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Conflict Prevention

I want to bring a quite different dimension to the debate by referring to my involvement in work with the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly that touches on this important subject. For me and my colleagues, the focus is not so much conflict prevention as conflict resolution, as my hon. Friend the Member for South-West Devon (Mr. Streeter) said. In our experience, the failure to resolve Europe's frozen conflicts is the real cause for concern, certainly in terms of the European geographical dimension. Last year, the Parliamentary Assembly adopted a report that I had produced under the title of ““Europe's forgotten people””. It is about the 2.8 million people—yes, it is that many—who are internally displaced within Europe's borders, mostly in the Balkans and the south Caucasus. I had the privilege of going to Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan to talk to people about the vexed problem of the still frozen conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. On behalf of the European Security and Defence Assembly—the old Western European Union Assembly—I have also looked at the security issues in the Balkans, where the failure to resolve frozen conflicts is so important. Some of the people I met in Armenia still live in appalling conditions, and the situation in Azerbaijan is even worse. However, when I went to Baku to visit new housing developments built by the Azeri Government, I talked to 14 and 15-year-old schoolboys and girls in the street outside their school, and these children, who were born in Baku, not Nagorno-Karabakh, said, ““We will go back to Nagorno-Karabakh and fight with our bare hands to get back the country that belongs to us.”” The failure to resolve such conflicts and frozen problems creates a breeding ground for resentment. As a result, there is real tension in the region, and I am sure that the Minister will refer to it. I have also had the opportunity to talk to Turkish Ministers about the situation, and there is real hope that reopening the Turkey-Armenia border will help to improve things. Again, however, it is difficult to find a political solution, because a lot of people in Turkey say that they will have to say no to such a development until problems such as that in Cyprus are resolved. However, I do not have time to develop that point further. The Assembly has looked in great detail at the consequences of the Georgia-Russia conflict, and the conclusion that we quickly reached was that the international community had ignored the warning signs—they were there, but they were not followed. The problems in the region were not resolved, and the consequences have been utterly tragic, with ethnic cleansing, property destroyed and tens of thousands of people left homeless. Two districts of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia—de facto independent states—are completely in limbo, with no protection from the international community. We should deplore that; it is not good enough. The hon. Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes), whom I congratulate on securing the debate, referred to Africa. Our work suggests that there are about 31 or 32 countries in Africa that are directly or indirectly affected by conflict, yet we wonder why people want to leave there and come to Europe. That is the push factor that is driving the problem of immigration. I have said that before, and written reports about it, and it is a great joy to have the opportunity, once in a while, to talk about it in Westminster.