Sudan

Debate between Lord Alton of Liverpool and Baroness Verma

Monday 29th February 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, US financial sanctions are a matter for the US Government. We continue to support efforts to improve the effectiveness of UN-targeted sanctions in Darfur and the EU arms embargo that remains in place across Sudan.

[Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB)]

My Lords, given that the Human Rights Watch organisation has said that in the Two Areas of Blue Nile and South Kordofan, civilians, including children, were,

“burned alive or blown to pieces after bombs or shells landed on their homes”,

and given what has already been said about Darfur, where between 200,000 and 300,000 people have been killed and 2 million displaced, will the noble Baroness tell us why the International Criminal Court has failed so miserably to bring to justice Omar al-Bashir and others charged with the crime of genocide?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, the UK continues to raise a range of human rights issues with the Government of Sudan, including the issues raised by the noble Lord. We are a big supporter of the International Criminal Court and will continue to make clear to the Government of Sudan and the international community that we expect compliance with the arrest warrant for President Bashir.

Syria

Debate between Lord Alton of Liverpool and Baroness Verma

Monday 8th February 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB)]

My Lords, within the past half hour a Yazidi woman gave evidence here in the House about the plight of the minorities in the region. The Minister will know that the European Parliament passed a resolution last week declaring these events to be genocide. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has done the same. What effort was made at the conference to prioritise the needs of groups such as the Yazidis, the Christians, the Shabaks and others who have suffered this genocide? Although everyone has suffered in this conflict, these people are peculiarly and specifically targeted because of their ethnicity or religion. What is being done to assist them?

Will the Minister return to the question that the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, put to her about events in the province of Aleppo today? Around 100,000 people are amassed on the border with Turkey. Because of the aerial bombardment by the Russians, these people’s lives are in the balance, but they are not being allowed over the border. What are we doing to persuade Turkey to open the border to give safe refuge to those people?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, on the question of the minority groups within Syria, there have been horrific attacks by violent extremists on Christians and other religious minorities within Syria. As the noble Lord is aware, all our UK-funded humanitarian assistance is distributed on the basis of need alone, to ensure that civilians are not discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion or ethnicity. We prioritise reaching the most vulnerable across Syria, and that includes all groups. Of course, it is a challenging environment; these are incredibly complex, difficult areas to navigate, but I take the noble Lord’s point. Of course, where we can, we will work closely with the NGOs on the ground to get aid to as many people as possible.

The noble Lord mentioned the latest indications about the numbers of people being displaced from Aleppo. We know that many of them are sheltering in the border area, with more people on the move. We are exploring all options on how we can ensure that their humanitarian needs are met.

Abyei

Debate between Lord Alton of Liverpool and Baroness Verma

Wednesday 25th May 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Alton of Liverpool]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the implications of the occupation of Abyei by Northern Sudanese forces.

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, we condemn the recent attack on Abyei town by the Sudanese armed forces on 21 May and the attack by the SPLA on a joint Sudanese armed forces and UN convoy on 19 May. These incidents violate the comprehensive peace agreement and cannot be justified. We urge the parties to make good use of the good offices of President Mbeki’s African Union High-Level Implementation Panel and to negotiate a peaceful and durable resolution of all outstanding issues.

[Lord Alton of Liverpool]

My Lords, has the noble Baroness had a chance to study today’s BBC reports, which quote the United States ambassador to the United Nations talking about horrific reports of looting and burning in Abyei? Does this not point to the need to use Chapter VII powers in order to get UNMIS to put a peacekeeping force into Abyei in the short term, but also in the long term to deal with the up to 60 outstanding questions in the comprehensive peace agreement? Thinking back both to the civil war over border disputes between Eritrea and Ethiopia and to the civil war in Sudan itself, which led to the deaths of some 2 million people, as we look forward to the independence of Southern Sudan on 9 July, is there not a real danger that what is happening in Abyei, in Southern Kordofan and indeed on the Blue Nile could lead to a repetition of history?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, the noble Lord raises some very serious concerns about yesterday’s incident, which, of course, was not helpful to the process of independence on 9 July, but we want to ensure that we do not lose sight of those negotiations. We will continue to urge both sides towards peaceful means. We have Chapter VII already in place and the noble Lord will be reassured that we are looking at the situation very carefully. It is on the Richter scale of the entire international community.