PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
HURRICANE IN CUBA (23 October 1996)

That this House notes the devastation wreaked against Cuba by Hurricane Lili, that the hurricane damaged 90,000 homes and forced the evacuation of 192,000 people, that extreme winds and rain damaged 15 hospitals, 32 schools and 233 industrial plants, and that more than a million tons of food crops were destroyed, including some of the best citrus orchards and plantain plantations; notes that the United Nations has launched an appeal for funds to help supply Cuba with powdered milk, wheat flour, cooking oil, canned meat, cereals, anti-diarrhoea drugs and chlorine tablets and that War on Want and other British development charities have also launched their own appeals; deplores the fact that the United States trade blockade is hampering the distribution of emergency relief; and calls upon the United States government to lift the trade embargo against Cuba to enable aid and humanitarian assistance to be distributed to the maximum number of people.

Sponsored by:
Mrs Audrey Wise (Labour)