Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

Like my colleagues, I welcome the Minister of State and commend him on his outstanding record in representing Ireland at EU level during the Presidency. The UN regards the situation in Darfur in Sudan as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. It states that at least $140 million is required for a massive and immediate humanitarian response. Apart from the 1 million people displaced within Sudan a further 2 million people are thought to be affected by the year old conflict which has interfered with the planting of crops, reduced access to markets and basic services and left civilians vulnerable to violent attack. Thousands of homes have been destroyed along with the crops and livestock people need in order to survive.

The extent of the crisis is both disputed and difficult to ascertain, given the extremely constrained access. It is estimated that more than 700,000 people have fled to urban centres in Darfur and there has been further displacement to other parts of Sudan including Khartoum. A further 135,000 refugees are in Chad which borders Darfur. Thousands have died as a direct result of violence and many more as a result of conflict-related disease.

Humanitarian response and access to Darfur is extremely limited primarily because of insecurity and government restrictions on travel. The government has restricted relief activities to urban centres and internally displaced persons' camps in areas under its control. According to an AFP report published in the Sudan Tribune of 11 May, the Government of Sudan is deliberately starving civilians in at least one town in the troubled western Darfur region. This is the basis of a UN report which has not yet been published but which states that numerous testimonies substantiated by observations on the ground allude to a strategy of systematic and deliberate starvation being enforced by the Government of Sudan and its security forces. Eight or nine children are dying every day in Kailek, a village in Darfur, because of malnutrition. The report makes several references to the total destruction by government forces and allied Janjaweed militia of 23 local villages populated by the Fur ethnic group and stressed that nearby Arab settlements have remained untouched. It describes these actions as a campaign to cleanse a large area of its Fur population, echoing allegations of ethnic cleansing made in recent weeks by senior UN officials. The report also describes sanitary, shelter and medical conditions in Kailek as appalling, deplorable, inhumane and unfit for any human habitation. The report accuses the Government of Sudan of deliberately deceiving the United Nations by repeatedly refuting claims about the seriousness of the situation in Kailek. It has actively resisted the need for intervention by preventing UN access to the area.

I have outlined that appalling sequence of tragedy that has befallen the people of a part of the Sudan which seems to be almost forgotten. I plead with the Minister of State, in his capacity as the Minister of State with responsibility for overseas development but also as the representative of the EU Presidency, to take urgent action to highlight the abuses that are systemic and are being organised by proxy by the Sudanese Government. The Minister of State will be aware that it attempted to divert a resolution of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva recently in order to water it down. I also accuse the other African states which, for reasons perhaps to do with history or colonial legacy, do not wish to be seen to criticise a brother nation. It is time they lived up to their responsibilities in this regard because this will become another Rwanda.

The largest amount of Ireland's overseas aid is donated to Uganda. The Minister of State will be aware of the criticisms consistently levelled at the Ugandan Government by John O'Shea of GOAL. Uganda is deeply involved in the carnage and plunder in the Democratic Republic of Congo which has been responsible for the deaths of between 3 and 5 million people since 1998.

Why does the Government fly in the face of such overwhelming evidence that Uganda is corrupt and engaged in large-scale violence and theft in a third county and continue to place so much trust in it? Does Ireland Aid really believe that government to government aid gives better value for money and, if so, why does it not give all its overseas development aid in the form of bilateral aid? Development Ireland is the new title for Ireland Aid. Would Development Ireland officials use the services of a Development Ireland-funded hospital in Uganda if they fell ill while in that country? Why does Development Ireland not attach strict criteria to bilateral aid donations which should include issues such as good governance, accountability, good human rights records and non-tolerance of corruption? The questions continue for two more pages and I presume the Minister of State has received this document from John O'Shea.

I am a member of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. The committee and the Minister of State met a group of senior Ugandan Ministers at the end of August last year. A charm offensive was launched by the Ugandan Government to ensure that €30 million of Irish aid was not compromised.

I refer to an article in The Sunday Business Post of 31 August 2003, at the very time we met the Ugandan representatives. They made a very impressive case to the committee that Ireland should not dilute its overseas aid to Uganda. The report stated that a leading Ugandan politician who visited Ireland to meet members of the Government and the committees was censured four years ago for influence-peddling and financial impropriety. The Ugandan Minister of State for Finance, Sam Kutesa, was censured on 4 March 1999 for his role in the purchase of state-owned Uganda Airlines' shares in the cargo-handling firm, Entebbe Handling Services. He was advised to resign but vowed that he never would. They are the sort of people the Minister of State is dealing with. My remarks may sound harsh in light of the pleasant and positive things being said.