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Sri Lanka

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton (Mr. Love) on securing the debate. These are difficult times for Sri Lanka, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss how the United Kingdom is engaged in Sri Lanka to help improve the prospects for all. We should remember that Sri Lanka is not a small, faraway island. It is a substantial country of 20 million people. The Indian ocean tsunami caused wide-scale loss of life and devastation last year. Hopes that the process of tsunami recovery and reconstruction would help develop greater long-term harmony among communities were unfortunately not realised. Over the past year, there has been a steady and deeply worrying deterioration in the security situation in the country. Sri Lanka’s development is again in danger of being overshadowed by its long- running ethnic conflict. The appalling assassination of the Foreign Minister, as we heard from my hon. Friend, was followed by the attempted assassination of an army commander, regular attacks on military personnel, grenade attacks against civilians, extra-judicial killings, disappearances and intimidation, mob violence and violence by paramilitary groups. The cycle of violence has contributed to an atmosphere of extreme mistrust and polarisation, which has fuelled further antagonism and violence. For a lasting peace to be possible, the violence must abate, and the parties must discuss in earnest and honest terms the issues that matter to them and find a way forward. No one else can do that for them. That is a statement which I know my hon. Friend understands. He has visited Sri Lanka, together with the hon. Member for Northampton, South (Mr. Binley), and seen it for himself. I saw it for myself on my visit there. Only Sri Lankans can secure a peace for Sri Lanka. All sectors of Sri Lankan society need to contribute positively to the quest for peace. The Sri Lankan diaspora in the UK and elsewhere in the world, like any diaspora, needs to allow the parties the appropriate space to make progress towards peace, and we must try to help with that. However, as my hon. Friend made clear, the international community has an important role to play in the peace process by supporting and encouraging the parties on that journey, and creating an environment conducive to building a sustainable peace that will benefit all the peoples of Sri Lanka. Within the international community, the UK uses its long-standing and good relationship with the people of Sri Lanka to work to that end. I am sure the House supports that aim. In response to the worsening situation in December and January, the international community urged the parties to talk. As presidency of the European Union, Great Britain played a big part in those efforts. The co-chairs of the Sri Lanka donor group—the EU, the United States, Norway and Japan—put great pressure on the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to put an end to the violence and fully respect the ceasefire. Those efforts brought results, when the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE got round the table in Geneva in February for the first time in three years. All of us had great hopes at that moment. The Government pledged that no armed group or person other than Government security forces would carry arms or conduct armed operations, and for their part, the LTTE pledged to take all necessary measures to ensure that there would be no acts of violence against the security forces and the police. Both sides made a commitment to ensure that there would be no intimidation, acts of violence, abductions or killings. I am sure my hon. Friend and hon. Members will agree that the resurgence and subsequent escalation in violence since that moment is all the more disappointing. Since the beginning of April, as my hon. Friend reminded us, at least 300 people have died, more than half of them civilians. That is a terrible situation. We know that the LTTE are responsible for many of the violent acts. Our position on the LTTE is clear: they are a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000. Along with the international community, we have urged them time and again to move away from the path of violence. Our concerns go beyond high profile attacks on the armed forces. There is an established pattern of LTTE involvement in killings, torture, detention of civilians and denial of freedom of speech. For many Tamils, any expression of opposition to the LTTE is not an option. That is the sad truth. We remain deeply disturbed by the LTTE’s continuing recruitment of child soldiers. But the LTTE is not the only source of violence. I have to make clear, too, our deep concern at the plight of civilians in Government-controlled areas, who are regularly subjected to brutal attacks by paramilitary groups, often acting with apparent impunity. There are also reports that Government security forces may be involved in some of those killings. So what needs to happen next? My hon. Friend asked some very pertinent questions. In my view, the answer is clear. It is vital that both sides return to the negotiating table and live up to the commitments that they made in Geneva in February. We shall continue to offer political and practical support to the peace process in whatever way we can. Violence is not the answer. The only way forward is a negotiated settlement that satisfies the concerns and legitimate aspirations of all Sri Lankans and preserves national unity and integrity. I am sure that the House will join me in expressing the hope that all parties go down that road, and soon, and that we shall finally see Sri Lanka fulfil its very considerable potential. As the hon. Member for Northampton, South has told me, it is potentially a tourist paradise. It should be one of the wealthiest countries in southern Asia, but it is rapidly becoming one of the poorest. It is a disgrace that that has been allowed to happen. What are we in the United Kingdom doing? The British Government continue to urge the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to fulfil the obligations that they made at the Geneva talks in February, to do all they can to stop the violence, and to return to talks. We have given our full support to the efforts of the Norwegians, who have the difficult task of facilitating this process. We very much admire their continued determination and inexhaustible work in the face of much public dissension. The Norwegian interlocutors who are doing this work always pay us the privilege of calling into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office so that they can keep us abreast and we can find out from them what we can do to help. We have continued to do that. We also continue to support the work of the Sri Lanka monitoring mission, now led by a Swedish general, in monitoring ceasefire violations. On a practical level, we contribute to peace-building in Sri Lanka through the implementation of a peace-building strategy that has been agreed across the Department for International Development, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence. It focuses on such themes as greater adherence to human rights standards, preparedness for peace negotiations, and strengthening civil society. DFID has contributed £2.6 million towards de-mining activities in Sri Lanka, which is a very serious issue that my hon. Friend did not have a chance to discuss; £6.25 million to UNICEF’s children affected by armed conflict programme, which is another very serious issue; almost £2 million to civil society organisations to promote conflict transformation; £3.5 million to Oxfam to reduce the number of children suffering as a result of the conflict; and £3.3 million to Save the Children Sri Lanka to increase respect and realisation of child rights. Let me deal with the issue of internally displaced persons—I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton and the hon. Member for Northampton, South for raising it. Internally displaced persons should be protected and assisted by their Governments in the first instance. However, if a Government are unable or unwilling to do that, the international community should provide support. There has been much debate about that in the United Nations recently. We must carefully examine what the international community can do to help in those circumstances. In Sri Lanka, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is mandated to assist internally displaced persons. In 2005, the British Government gave £30 million to UNHCR, of which £20 million was DFID core funding, and we would like at least some of that money to be spent on alleviating the problems of internally displaced persons in Sri Lanka. Like my hon. Friend and the hon. Member for Northampton, South, we support the principle that every internally displaced person has the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his or her residence. Internally displaced persons should have conditions established by competent authorities, which allow them to return voluntarily, in safety and with dignity to their homes or habitual residence, or to resettle voluntarily in another part of the country. I hope that my hon. Friend and the hon. Gentleman understand that the Government are concerned about that important issue. I am glad that they raised it. Since the tsunami, a great deal has been achieved and assistance is reaching most victims of that terrible natural disaster. However, with so many independent non-governmental organisations active throughout Sri Lanka, there are wide differences between districts in the standards and quality of relief work. The immense size of the reconstruction task is stretching the capacity of central and local government to manage and co-ordinate assistance. Assistance has been reaching some communities more quickly than others. The Government and donors, including DFID, are working to make the administration as efficient as possible and to remove any bureaucratic hurdles that constrain non-governmental organisation activities. With that in mind, DFID has recently approved£1.5 million for the north-east provincial council—NEPC—to increase its capacity to deliver services to affected communities. The NEPC is responsible for some 70 per cent. of the area damaged by the tsunami. Despite the difficulties, the achievements to date have been substantial. Assistance is reaching communities throughout the country and making a genuine difference. Sadly, the recent escalation in violence has led to a suspension of the programme and some other DFID activities in Sri Lanka. I greatly hope that an improvement will occur in the security situation and allow those activities to resume. Question put and agreed to. Adjourned accordingly at nineteen minutes to Eight o’clock.