Queen’s Speech

Baroness Falkner of Margravine Excerpts

Thursday 17th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Falkner of Margravine]

My Lords, let me start by congratulating the noble Lord, Lord Wood of Anfield, on his new responsibilities at the Dispatch Box. Given what we have just heard, one thing we can be sure of is that our foreign affairs debates in this House will become perhaps not less controversial but certainly more interesting.

I want to pick out one or two points from the gracious Speech on Afghanistan and the Middle East. We look forward to the NATO summit in Chicago next week and hope that the French will be persuaded to set aside their campaign promises to bring their nearly 4,000 troops home even sooner. The challenges of securing a stable Afghanistan have increased with the problematic situation in Pakistan, coupled of course with the intransigence of the Taliban. It was inevitable, once the US announced a date for drawdown in 2015, that combat troops from other countries within ISAF would seek to go earlier. If the American intention, beyond political domestic audiences, was to suggest to the Taliban that they could have their country back from 2014 and therefore sit it out, it has palpably failed as the body count continues to rise. Indeed, recent attacks in the centre of Kabul have demonstrated evidence of their capability to infiltrate the Afghan national army at its heart. The rise of green-on-blue attacks, where the numbers are already nearing those for the whole of last year, are clearly jeopardising the joint-training module. Our forces are to be congratulated on their success in upskilling the Afghan national security forces despite these setbacks.

Views have been divided about the extent to which the Taliban can be trusted to honour their commitments at the negotiating table. I confess to some optimism last year with the announcement of talks and the opening of a political office in Qatar, but the suspension of those talks is a setback that demonstrates that the younger and more radical Taliban have the upper hand for now. The danger persists that while they may not be strong enough to rule the country, it is now inevitable that after 2014 they will be strong enough to thwart constitutionalism and the rule of law, particularly where women’s rights and human rights are concerned.

With regard to our own situation in Afghanistan, I welcome the Government’s negotiations to expand the options available for our own withdrawal. The stakes are high for our own successful exit, with 9,500 UK troops and some $5 billion of equipment.

For a Liberal, it is difficult to countenance rewarding some of the nastiest human rights-abusing regimes in central Asia with contracts and treasure, but given the difficulties of the supply routes through Pakistan, it is pragmatic to have these options, not least to demonstrate to the Pakistanis that they are not the only game in town. Nevertheless, if Pakistan’s co-operation can be secured and the safety of our troops and materiel guaranteed, it is clearly in our interest to use the least expensive option that that provides. When my noble friend concludes his remarks, he might be able to tell us whether the Government’s talks with the Pakistani Prime Minister earlier this week were fruitful in this regard.

I turn to the situation in Syria. After 14 months of violence, with tens of thousands killed and injured, we still find ourselves in a stalemate. Despite the Annan plan and the so-called ceasefire, the Assad regime continues to kill its own people, often within view of the monitors, and is slowly succeeding in doing what the Serbs did in Bosnia: giving false assurances, bidding for time, scaling down activity while monitors are around and then cracking down brutally when their backs are turned—in other words, to be assured that, with the protection of Russia, things can be strung along long enough for progress to be made on the ground to wipe out the resistance. I therefore regret that Mr Putin has decided not to attend the G8 at Camp David. A disengaged Russia does itself no credit and endangers its legitimacy on the United Nations Security Council.

We cannot stand aside and let this situation continue until an exhausted Syrian people simply give up. Too much blood has been shed for them to go back passively to life under this regime, and the infiltration of the real terrorists in the shape of al-Qaeda has begun. The American academic Anne-Marie Slaughter is right to call for the UN to up its game. One of the things that she proposes it might do is set up a recording unit of the atrocities as a means of delegitimising the violence. Bearing witness through the recording of acts of violence and the images of the people who commit them will allow for justice to be done when the worst individuals are brought to trial through the International Criminal Court.

Diplomatic recognition is also an important element of sanctions, along with the others that this Government have initiated through the Security Council. I want to press them further on the actions that they can take against the Assad family. Have we considered withdrawing Asma al-Assad’s passport? I appreciate that she is a UK citizen by birth, but I believe that she also carries a Syrian passport. In this case would it not be a powerful symbolic and judicial step to indicate that her complicity in the regime’s atrocities make her an unworthy carrier of UK citizenship? I wonder whether we have taken legal advice in that regard.

Can my noble friend also update us on progress to form the various opposition groups based in Turkey and France into a cohesive opposition force in exile? We should accept that after decades of authoritarianism it will take time for a democratic political culture to emerge where there has been so much distrust. However, Syrians must themselves realise that when they seek democracy they must demonstrate a cohesiveness of intent and a steadfastness of purpose in the greater interests of their country.

In conclusion, let me pick up an observation made by the noble Lord, Lord Wood of Anfield. He expressed disappointment about the modesty of this Government’s foreign policy. I say to him respectfully that, given that his party took this country into two major wars in under two years, a little modesty would probably be welcomed in this country by our own people at this point.