- Mr President, as Mrs Maij-Weggen has said, we are coming to the end of the debate and perhaps most of what all of us intended to say at the beginning has now been said. However, I should like to pick up on what both Mrs Maij-Wegggen and Mrs Kinnock have just said about preventive diplomacy and early warning.

It appears to me that once again in Rwanda the signal to which we all eventually respond is, inevitably, the television cameras rather than the work done in advance, though we were already aware from the Belgian Foreign Minister that we were in an extremely dangerous situation. Unfortunately, all too often the reaction comes with the arrival of CNN and the television cameras. All of a sudden all hell breaks loose. The tragedy is there but we only really begin to react to it when we see it on our television screens.

Rwanda is one of the saddest countries in the world now, whilst before in many ways it was probably one of the happiest countries in Africa. It did not suffer from famine like so many other African countries. Not only was it providing food for its own people, it was also exporting food in a small way. We must now recognize that we are into the developmental response and we must begin straightaway to make sure that the next harvest is planted now so that it can be harvested at Christmas, because there are three harvests per year in Rwanda. If we do not do that we will be facing even greater famine in that country than the war has produced so far.

I should like to respond to Mr Cox's questions which have also been asked by many other speakers here this afternoon. Why have we not sent the peace monitors? My sister, who is a member of the Irish national parliament, spent a month as a volunteer in Kigali during the summer and she rang me on one of those bizarre satellite telephones asking if I could try to get through to Geneva and beg them to send the peace monitors. The reason why those peace monitors are not there is because there is a internal row in the UN. That is why they are not being sent. Nobody wants to take the decision and get this thing moving. Those peace monitors are absolutely vital. You will not persuade people who are already terrified and demoralized to come back unless they can see some clear evidence that somebody is going to be on the ground, taking care of their interests and also ensuring that those who have perpetrated those dreadful atrocities are brought to justice.

Finally, I should like to thank the Commissioner and Lord Plumb for their passionately delivered speeches here this afternoon. The Commissioner mentioned something about the WEU becoming involved in monitoring the Rwandan Army or helping an all-party army to be formed in Rwanda. Perhaps the Commissioner could enlighten us about what his plans are in that direction. I am sure it will require quite a lot of political discussion before that could be envisaged.