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Street Children (Congo)

I agree that that is a serious problem and I would be interested to hear the Secretary of State’s comments on what we can do. As we were told last week, a lot of work has been taking place on building alliances to try to overcome some of that stratification, but it is a serious danger. One issue is the terms in which the elections were fought, which involves the language that people spoke and so on. I have to say that the situation was similar to our local elections. If, in our council elections in Derbyshire, we put someone up for election in a village who does not come from that village, we get a bad reaction as well, but the stratification in the elections in Congo was extreme and that is a serious issue. I ask the Secretary of State, in replying to the debate, to assure us—I am sure that he will—that this issue will not be put on the back burner after the elections, that it is a long-term continuing commitment and we will keep applying pressure and that, above all, we will look at dealing with the security situation. Can he say whether there will be a continuing commitment from the international community to co-ordination and international engagement on trying to reform the security system? I am talking about engaging states in saying that we need peace and security for any of the other issues to be dealt with. Will that continue to be a key priority? I also ask my right hon. Friend to press for the role of EUFOR, the European Union force, to be extended beyond the end of November, as is currently proposed, because peace and security are central to other issues that we have been discussing. How the children are treated tells us everything about the health of a country and a society. We need to consider what we can do to make that society work and function so that those children, including the very bright kids we saw and met, who were absolutely delightful, have some chance of fulfilling their potential. I am talking about putting resources into their education and their future in terms of jobs and so on. That is a reflection of what possibility there is for hope and a future for all the people of Congo, and what possibility there is for having stability in a very important part of Africa that affects us all directly. I shall be interested to hear my right hon. Friend’s comments about what we can do to keep up the pressure on those key issues and to ensure that there is a system of peace, security and reform in the country. How can we keep up the pressure in order to deal with the awful things that happen to those children and the awful lives that they lead, and to give them some common humanity and a future?