In Sri Lanka, people live in perpetual fear of assassination if they are involved in the political process. It is not only in the north, the Vanni or the Jaffna peninsula that those matters impose. In Colombo, the police and armed forces are everywhere. In effect, the city and the country are under a martial law regime, because the Government consider that that is necessary. When an assassination attempt was made on the President just before the election, thousands of people were rounded up and arrested. Thousands of people are held in detention. That is the sort of place it is at present.

I also want to put to the Minister a proposal about humanitarian issues which lies in the area of responsibility of my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park, the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs. Gillan) and others. The areas of conflict in Sri Lanka are almost unique in that they do not benefit from the humanitarian support that other places would receive in similar circumstances. The north of Sri Lanka is effectively a no-go area. The Red Cross, Medecins Sans Frontieres and other agencies have, I understand, almost no presence there because the Government of Sri Lanka will not allow many of them in. They will not allow people in because they regard their presence as likely to prevent continuing military action. We cannot tolerate a position in which relief agencies are unable to go in, evaluate what is needed and take action. I qualify my remarks because information is difficult to come by, but disease is apparently rife, many injured people are apparently not being treated and supplies, such as penicillin, that would normally be allowed in are sometimes not allowed in because it is felt that they might assist the Tamil freedom fighters. That is not acceptable. It is also not acceptable that the civilians who are not involved in the conflict are not allowed to leave. They are effectively being held as prisoners of the civil war. I want us to consider how better the international community can ensure that the humanitarian aid and support that is needed reaches the areas of Sri Lanka in which there is conflict. Mr. Edward Davey (Kingston and Surbiton): Is my hon. Friend aware that food aid was used as a weapon of war against refugees in the Vanni? Will he tell us how

7 Jun 2000 : Column 50WH
he thinks the British Government could put pressure on the Government in Colombo to ensure that such action never happens again? Mr. Hughes: My hon. Friend makes another point in the litany of points about what is being used as a method of war. It must be possible for the international community to exert pressure. I am sure that the Minister and his colleagues will be sympathetic to the idea of negotiating so that we can ensure that food, water and drugs, for example to prevent malaria, get to where they are needed. When people need hospital treatment that cannot be provided, they should be taken out of the region. I shall not go through the litany of the United Nations obligations, but I know that many of them seem to be broken or are not being upheld.

I gather--again I cannot say it categorically--that the number of people in Sri Lanka who have disappeared and cannot be traced is the second highest in the world. According to human rights agencies, it is second only to Iraq. A linked issue is that the press has been censored in a way that has not happened in Sierra Leone or Kosovo to the same extent. There has been a much more effective ban that has prevented information from coming out. In that context, will the Minister answer a further point? Arms export licences have been granted to arms exports to Sri Lanka. The normal rule is that such arms must not be used for the purposes of internal repression. How do we know that they are not being used for repression if no one can get into the areas of conflict to see what is happening? We cannot be certain that they are not being used for that purpose. I am not criticising the Government precisely or saying that I know for certain that the arms are being used for repression, but information from around the world and not just from Tamil sources confirms that foreign arms are being supplied. For example, it is not coincidental that Sri Lanka has recently restored diplomatic relations with Israel. Will the Minister give us a specific statement on past, present or future supplies of military equipment and hardware? What mechanisms are in place to ensure that no abuse of that equipment takes place?

Mrs. Gillan: The hon. Gentleman mentioned the exchange that he had with the Secretary of State for International Development. He said that he was pleased with her response and with the position paper that was sent to him. He raised with the right hon. Lady the question of arms sales to Sri Lanka and she said that she would write to him. Has he received a reply and will he tell us what she said on the subject? Mr. Hughes: I do not think that I have yet received the reply, but I will copy it to colleagues when I do. I am a bit circumspect because the reply may have arrived, but I have not seen it. However, I raised the matter some time ago, so I will check to see whether any reply has been received and pursue the matter with the Department. It is important that we are not wittingly or unwittingly involved in anything that adds to what is already a desperate situation, where there are mass graves, many people are unable to leave and human shields have been used. I appreciate that my next point relates to a matter that the Minister should pass on to his colleagues in other Departments. One of the consequences of the civil war

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is the number of people who have left Sri Lanka to come to this country to seek asylum. Because of the work, in particular, of Tony Paterson, who is a specialist in immigration cases, I want to express concern about the way in which this country has handled those cases. According to last year's Home Office statistical bulletin, the Home Office granted asylum to 3 per cent. of Sri Lankan asylum seekers on initial consideration and 1 per cent. more were granted exceptional leave to remain. The applications of the other 96 per cent. were refused outright. However, after hearings by the adjudicators, 48 per cent. of those who appealed had their appeals allowed. Therefore, once the adjudicators considered the cases, nearly half of the applicants were allowed into this country when only 4 per cent. were allowed in initially. Those, I believe, are the worst figures for the ratio between the initial decision and appeal for the applicants from any country in the world. Someone must examine what is happening.

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