate and to many other noble Lords who have expressed their support but are unable to be here today.

This is a sensitive and complex subject, which is important to raise on behalf of so many women and girls who have endured horrific crimes and who are still waiting to receive the support, protection and compensation they so desperately need. In Rotherham, hundreds of children were sexually exploited between 1997 and 2013. Girls as young as 11 were raped by multiple attackers, trafficked to other towns and cities, and abducted and beaten. Some were doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, while others were threatened with guns, made to watch brutally violent rapes and warned they would “be next” if they told anyone.

Repeated calls have been made for the Government to provide sufficient resources to support victims and survivors. Yet still, in October last year, Rotherham Abuse Counselling Service had 260 people on its waiting list, with an average waiting time of seven months. Additional funding is clearly needed for children and young people’s services to meet the needs of victims. To quote Sarah Champion, MP for Rotherham:

“If there had been an earthquake affecting the lives of 1,400 children in Rotherham, we would have got emergency funding from the Government to help with their recovery. However, with no such money forthcoming for child abuse, we are largely leaving victims and survivors to get on with the recovery themselves”.—[Official Report, Commons, 5/2/19; col. 304.]


Can the Minister therefore say whether Her Majesty’s Government will increase their funding to support victims of grooming gangs, many of whom endure long waiting times to access mental health services, at the very time when they say they need it most? Will they provide additional funding as a matter of urgency to facilitate multi-agency support for victims involved with legal investigations?

Child sexual exploitation occurs in many places. Some estimate that grooming gangs operate in 73 towns, from Plymouth to Liverpool, from Cambridge to Glasgow. However, there is currently no single dataset that distinguishes between “grooming gang offences” and other forms of child sexual abuse, many of which occur in families and are unreported. This means that specific statistics are difficult to ascertain.

However, we know that between April 2017 and March 2018 the police recorded over 16,000 cases of rape of children under the age of 16 in England and Wales. This implies 44 child rapes per day. Ministry of Justice statistics over the same period suggest that few of these rapes resulted in a criminal conviction. In 2017, only 544 rapists were convicted. What is more, victims and their families often have to endure lengthy delays and uncertainty, both before and after court hearings. In 2017 the median time from offence to completion for cases of child rape was 2,115 days. That is close to six years. It is important to stress that these figures do not necessarily relate to grooming gang offences, but the scale of abuse and the time it takes to prosecute offenders raise serious questions about the criminal justice system’s ability to meet the needs of victims.

I have had the painful privilege of being alongside and trying to help some of those who have suffered horrific abuse by grooming gangs. They have described, in heart-wrenching detail, the vulnerability of young girls to persistent, brutal and repeated rape. Noble Lords may be aware of the case of Sarah—not her real name—which has been reported as one of the worst sex grooming cases on record. She describes how she was kidnapped aged 15, imprisoned in a house, forced to learn the Koran and beaten when she made mistakes. She was held as a sex slave for 12 years and was repeatedly raped by different members of the grooming gang. She had three forced Sharia marriages, eight forced abortions and two live births. Her abusers referred to her as “white trash”. They forced her to wear Islamic dress and permitted her to speak only Urdu and Punjabi. She has not received the help she needs from social services and is frequently suicidal.

Noble Lords might also be aware of the case of Caitlin Spencer—another pseudonym—who had the courage to write of her experiences to try to help other vulnerable young girls. Her book, Please, Let Me Go, was recommended in the Sunday Times as a bestseller. The book is in your Lordships’ Library.

Caitlin has described to me how, from the age of 14, she was groomed, sexually exploited and trafficked around this country by gangs of men. She said:

“I have flashbacks all the time. It started when I was so young and to be honest, I’m not even sure it’s over. They have done so much damage to me—emotionally, physically, psychologically—that I think I am probably broken beyond all repair”.


Given that Caitlin still sees her abusers driving their taxis with impunity and that other victims similarly see perpetrators living freely and intimidating them, what more will the Government do to bring these perpetrators to justice?

Caitlin did not receive the help that she needed following her horrendous trauma. She had to fund her own psychotherapy, with help from friends. The same is true for many others. I gather that the Government have recently allocated up to £12 million in funding sexual violence support services, yet the estimated scale of abuse means that each victim would receive the equivalent of only £48 each year. What steps are being taken to ensure adequate support for the victims of these horrific traumas?

The majority of Caitlin’s abusers were men of Pakistani origin. Likewise, in Rotherham, according to the Government’s own findings, abusers came largely from the Pakistani heritage community. Evidence collated by Sikh Youth UK suggests that cases of abuse against young Sikh females by grooming gangs have also been perpetrated by those primarily of Pakistani or Muslim heritage. If media headlines are to be believed, the same is also true for the horrors perpetrated in Telford, Rochdale, Oxfordshire and a growing list of other places.

I must emphasise that that does not mean that all abusers fit the same profile. Child sexual exploitation is not exclusive to any single culture, community, race or religion. However, when it comes to understanding the past and what can be done to prevent future cases, we must be able to have an honest debate. We cannot betray the victims and their families by shying away from the facts.

Over the course of decades, not enough was done to stop these tragedies in Rotherham and other towns. Council staff, social workers and the police allowed the mass gang rape of children to continue. It seems it was far less politically complicated to keep quiet. Many victims did not receive support because of the state’s reluctance to interfere in supposed cultural practices. Agencies downplayed ethnic or religiously identified dimensions of abuse. They also applied generic labels such as “Asian” to the perpetrators, which is a source of great concern to Asians who would never indulge in or condone such horrible crimes.

In the tragic cases of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholics or Anglicans, there is no inhibition about identifying these faith traditions, yet there appears to be a degree of censorship when it comes to identifying abusers who call themselves Muslim, or who use warped interpretations of Islam to justify their abhorrent acts. This kind of political correctness is a source of profound frustration and hurt for those, such as Sarah, who have been abducted, raped and trafficked by grooming gangs. Presumably, it is fear of accusations of racism or Islamophobia that has resulted in the religious identity of these abusers being hidden. However, it is important to recognise reality, because this characteristic often affects the nature of the abuse and suffering inflicted. It is also to be hoped that Muslim leaders will take ownership of policies to prevent these atrocities perpetrated by some Muslims bringing such suffering to vulnerable girls and shame on their faith. What steps are the Government taking to ensure that agencies are not inhibited in the protection of vulnerable women and children by cultural sensitivities or fear of being labelled Islamophobic?

Many victims also report feeling let down by the police and social services. They have often been met with a lack of understanding and feel that their stories are not believed. Some are told that they “brought it on themselves” or that they “must have consented” to being raped. This is profoundly disturbing. The success of prosecutions depends on witnesses and survivors coming forward and testifying. Young girls who have already suffered so much must not be deterred from reaching out for help. Can the Minister therefore clarify the practical measures that are in place to support those who have the courage to speak up, and can she say what is being done to ensure that convictions are obtained and justice achieved?

The scale of suffering far exceeds the preventive measures and support for victims that are currently in place. Until comprehensive action is taken, politicians’ promises of “never again” will continue to remain unfulfilled and vulnerable girls will continue to suffer in ways that would make our suffragettes turn in their graves.

Syria

Baroness Cox Excerpts

Wednesday 5th December 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

I am very happy to do that. It is indeed a message of hope in this situation. I had the opportunity yesterday to meet some of the clergy and patriarchal representatives who were visiting that initiative. I pay tribute to all involved in organising it. Their stories of what was going on on the ground and what they had gone through were quite horrific and a testament to their ability to keep their light flickering in the darkness that surrounds them.

[Baroness Cox (CB)]

My Lords, will the Minister ensure that adequate aid is given to the areas controlled by the Syrian Government? Many thousands of Syrians of all faiths wish to return to their homes in these areas because they are now safe from jihadist attacks, but they desperately need help with reconstruction. On a related issue, given that massive amounts of UK aid money has been given to jihadist-related organisations in Syria, as illustrated by the BBC “Panorama” programme, will the Government publish information on who are the recipients of UK taxpayers’ money?

[Lord Bates]

I must say to the noble Business that I completely reject the accusation that funding has been going to jihadist organisations. That is not borne out at all by the investigations that we have carried out. We have very strict procedures in place. But it is a terribly difficult situation and above all we need all parties to put maximum pressure on the parties to the conflict to rekindle the UN Geneva process so that we can move towards a credible political solution.

Asia Bibi

Baroness Cox Excerpts

Tuesday 20th November 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Warsi (Con)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Cox (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, the Conservatives have not had a chance to ask a question on this subject so I think it is their turn.

South Sudan

Baroness Cox Excerpts

Wednesday 4th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Cox (CB)]

My Lords, I too thank warmly my noble friend Lord Curry for securing this debate on one of the worst humanitarian crises in our world today. I will focus primarily on Bahr-El-Ghazal, in the north-west of South Sudan, which I visited many times during the previous war, inflicted by the Government in Khartoum between 1989 and 2005, when I walked through countless killing fields and burnt-out villages. I have also visited it many times since the peace agreement and during the present civil war, most recently earlier this year when I visited my small NGO, Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, or HART. We met hundreds of people displaced by conflict and witnessed the overwhelming humanitarian crisis they are now suffering. We have heard the statistics but they are worth repeating: there are 1.8 million internally displaced people now in South Sudan and an estimated 2.5 million refugees in neighbouring countries, the vast majority of whom are women and children.

Food insecurity is at unprecedented levels as the civil war has limited the access to farming land, reduced harvests and prevented cultivation due to fear of violence. The greater Bahr-El-Ghazal and Upper Nile regions continue to have the highest prevalence of acute malnutrition. According to the UN, two-thirds of households in the city of Wau— the major city in Bahr-El-Ghazal—are food insecure. The country remains highly susceptible to endemic disease, exacerbated by water, sanitation and hygiene problems. There are also escalating problems with the provision of healthcare caused by the looting of healthcare facilities, attacks on healthcare workers and a shortage of skilled healthcare professionals.

Our partner in Wau is the Anglican Archbishop Moses Deng, who works with Christian Action for Relief and Development, or CARD. He reported that on 13 June there were clashes between government and opposition forces just south-east of Wau. This is considered to be the first stage of a military campaign aimed at expelling opposition groups from the surrounding areas. CARD also reported that last week, on 30 June, when a new ceasefire was set to take effect, government forces and rebels launched attacks on each other’s positions. The archbishop told us that the repeated ceasefire violations are a result of people within both government and opposition forces being unhappy with the agreements that have been signed, or of their benefiting from the war. The situation is dire and needs urgent attention.

Time allows only one detailed example of the suffering endured. In March 2017, 5,000 IDPs flocked into Wau’s cathedral compound seeking refuge from local conflict. Archbishop Moses had to borrow money from local traders to buy food for these IDPs, as many were on the brink of death from starvation. He sent an urgent request to HART asking for emergency funds for life-saving food. HART, as a very small NGO, was able to send only £10,000—I wish I were Bill Gates. However, the archbishop was profoundly grateful, saying this would buy a lot of sorghum and prevent him being arrested for his inability to repay loans from the traders.

This is surely an unacceptable situation. With DfID pouring massive funds into South Sudan, for which great credit is due and deserved, there must be a way for emergency funding to be made available to save lives in emergencies such as this. When I asked the archbishop about applying to DfID he shrugged his shoulders in despair, saying he does not have the resources to invest in complex bureaucratic procedures, adding that, before aid is given by the big NGOs, assessments are made and by the time the assessments have been assessed, the people have died. I ask the Minister, therefore, what advice can be given to people such as our partners in Bahr-El-Ghazal and other parts of South Sudan on how to access emergency funds to save lives. I appreciate the need for accountability for taxpayers’ money, of course, but surely a situation such as this requires more readily available life-saving emergency funding than can be provided by a small NGO such as HART.

I can share a ray of light on this dark horizon. When those 5,000 IDPs flooded into the cathedral compound, they came from three different tribal groups with historic animosity and conflict. Our partners there exerted robust peacekeeping skills in their compound by grouping individuals from the three tribes together. Desperate civilians laid down side by side and made friends. They left three months later for the new IDP camp at Hai Masna with reconciliation achieved and hostility abated. Throughout the country, the South Sudan Council of Churches is intensifying its peace- building and reconciliation at grass-roots level, with initiatives to provide desperately needed education and healthcare. The diocese of Wau has also established new schools for children who were previously denied access to education because of constant aerial bombardment by the Khartoum regime. Secondary schools have been equipped with special provisions for girls reaching puberty, who often drop out of school at that stage for social and personal reasons.

We are continually inspired by the courage, resilience and resourcefulness of the people of South Sudan. Will Her Majesty’s Government ensure the provision of more accessible resources for the peacebuilding and skill-learning initiatives currently operating at local level, which are so important for conflict reduction and the building of essential skills and qualifications for the development of this new nation? Its people have suffered far too much for far too long, but they are still there, working hard to build a brighter future, and despite their pain they still smile their famous, courageous South Sudanese smiles, which make me feel very humble.

Nursing

Baroness Cox Excerpts

Monday 14th May 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Cox (CB)]

My Lords, I also warmly congratulate my noble friend Lord Crisp, not only on securing this debate and his comprehensive introduction but on his phenomenal commitment to the Nursing Now campaign and the Triple Impact report, in which he was so ably assisted by my noble friend Lady Watkins of Tavistock.

I declare an interest as an honorary vice-president of the Royal College of Nursing—the RCN. I also had the privilege of being involved in work for the Triple Impact report. It is many years since I was registered to practise in the UK, but I maintain a passionate commitment to nursing, especially through my involvement in a small NGO, the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, or HART. It was established to provide aid and advocacy for people suffering oppression, often in conflict or post-conflict regions not reached by major aid organisations, for security or political reasons. We work with local partners and always give them the dignity of choice, asking them to identify their priorities for aid, which is often the provision of healthcare—in very challenging situations.

Time permits me to give just two examples to illustrate the achievements of nursing in such challenging situations. First, in northern Uganda, while the notorious rebel Lord’s Resistance Army was still inflicting its reign of terror, we in HART visited and established a partnership with local people desperate to help orphans for whom there was no one to provide care. A key professional was the senior nurse, Pius. In addition to providing clinical care for orphans, including those with HIV, he also runs the local clinic, where he is confronted with massive clinical challenges, such as a lady who was eight months pregnant and had cerebral malaria. It was the rainy season and the nearest hospital was 40 kilometres away and inaccessible. Pius therefore carries full clinical responsibility in that area. When we invited a medical colleague with a special interest in tropical diseases to sit with Pius for a clinic, he said that Pius’ work was superb and could not be better. That initial programme has grown over 10 years from care for 39 orphans to provision of holistic nurse-led health care for over 600 HIV positive children and their families.

The second brief example comes from the little-known historically Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was subjected to attempted ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan in the early 1990s but gained a ceasefire in 1994. When we asked the Government there for their aid priorities, they identified help for people with disabilities, as there was no effective provision in the former Soviet Union, where disability was still massively stigmatised. Our partner, Vardan, was given a bomb-damaged building, from which he developed a now internationally recognised centre of excellence, staffed by nurses. The member of his nursing staff with responsibility for treatment of pressure sores initially had to contend with horrific cases. One patient with fungating sores was suicidal. Marietta treated him so successfully that he recovered and began to make exquisite wood carvings, achieving self-esteem, financial provision for his family, and happiness.

These examples illustrate the competence and achievement of so many nurses—I could give so many other examples—working in very challenging situations in remote areas, sometimes in conflict or post-conflict situations. We celebrate their achievements perhaps particularly appropriately today, on International Nurses Day.

I therefore also greatly appreciate the work of the RCN, with its support for and participation in a number of nursing alliances in Europe and the Commonwealth, which not only seek to influence European and global policy but also spread learning and experience between nursing organisations; for example, the development of advanced practice on nurses’ key role in tackling antimicrobial resistance, and on addressing the health of the health workforce.

One example is RCN co-operation with the Zambia Union of Nurses Organization on its implementation of the WHO safe surgery checklist, and raising the profile of the profession in Zambia. This work and its visibility as an organisation that seeks to improve practice means that it is increasingly a partner of choice for the Zambian Ministry of Health. It has also helped it to build its own membership as a professional nursing association as well as a trade union.

The RCN also provided background to the Nursing Now campaign by undertaking research on key trends in nursing and identifying the areas that make a significant difference to nurses being able to achieve positive changes for health, including education, professional regulation, workforce resources, a pleasant working environment and nurses’ ability to influence and improve health policy. The RCN has committed to continue to raise the profile of this significant and global initiative.

I am delighted that the Triple Impact report and the Nursing Now initiatives have helped to highlight the fundamental importance of nursing here in the UK as well as in developing countries, where they are often the only providers of healthcare for large populations. As I have indicated, I have seen many inspirational examples of nursing practice in remote and very challenging situations, and I hope there will be a greater opportunity for a two-way programme of professional visits: for nurses from those areas to come to the UK to benefit from clinical updating in the latest developments, and for UK nurses to visit their colleagues in those remote situations, where they will benefit from the inspirational resourcefulness and professional competences of colleagues.

I therefore conclude by asking the Minister whether Her Majesty’s Government will provide adequate support for these two-way professional training programmes, which will help nursing, as the primary provider of healthcare around the world, to continue its vital contribution to the well-being of people globally.

Syria

Baroness Cox Excerpts

Thursday 29th March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Cox (CB)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Roberts of Llandudno, on securing this very important debate, and his very moving opening speech. Violations of human rights by President Assad and his Government are widely reported and condemned, and certainly not condoned by me. Yet many Syrians and people in this country are concerned by the one-sided nature of such condemnations.

I have visited Syria twice at the invitation of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch. I and colleagues met faith leaders, including the Grand Mufti; representatives of diverse political parties, including opposition parties; internationally renowned artists, musicians and intellectuals; NGOs; internally displaced persons; and members of local communities in Damascus, Latakia, Saidnaya, Maaloula and Aleppo. Everyone to whom we spoke expressed deep sadness and often anger at the devastating impact of British foreign policy, highlighting, for example, the horrendous effect of sanctions on the humanitarian crisis. These sanctions greatly harm civilians, for whom it is very difficult to obtain employment, adequate supplies of food, medicines and medical equipment.

The crisis is highlighted in the Lancet:

“The economic losses of the country at the end of 2014 stood at US$143.8 billion, with more than 80% of the population living in poverty, of whom a third … were in abject poverty, unable to obtain even basic food items … Life expectancy has been reduced from 75.9 years in 2010 … to 55.7 years in 2014—a loss of 20 years … The cost of basic food items has risen six-fold since 2010, although it varies regionally. With the exception of drugs for cancer and diabetes, Syria was 95% self-sufficient in terms of drug production before the war. This has virtually collapsed as have many hospitals and primary health-care centres. Economic sanctions have not removed the President: as with other countries under siege … Sanctions are among the biggest causes of suffering for the people of Syria and a major factor perpetuating the conflict”.


Many Syrians are also deeply concerned by the continued commitment of outside powers to imposing regime change rather than listening to what the Syrian people want. Her Majesty’s Government are wedded to the mantra that President Assad must go. This is despite the fact that his military capacity, supported by Russia, has achieved the virtual expulsion of ISIS and related Islamist forces and, as there is no moderate armed opposition, his removal would result in inevitable chaos. To quote three former British ambassadors to Syria, who wrote a letter to the Times, forced regime change,

“risks creating a chaotic situation similar to, or perhaps even worse than, those in Iraq and Libya”.

The ambassadors urged the UK Government,

“to respect the right of the Syrian people as a whole to choose their own future”,

a point emphasised so appropriately by the noble Lord, Lord Roberts. All those whom we met believe that Syrians should have that right to determine their own future and elect their own leadership, without foreign interference. As the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch told us:

“No regime in the world is perfect. Of course, we want reforms. But change has to come from the Syrians, for the Syrians”.


Another cause for widespread concern is the British Government’s financial support for so-called moderate opposition forces, spending as much as £60 million of taxpayers’ money per year on groups that oppose Assad’s regime. However, we heard time and again, including from those previously opposed to Assad, that opposition groups are now dominated by jihadist militants. The vast majority of these groups have extremist Islamist ideologies, with no intention of creating democracy in Syria.

The UK has Special Forces on the Jordanian border and in the Al-Tanf enclave. These forces are ostensibly assigned to anti-ISIS missions; in reality, their mission is believed to involve the training and equipping of anti-Assad forces. The UK also has officers embedded in headquarters in coalition-occupied Syria. How is this compatible with assurances given to Parliament in 2015 about our forces’ mission being limited to fighting ISIS and there being no ground presence? This issue has certainly not been clarified by the Answers given to my Parliamentary Questions. Will the Minister clarify the situation regarding the legitimacy of the involvement of UK military forces in the war in Syria without any invitation from the elected Government? The response given in the Answer to my Parliamentary Question was that the legal case for having a British military presence in Syria is based on “the self-defence of Iraq”. This seems highly problematic. It is surely a pernicious doctrine to claim that a mandate to act in one country automatically gives an entitlement to take military action in a neighbouring country.

Can the Minister also explain the apparent gross double standards of Her Majesty’s Government’s policies? For example, they are promoting trade with Sudan, whose president has been indicted by the International Criminal Court and whose Government are responsible for the deaths of 3 million people, including their genocidal policies in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile—I have witnessed those myself—and the displacement of 5 million people, while still perpetrating gross violations of human rights in Sudan. However, Her Majesty’s Government will not even consider opening an embassy in Damascus.

I have received a letter from the noble Lord, Lord Bates, for which I thank him very much, but I am afraid it raises a number of questions. For example, I was puzzled to read that, “the people of Eastern Ghouta are desperate for a break from the regime”, presumably the Assad regime. This needs to be seen in the context of their experience of life under the jihadists in Eastern Ghouta, where there are widespread reports of food and medical assistance being withheld from civilians by the jihadists, of civilians saying they were held as human shields, of the execution of anyone who opposed the militants, and of the widespread theft of property by those militants. Is this really the choice that the people of Eastern Ghouta would prefer? It is not, according to those who have recently escaped.

There has also been widespread condemnation of the Syrian army’s offensives against Eastern Ghouta. However, these also need to be seen in context. Since 2012, an estimated 11,000 civilians have been killed in Damascus as a result of shelling from those rebel-held areas, including 1,500 children. Around 30,000 have been maimed and disabled. I have not seen this toll of death and injury in Damascus reported in the UK media. Ninety per cent of Eastern Ghouta is now in the hands of the Syrian Government. The main remaining group of Islamist militants is the Saudi proxy, Army of Islam, based in the town of Douma. It is being offered conditional surrender. There remains another small pocket in the south-west, in Yarmouk, controlled by a few hundred ISIS fighters. These are not moderate opposition forces but jihadist militants with extremist ideologies.

Her Majesty’s Government and the UK media have also failed to acknowledge the policies adopted by the Syrian Government to mitigate the tragedies of war, such as the maintenance of humanitarian corridors for the delivery of aid and the exit of civilians. They did this in eastern Aleppo and 75,000 civilians have availed themselves of this facility in Eastern Ghouta. They have also given permission for militants to leave with their families. That is in stark contrast to the fate of Syrian army soldiers captured by jihadists, who are regularly slaughtered.

The initiatives of Dr Ali Haidar, a former prominent opponent of President Assad and now the Minister for National Reconciliation, are also totally ignored by western media. Although at great risk, those involved in reconciliation initiatives have facilitated more than 1,000 local truces, bringing peace to hundreds of towns and villages. Her Majesty’s Government often applaud the work of the White Helmets. I regretfully have to say that there is a lot of evidence to prove that they are not always the heroes of humanitarian aid and peace, as widely portrayed. There is now an abundance of evidence to indicate their support for jihadists in many parts of the country and of their complicity in many atrocities. Civilians who have recently escaped from Eastern Ghouta report that the White Helmets did not help civilians but worked with the jihadists, including on the production of propaganda footage for western media.

The letter written by the noble Lord, Lord Bates, also said that “only one side in this conflict has deployed all the machinery of war, including chemical weapons”. Yet despite claims from the jihadis about the Assad regime’s use of chlorine, which have repeatedly been highlighted by western media and Governments, there has not been one recorded instance verified by a credible witness such as the UN. However, in areas that have been liberated, jihadi workshops used for making chlorine bombs have been found. The letter also states that “overwhelming responsibility for the heart breaking human suffering … lies with the Assad regime”. As I have already said, one cannot condone atrocities committed by the regime, but responsibility for human suffering must predominantly be attributed to the insurgency of ISIS and other Islamist groups who have perpetrated genocidal policies and atrocities on a massive scale, including abductions into sexual slavery, torture and beheadings. I will never forget weeping with a Muslim woman in Latakia who had been forced to flee her home by Islamist fighters after she had had to watch them behead her husband and son. She said, “War is tragic and people die from shelling on both sides. But on one side, you die from shellings, on the other side, you die from shellings and beheadings, and we don’t want the beheadings”.

The UK Government’s current approach risks oversimplifying a very complex war. Moving forward, it is crucial that the people of Syria be allowed to decide their own future without any external political agendas or conditions, so that the country can recover and maintain and preserve its plurality and diversity as a place of freedom of faith, deep culture and historic civilisation.

South Sudan: Famine

Baroness Cox Excerpts

Thursday 23rd February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

The noble Lord, who knows a great deal about the African continent and has focused on this area, rightly puts his finger on the importance of nutrition. We had a very useful debate on that subject yesterday evening, in which we looked at the importance of that area. It is an area on which we are focusing our efforts and where we want to see further action. However, one of the great problems that we know of is that when there is a conflict situation, invariably it is in rural areas. People then leave those areas and go to urban areas, leaving the agricultural land untended and uncultivated. We are now coming to the peak growing season for food crops. Therefore, that movement of people has a double effect, which we must respond to.

[Baroness Cox (CB)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that people are already dying in large numbers in remote areas? For example, the Anglican bishop of the diocese of Wau in Bahr-El-Ghazal has had to borrow money to buy food to save lives. He told me that he could not access DfID funding because the requirements are too bureaucratic and complex. What can be done to ensure that food reaches people in remote areas? Perhaps money can be made available through local NGOs, including the churches, which can reach all in need.

[Lord Bates]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness, who has worked tirelessly in this area of South Sudan. I will shortly meet the noble Lord, Lord Curry, and the Anglican international aid workers to see what more can be done. The Anglican Communion can be a real instrument for peacebuilding in that part of the world. We want to do whatever we can to help it.

Sudan

Baroness Cox Excerpts

Monday 29th February 2016 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Cox]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of continuing military offensives against civilians in Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan by the Government of Sudan.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for International Development (Baroness Verma) (Con)]

My Lords, the UK has provided life-saving assistance to conflict-affected populations in Sudan through our £36.5 million contribution to the UN’s response, making us the third largest humanitarian donor to Sudan in 2015. Conflict reduced in the Two Areas following the temporary ceasefires last autumn, but the humanitarian situation and recent fighting in Blue Nile remain of deep concern. The UK is continuing to press for agreement in the upcoming African Union-mediated peace talks.

[Baroness Cox (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her sympathetic reply. Is she aware that last month I was in the Nuba mountains in Southern Kordofan, where women and children are forced to live in snake-infested caves by the Government of Sudan’s aerial bombardment of civilians in what is a de facto genocide? There is now an IPC emergency level for food shortages in both Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states. Will Her Majesty’s Government use their influence in the UN to recommend extending and strengthening sanctions against the Government of Sudan while they continue to kill civilians with impunity in these areas, particularly in the light of the recently renewed mandate of the panel of experts monitoring sanctions in Darfur?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, although we welcome the role that UN sanctions can play in the right circumstances and support the recent renewal of the sanctions around Darfur, each situation is different. We judge that at present the best way to promote moves towards lasting peace in the Two Areas is to support the peace process negotiations being led by former President Mbeki and his AU High-level Implementation Panel.