6.5 |
Planning and preparation for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, January to
March 2003
1115.
Mr Michael
Ancram, Shadow Foreign Secretary, while expressing
support
for
military action, asked Mr Straw to explain what provision had
been made for
humanitarian
relief:
“We are
told that all is in hand, but we have not yet heard what is in hand
or how
it will be
delivered … [I]n Yugoslavia we started but we did not finish. This
time
we must
finish.
“We must
also ensure that what replaces Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime is a
truly
representative
government, accepted by the Iraqi people and, as Kofi Annan
said
and the
Azores meeting agreed, under the auspices of the United Nations …
If the
administration
are not representative – if they are not balanced – they will fail
…
Above all
we must preserve the territorial integrity of Iraq
…”478
1116.
In his
concluding remarks, Mr Straw stated:
“As the
Prime Minister, President Bush and Prime Minister Aznar agreed in
the
Azores on
Sunday … a new resolution will be put before the Security
Council.
I hope
very much that it will attract the fullest possible support … and
that the United
Nations
will be fully and actively involved in the reconstruction
effort.”
1117.
In response to
a question from Mr Salmond about the cost of
reconstruction,
Mr Straw
stated:
“… Iraq is
an astonishingly wealthy country. The oil is important to this
extent: it
has the
second largest oil reserves in the Middle East. One of the other
agreements
clearly
reached in the Azores, which must also be endorsed by a United
Nations
Security
Council resolution, which we shall propose, is that every single
cent and
penny of
those oil revenues are not plundered by Saddam Hussein and his
friends,
but used
for the benefit of the Iraqi people. I am quite clear that, when
that happens,
the costs
of reconstruction to the rest of the world will be remarkably
insignificant.
I can also
tell the hon. Gentleman that we have already provided funds
for
contingency
work to ensure the smooth passage of the reconstruction
work.”479
1118.
In the
House of Lords, concerns were raised about the potential for
ethnic
and
political violence after Saddam Hussein’s departure.
1119.
In the House
of Lords debate on Iraq, Lord Redesdale (Liberal Democrat)
warned:
“Even with
regime change, there will be no simple solution. We will not be
able to
install a
democratic government in the short term. Looking back to the
previous Gulf
War, there
was enormous letting of blood, settling of scores and political
upheaval.
That will
increase …
478
House of
Commons, Official
Report, 18 March
2003, column 894.
479
House of
Commons, Official
Report, 18 March
2003, column 899.
511