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HUMPHRYS: Now, when Robin Cook
became Foreign Secretary he proudly told us that from now on there would
be an ethical dimension to Britain's foreign policy. So when he made an
important speech on Friday everyone looked to see what he'd have to say
about how it's going. They looked in vain. There was no mention of ethics
from start to finish. So what should we make of that? Paul Wilenius reports.
ROBIN COOK: Our foreign policy must have
an ethical dimension.
TONY BLAIR: We will fight for democracy
and civil rights the world over.
PAUL WILENIUS: In war, morality is one
of the first casualties. Ethics are swept away by fear, violence and killing.
But when Labour came into power, many MPs expected it would bring a more
caring foreign policy and hope to the oppressed.
OONA KING MP: I have stepped over bodies
that were piled high in Rwanda following the genocide. Much of that was
a result of arms that shouldn't and needn't have been in that area. That
area, the Great Lakes Region, continues to have, to be on the edge of genocide
in some respects and we are never going to break that cycle of violence
until we take responsibility.
GLENYS KINNOCK MEP: I would have to say that I
have felt some disappointment, some consternation even, at the fact that
we have, we have seen on so many occasions in the last few weeks a willingness
to sell arms in circumstances which I find completely indefensible.
WILENIUS: Robin Cook made his reputation
harassing the Tories over arms sales to Iraq. And when he came into office
he promised to bring an ethical dimension to Britain's foreign policy.
But now he's under attack from some in his own party for failing to deliver
on that pledge.
There were fanfares in the Foreign Office after the election, as Robin
Cook proudly unveiled Britain's new ethical role. The eager media were
told by Cook that arms sales to unsavoury countries would be cut back or
controlled and with his team he would help improve the environment and
the wealth of poorer countries.
ROBIN COOK MP: We are instant witness in
our sitting rooms through the medium of television to human tragedy in
distant lands and are therefore obliged to accept moral responsibility
for our response.
WILENIUS: But eventually, reality
caught up with the rhetoric. British companies have continued to supply
arms to countries like Indonesia, despite their human rights record. Fears
that the arms trade with such regimes was undermining the moral foreign
policy, has inflamed the passions of Labour MPs.
GLENYS KINNOCK: I do think that moral stands are
important and making a moral stand on an issue which so directly affects
people's lives and causes such terrible misery and suffering and tragedy
is something that people who make those decisions should look at very
very carefully indeed. And I know that there are some tensions between
ministers and I very much hope that it will be possible for those who believe
that those principles, those values, those moral stands should take precedence
over all the lobbying and the pressure that comes from manufacturers in
the arms industry.
KING: I think the idea
of having an ethical dimension to foreign policy is something that backbench
Labour MPs are absolutely passionate about. It's why I joined the Labour
Party when I was fourteen. The same goes for many other Labour MPs. What
we have to make sure is that we are able to continue some of the work we've
done. We've been proactive on many things. But we have to actually do
more. You could always do more you could always do better and Labour backbench
MPs will not stop pressing the Foreign Secretary.
WILENIUS: Ministers are facing
new pressure here at Westminster to toughen up their ethical foreign policy.
Next month four influential Commons Committees will call for tighter the
rules on arms sales. And many Labour backbenchers want the government
to go much further and to stop using taxpayers' money to support military
exports.
When Pakistani troops stormed the television station and removed the democratic
government, Robin Cook condemned the military take-over. But arms sales
have recently been resumed and this has put the ethical policy under further
strain. The British government now produces an annual report on arms sales,
but MPs are calling for greater openness and control over those exports.
DONALD ANDERSON: The assumption must be that as
part of this process of opening up to parliamentary scrutiny, what is done
in this highly sensitive field, the committee will call for greater transparency,
greater openness in terms of the categories, what is being sold by the
government, what quantities, and to which countries, so they can have a
real degree of democratic accountability.
BOWEN WELLS: I think it's absolutely essential
if we're to get any kind of control over the arms trade that we do get
greater transparency and greater reporting to Parliament and Parliament's
capacity to investigate each and every one of our arms sales.
WILENIUS: The recent move to sell
spare parts for British Hawk jets, like these, to Zimbabwe, appalled many
Labour MPs. Many exports are underwritten by the government's Exports
Credits Guarantee Department, so if the buyer fails to pay, the company
still gets its money. The government's now reviewing that system and sixty
Labour MPs have signed a Commons motion calling on Ministers to stop using
taxpayers' money to support arms sales.
KING: It's very important
that we shine a light on the Export Credit Guarantee's Department. Most
people in Britain have no idea what it is. What my committee, the Select
Committee on International Development, and we've done a report and what
we hope and also what the EDM was saying is that we need to ensure money
is not being used to underwrite arms sales.
GLENYS KINNOCK: I think we need to look at the
whole system of arms export guarantees and the fact that that department
in the Government is able to underwrite the sales and protect the arms
dealers, that certainly we need to look at and I would very much support
members of the British Parliament in the quest to have that happen.
WILENIUS: But it's not just arms
sales. Many MPs feel British policy must be directed towards helping the
development of poorer countries and to protect the environment. This ideal
is being tested over the plans to build a dam in South East Turkey. British
firms want to help build it and need the support of taxpayers' money. Critics
fear the flooding would damage the Kurdish way of life.
KING: I don't think taxpayers'
money or any other money for that matter should be used to underwrite projects
which will have a negative impact on development. That's been alleged for
instance with the dam. What I'd like to see are, you know, the most effective
environmental assessments, audits done so that we can judge this.
If it is proven beyond
a doubt that people are going to be, or rather that the benefits will not
outweigh the negative aspects then I don't think we should be pressing
ahead with it.
GLENYS KINNOCK: I don't think we should be backing
anything, dams or pipelines or anything else that is likely to damage the
environment and is not in the interests of the people where this is taking
place but is only in the interests of multinational companies. And their
power of course is enormous and certainly needs to be reined in by government.
WILENIUS: In a speech last week
Robin Cook failed to mention the ethical dimension, instead he stressed
Britain's national interest. The impact on industries like this is what
really worries the government. The arms business is ten per cent of our
industrial base and forty per cent of its output is exported. Four hundred
thousand jobs depend on this industry, which would be put at risk if orders
are lost.
MARTIN O'NEILL: There are people who campaign
against the arms trade per se. They don't want any arms sold to anybody.
The fact is that the export credit guarantees scheme doesn't finance arms
sales, it serves to underwrite potential debts, because if a big order
collapsed, people couldn't pay in the short term, then the folk would be
out in the street looking for work.
ALAN SHARMAN: Over strict ethical controls
of our defence exports would obviously lead inevitably to a considerable
reduction in the size of the defence industry and the impact of that would
be obviously a lot of jobs would be lost. We would have a serious loss
of technological capability because of our operation at the fairly high
tech end of the business and in the end that of course would have a severe
knock on effect on our own armed forces in terms of our ability to equip
them with the equipment that they want which our industry can make for
them to meet their special requirements and capabilities.
WILENIUS: But to some the importance
of arms sales for Britain's economy and jobs is over hyped. And some Labour
MPs feel the government must keep its eyes on the right target and stop
supporting arms sales.
KING: Job losses are a
concern that have to be taken into account. But they can't be, you know
it can't be the tail wagging the dog. The essential point is that we have
a foreign policy objective. We are trying to bring stability to a region,
for example, you couldn't possibly say, we're worried about job losses
here, but whoops we've sold them arms, conflict has escalated and now,
for instance in the future maybe there will be British peacekeeping forces
there and we've been in that situation before and to say, well we had to
sell them arms because we needed to sustain our arms trade would be completely
unacceptable.
WILENIUS: Tony Blair spent years
winning over big business. But a more ethical foreign policy will mean
the loss of orders and jobs in factories across the country. If he wants
to keep his new found friends in Britain's boardrooms, then there's little
prospect that the moral dimension will be at the heart of his policy.
GLENYS KINNOCK: I think many of us would wish for
far more principles to be in place rather than being prepared to be subject
to the pressures from the arms lobby. I think putting ethics first is
a very very important standard and it is something we should adhere to
as Socialists and as people committed to a peaceful and secure world. And
the fact is that arms actually contribute, they fuel the flames of war.
And in the end the taxpayer picks up the tab.
WILENIUS: So with Ministers placing
top priority on good relations with powerful figures across the globe.
Many in the Labour Party fear they will continue to drift further away
from their high ideals.
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