§ Mr. David Lepper (Brighton, Pavilion)I have been asked to present a petition about the situation in Kosovo by my constituent, Mrs. Ann Dean. She was moved to initiate it by what she had read and heard about the tragic plight of people who, having lost their livelihood, home and, in many cases, close members of their families, had in effect become refugees in their own land. I believe that the desire to see help go to those people, as expressed by 67 of my constituents who signed the petition, is shared by many others throughout this country.
It is a matter of profound sorrow for me that such a petition is necessary, but it is made necessary by the Serbian Government's continued persecution, destruction and murder in pursuit of their despicable policy of ethnic cleansing.
The petition states:
The Petition of residents of the United Kingdom,Declares that in early May 1999 the refugees fleeing from Kosovo started, for the first time, to give hunger as their reason for leaving Kosovo, according to journalists who had spoken to them, like two reporters from the Washington Post, whose article was reprinted in The Guardian Weekly on 9 May 1999.The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Secretary of State for International Development to take urgent steps to ensure that food and medical supplies are able to reach the starving and hungry inside Kosovo, including those in the mountains, in order to reduce the numbers forced to leave Kosovo, to reduce further deaths from hunger and to show the world that NATO's aims are primarily humanitarian.The Petitioners further request that the House of Commons establish an all-party Committee to monitor the needs of refugees both inside and outside Kosovo.And the Petitioners remain, etc.
§ To lie upon the Table.