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Human Rights

The Committee's report refers to the Government's report, which has been endorsed. In that context, I hope that you will allow me, Mr. Key, to refer to some of those ECHR cases. I shall refer more generally to those points, because those cases raise important issues, in relation to property and the missing persons in Cyprus. The Loizidou case was the leading case in this matter, but more recently, in the case of Arestes, Turkey has failed to execute the judgment ordered by the ECHR. The role of Turkey is referred to in full in the Government document and cross-referred to in the Committee's report. The Arestes case deals with the so-called Turkish Cypriot Property Commission. Eight cases have been designated as test cases by the ECHR to examine the effectiveness of the property commission remedy, and 32 other cases have been declared admissible, one to the value of £130 million. The issue is that the commission does not award restitution, without which there is no remedy, as far as the European convention on human rights is concerned. The Sofi case—I am not referring to one side of the argument only—concerns a Turkish Cypriot who is challenging the guardianship law in the republic, and the ECHR is allowing a hearing on the republic courts. Only today we saw the recommendation of the ECHR advocate-general on the Orams case, which concerns the purchase by a British national of a property in northern Cyprus built on Greek Cypriot land where the Greek Cypriot has been able to obtain a judgment in the courts of the republic, which should now be enforced in the UK courts on the basis of a reference from our courts to the ECHR. I hope that we will see an end to that case. My hon. Friend the Member for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn) referred to missing persons, on whom the ECHR leading case is that of Varnavas in Turkey, which has been rumbling on for about 18 years. On 19 November, a full Grand Chamber hearing looked into the lack of an investigation into the deaths of nine missing persons—eight soldiers and one civilian—and, on behalf of three of their families, allegations of inhuman treatment. The Committee on Missing Persons cannot provide an effective investigation because it is not in its role to do so. The Cyprus courts are also involved. A Turkish Cypriot has applied to the Supreme Court of Cyprus for a judicial review on the lack of investigation of a death in the Republic. In another case, the Pasha family are suing the Republic of Cyprus for not telling them that their missing relative—a reservist who had been collected by the National Guard truck in the ceasefire in 1974—had in fact been buried on the Greek Cypriot side. Many such cases seriously breach human rights and come within the context of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, and they need to be resolved. On a positive note, the Committee on Missing Persons, which is part of the United Nations—my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford, South referred to the United Nations in his opening remarks—is functioning well, but it cannot look at the cause of death or attribute responsibility. It is working on a bicommunal basis, which is one of the positive things in Cyprus. It has exhumed 450 bodies so far, out of a total of 1,996 missing people on both sides. It has been able to identify and return 107 sets of remains—31 Turkish Cypriots and 76 Greek Cypriots—and investigated 224 sites. It needs $3 million to run, and is funded year by year only. Does my hon. Friend the Minister think that the Government will consider putting their hand in their pocket to ensure that such vital work continues, because it has at least another two years' worth of work to do? In relation to demining, to which both reports referred, another €4 million is needed to clear the rest of the buffer zone. Both communities and the UN have put money into demining, but it remains a significant problem to conclude. I hope that the Minister can respond to those important human rights points. I should like to turn now to the question of Sri Lanka, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford, South referred. It is a very serious issue on which we must focus. I regret the fact that the ceasefire ended earlier in the year because without it there can be no military solution to the conflict. We should all like to see self-determination and a fair and just solution to the problems in the north. The human rights crisis is grave, with reports of disappearances, extra-judicial killings and violence against the media. Sri Lanka is ranked 165th out of 173 countries in the 2008 world press freedom index published recently by Reporters without Borders. It lags behind Somalia and Iraq, and is only just ahead of Iran and China. Journalists have been murdered, attacked and intimidated, especially in war areas. In a response to a parliamentary question, the Under-Secretary of State for International Development, my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester (Mr. Foster) estimated that, after the latest surge in fighting, the number of displaced Sri Lankans has risen from 75,000 in July to between 200,000 and 250,000 now. Most of them are Tamils, and two thirds of them are likely to be women and children. There was no humanitarian access to assess the figures properly. Those people are trapped without any assistance. I am pleased that the Government have committed a further £2.5 million in humanitarian relief to international agencies. The total estimate of internally displaced people is around half a million. The Government are correct when they say that there must be inclusive political negotiations for a just settlement in Sri Lanka that can satisfy the legitimate aspirations of all communities and help to promote democracy. I am not surprised that the Sri Lankan Government were not re-elected to the UN Human Rights Council earlier in the year. There is no doubt that Sri Lanka has failed to honour its commitments to uphold human rights and co-operate with the UN since it became a member two years ago. Recently, I have been raising questions on Sri Lanka's beneficial trade position with the UN and the general system of preference plus, which was due for review recently. Will my hon. Friend say what attitude the Government took in the final part of those negotiations, in particular whether that beneficial position for Sri Lanka has now been ended? Such a position cannot be justified at a time of such huge and horrible human rights abuses. The Sri Lankan air force drops bombs indiscriminately in northern Sri Lanka, causing civilian casualties. Last year, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Louise Arbour, visited Sri Lanka, and confirmed that there were a large number of abductions, disappearances and killings. She called for an international human rights monitoring mission to Sri Lanka. Only this week, we have seen a huge upsurge in military violence. Both sides say they kill scores of each other's fighters, but independent reporters are banned from the war zone. Inevitably, we are reliant on the views and accounts put forward by each side. I heard a particularly disturbing account from Wednesday's fighting. A five-month-old child was killed and 13 other refugees, including three children, were wounded when Sri Lankan air force jets bombed refugee settlements in Vaddakkachchi four times. The Sri Lankan army has also intensified artillery attacks, targeting civilian settlements in Vaddakkachchi, Oddisuddaan and Mutiyava'lai. On Monday, artillery shells hit Mullaiththeevu general hospital, causing injuries to two patients.