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Terrorism Bill

I shall make some brief statements about this matter. I shall not present an argument, as we must cover as much ground as possible in the remaining 25 minutes or so. First, whatever the final version of the Bill says, I hope that it will not prevent people from meeting those involved in terrorism. For example, Scandinavian intermediaries have often brought groups together, and that has led to settlements. It must be possible for people to make contact, as happened with the Government and the IRA. Negotiations did not take place, but contact was made. Secondly, we must be careful about how people can interpret what is going on. I once had to take legal action against the Sunday Express. I had appeared in the same hall as a person believed to be a leading member of the IRA, and that newspaper claimed that in some way I was almost guilty of treason. I felt that I was confronting the person involved, but others preferred a different interpretation. That question of interpretation must be considered when the Bill returns on Report. Thirdly—I do not want to make this contribution too personal, but I believe that my own experiences are relevant—in my time I have met SWAPO representatives in Namibia and PLO representatives and their associates on the west bank, and I have also had in my home a person who turned out to be a youth member of ZANU-PF. That person is now strongly opposed to Mugabe, but at the time Ian Smith was Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia and it could have been argued that I was supporting people who wanted regime change. None of the people to whom I have referred was, as far as I knew, involved in violence, but people associated with the organisations to which they belonged certainly were. Finally, I went on a human rights mission to El Salvador in 1978 to try to help delay the assassination of Oscar Romero. I met people clearly associated with opposition groups, at a time when that country’s Government considered even Oscar Romero to be a terrorist, or nearly so. That much is clear, because that Government are correctly believed to have assassinated him.