Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, I recognise that I stand between those noble Lords who are still graciously here and their beds. Several noble Lords have graciously said to me that I have the graveyard slot, so I do not know what I did to the Whips. One noble friend encouraged me not to take this to heart but rather to buck myself up by imagining that I was again delivering a ministerial wind-up speech, so I...
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, is there not a tremendous disproportionality between the attention with which an individual passenger's luggage is microscopically examined and what she described as the trusted consigner, whose large packages cannot be examined in anything like the same detail? A second contradiction relates to the long-term interest that we share in the foreign policy of this. We have had many...
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, we are aware of reports in May 2009 about incursions of Ethiopian security forces in Somalia, but we have not been able to verify these claims. The UK has no presence on the ground. The Ethiopians have stated publicly that, since the withdrawal of their forces from Somalia in January 2009, they continue to conduct only legitimate defensive operations to secure their own border with...
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his remarks about me. I fear that it is in all likelihood the case that the Eritrean involvement will be confirmed. As ever, it is enormously important that effective measures are taken against Eritrea. First, we need to make sure that what we do will work, because in the past Eritrea has defied the will of the international community and has, if you like,...
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his kind remarks and observe to the Benches opposite that, if in the area of foreign policy in this House we cannot find a spirit of bipartisanship, then on what issue where? It has been a great privilege to be faced by such supportive, if occasionally critical, questioning from the Benches opposite. It is parliamentary business at its best and I thank all...
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, I have been delighted to be seduced and pulled by the neck, nose and other limbs into saying more on the Middle East than perhaps a prudent Minister would have done at the Dispatch Box.
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, again, I thank the noble Lord for his questions over the past two years on a range of enormously important issues that otherwise often get overlooked. IGAD and the African Union have three essential recommendations: the first is sanctions against Eritrea; the second is strengthening AMISOM and its mandate to allow it to take proactive action; and the third is to supplement AMISOM by...
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, we hope that Ms Orobator will be able to transfer to the UK before the birth of her child. We have proposed to the Lao authorities a memorandum of understanding to enable the transfer before the UK/Lao prisoner transfer agreement is formally ratified. However, it is unclear whether the Lao authorities will agree the transfer prior to payment of the $70,000 fine imposed on Ms...
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, the noble Lord is of course right. Time is running out; 12 August is thought to be the last date by which she could travel. We have had regular consular contact with her, most recently at the end of last week. I am pleased to say that she and the unborn child are in good health. They have been visited by a doctor attached to the Australian embassy in Laos. The issue is that the...
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, I assure the noble Lord that we are having regular contact with the Laotian authorities to try and persuade them to proceed with the prisoner transfer. Others are looking at ways that perhaps some payment could be made. We are trying to get clarity from the authorities on whether partial payment would be sufficient. The noble Lord should be in no doubt that we are leaving no stone...
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, it is a fine of $70,000. She was carrying a large amount of drugs on her at the time of her arrest. As the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, said, she has not appealed the conviction. The fine is part of her sentence. The whole House would agree that it is difficult for Her Majesty's Government to pay that fine directly. There are those who see it as an act of clemency or support to her...
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, her situation as someone pregnant with a child is one of particular humanitarian concern, but I do not want anyone to be misled about the gravity of her offence. She was found with 680 grams of heroin concealed on her body at the time of her arrest. I can confirm to the noble Lord that she has waived the right to appeal; she accepted the sentence. The difficulty is that, under the...
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, the difficulty is that the Laotian authorities may well consider that once she has returned here their ability to enforce any extension on payment has been removed. Let me again assure the noble Lord that we are determined to find a way through this. While she is in good health and being well cared for, it is obviously enormously important that she comes home.
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, negotiations between British Overseas Territories and the Government of the United States for the acceptance of detainees formerly in United States custody does not fall within the delegated authority for conducting international negotiations which has been given to any overseas territory. The external affairs of a territory remain part of the special responsibilities of the...
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, it is extraordinary. Clearly, there was a real breakdown here. The United States has assured us that it understood that the Prime Minister of Bermuda had the right to negotiate in this case because he asserted such to them. It has led us to announce a review of the operation of this entrustment, but it is clear that there was a breakdown.
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, I certainly think that the overseas territories, which have probably lived in the shadows of British foreign policy for a while, are for a number of reasons becoming more central, most of which have been mentioned in the previous two interventions. Tax havens and the impact on the economies of a number of these territories as a result of removing tax privileges, the broader impact...
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, they did. I suppose that we had hoped that they had been resolved then and that we had an understanding from future Administrations, particularly one as typically sympathetic as the Obama Administration. But it shows that even in this situation really unfortunate slips can occur.
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, before the UK can ratify the convention, its prohibitions must be implemented in UK law. A cluster munitions prohibitions Bill is included in the draft legislative programme for the fifth Session for consultation. Nevertheless, the Government have begun to implement the convention's key provisions. All UK cluster munitions have been placed in a destruction programme and cluster...
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, let me say to the noble Baroness that I have the best source beside me, the Leader of the House, who shares her desire to see the Bill introduced. Whether it is introduced in this House or another place first is a matter for parliamentary managers to agree, but I assure the noble Baroness that, even while we await the enactment of the Bill, we are, as I said, moving to make sure...
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, we hope so. To be fair, the new Administration have had a lot on their plate, so we have not yet been able to have detailed discussions on this issue. It is important to add that a number of key countries in this industry are not signatories. It is not just the US; China, India, Pakistan and Brazil are also not signatories. Even beyond the interoperability issues regarding the US,...