Kosovo: Human Rights

HL Deb 01 April 1993 vol 544 cc1036-58

1.7 p.m.

Lord Rea rose to ask Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will seek to increase international pressure on Serbia to restore basic human rights and freedoms to the Albanian speaking majority of the former autonomous Yugoslav Province of Kosovo, illegally occupied by Serbia since 1990.

The noble Lord said: My Lords, it seems to have become a tradition for human rights issues to be raised as Unstarred Questions at the end of the day, and in my case this is the second time that I have asked an Unstarred Question that has constituted the final debate of the Session. I am sure that noble Lords have exercised their wit as regards the day of the month this debate falls upon. I wish that the situation I am about to describe were not true and it was just an April Fool's Day fantasy. However, I am sorry to say that it is only too true and unpleasant.

We have heard harrowing accounts in previous Unstarred Questions in recent months. We have heard about people in Nagorno-Karabakh, Southern Sudan, East Timor and Malawi. I understand that in May my noble friend Lord Ennals will raise the issue of Tibet—also as an Unstarred Question. Sadly, that is nowhere near the end of the list. Today we are again discussing a people whose basic rights have been trampled on for centuries. The noble Lord, Lord McNair, will outline in greater detail some of the history of the Serbian domination of the Albanian people of Kosovo, and beyond Kosovo, over the centuries.

The Albanians are descended from the ancient people of Illyria who occupied the Adriatic coast just north of Greece from Bronze Age times, or even earlier, and also in ancient times a wide swathe of mountainous hinterland extending well into what is now Serbia. They managed to withstand the Greeks but not the Romans and they had to give up some of their lands permanently to the Serbs in the Middle Ages. The region around Nis which used to be Albanian is now permanently part of Serbia and is settled by Serbs. Then came the Turks who in 1389 defeated the Serbs in the battle of Kosovo. Because of the bravery of their army in that battle, that date is revered in Serbia, I think rather as we remember the bravery of our troops at Dunkirk. After that, the Turks dominated the whole of the southern Balkans for several centuries until early this century, and they bequeathed their religion, Islam, to the Albanian people.

I am raising the question of the people of Kosovo, 90 per cent. of whom speak Albanian and are ethnically identical to the Albanians of Albania itself, because I was privileged to be asked to join a group of parliamentarians going to that country for three days in mid-February this year by the Congressional Human Rights Foundation, an organisation based in Washington, akin to our parliamentary human rights group —but considerably better funded I may say!

The international arm of that organisation is the Interparliamentary Network for Human Rights, IPN, which has members from 106 countries. Its director is Paul Meek, an American citizen but one with very much a world view. IPN had become concerned over the many reports of human rights abuses in Kosovo by Serbia, and it was felt that a mission consisting of parliamentarians from several countries should hear eye-witness accounts of these abuses so as to give the situation wider publicity. The group consisted of seven members: myself from the United Kingdom, and MPs from the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, France and Canada.

Since the end of the First World War Kosovo has been part of Yugoslavia despite the fact that there was then a chance for all ethnic Albanians to be united. However, the powers that there were at the time, which included Britain, acquiesced with Serbian demands—Serbia was far the strongest influence at that point in the Balkans—so that Albania was allowed to include only 2 million out of the total of 5 million Albanians who lived in the region. The Kosovars had a very bad time under the Serbs in the inter-war years, with coerced deportation, especially to Turkey.

Under Tito's Yugoslavia they gained a degree of autonomy, particularly after the 1974 constitution when it became a fully autonomous region. However, they were always the poor relation of the rest of Yugoslavia, with the lowest income and the worst health statistics in the federation. The situation got steadily worse after the death of Tito, and finally after the break-up of Yugoslavia the last vestiges of autonomy were removed from them, and Kosovo was illegally annexed by Serbia in 1990. The Parliament of Kosovo was suspended, as were the government (which have now gone into internal exile) as well as the administration, the judiciary and the presidency. There were big demonstrations against this which were put down harshly, with much bloodshed and loss of life.

A year or so after that, elections were held by the Albanian population who voted almost unanimously to declare independence from Serbia. It is not surprising, therefore, that the population boycotted the elections to the Serbian Assembly at the end of last year. Earlier, in alternative elections, under the noses but against the will of the Serbs, the government in exile were re-elected, which the Serbian minority of 10 per cent. boycotted. The president of the government in exile is Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, a mild-mannered and scholarly writer who speaks five languages, two of which are English and French, so we were able to have useful conversations with him as well as with the other members of his government in exile.

The Serbians would now appear to be systematically undermining the economy of Kosovo as well as its social and educational institutions. For instance, all education in the Albanian language has been stopped. School and university teachers who objected to that were all dismissed from their jobs, as were nearly all hospital doctors. These have been replaced by Serbian doctors who are more junior and less well-qualified. The public health system has fallen apart; immunisation levels have plummeted, and we were told that poliomyelitis, which had virtually disappeared, is now beginning to reappear.

We were shown a dramatic example of how the Albanian-speaking population is coping with the shut-down of the schools. In a large private house a secondary school of 1,300 students was being taught in three shifts. Conditions were really basic. All classes had to sit on the floor but the atmosphere was attentive and good. I think that it would have made any British head teacher very proud. The University of Pristina is still functioning with 23,000 students, although the staff are not being paid and they had no access to the university buildings. Again, the teaching was done in private houses.

Most public enterprises had been closed, with the dismissal of some 100,000 workers. Because families are large this means that nearly half the population is destitute, and if it were not for a widespread network of mutual assistance, greatly helped by remittances from abroad, there would be widespread starvation. Incidentally, all overseas Kosovars are expected to contribute at least 10 per cent. of their earnings, and to remit them to help their countrymen at home to survive.

As if this were not enough, we were given verbatim accounts of frequent beatings and deaths as a result of harassment of the population by the Serbian militia. A common habit of the militia is to demand entry to private houses on the pretext of searching for arms. The inhabitants are treated roughly and severely beaten if they resist. We were told that 700,000 people, nearly half the population, had at some point been interrogated by the police. Our delegation was stopped on two occasions by militia armed with sub-machine guns, and valuable time was lost while they scrutinised passports and questioned us about the purpose of our visit.

There is not enough time to describe all our findings. These are summarised in a mission report which I have circulated to most of the noble Lords who will be speaking, apart from the noble Lord, Lord Selsdon, who only today I found was on the list of speakers. I hope that the noble Baroness who is to reply had her copy from her right honourable friend Douglas Hogg, to whom I reported shortly after my return.

Before summing up, I should mention that we met members of the CCSE, (Conference for Co-operation and Security in Europe) monitoring team in Kosovo. These are former diplomats or senior military staff officers; the ones we met came from Canada, Greece and Sweden. Their opinion was that, although there were undoubted human rights abuses occurring, there was not an immediate likelihood of escalation to overt conflict since both sides had too much to lose, and we saw nothing to make us disagree with that view, at least for the moment. We felt that the presence of the monitors was probably making the Serbs tread more carefully, and while there is little doubt that Serbia wishes to make Kosovo an integral part of its territory and to get rid of the resident Albanian population, ethnic cleansing was not being carried out on the Bosnian scale. In fact, it has been quite difficult to persuade the Serbs to settle in Kosovo; there has been a net emigration of Serbs from that territory. The policy seemed rather to make Kosovo so unpleasant to live in, through economic measures and terror, that the Albanian population will emigrate. In fact, some 300,000 are now living and working overseas, but most have the intention of returning when the situation improves. Meanwhile, their remittances home are helping to sustain the resident population.

While there is nothing specific that Her Majesty's Government can do directly, I think it would be very encouraging to the people of Kosovo if the noble Baroness can state in the strongest possible terms that the Government condemn the unconstitutional and arbitrary actions of Serbia in Kosovo. They are well outside the requirements of the Geneva convention on the treatment of the civilian population by an occupying power. Perhaps I may ask the noble Baroness whether, as a high contracting party to the Geneva conventions, we can formally indict Yugoslavia, which was also a contracting party, for transgressing the convention. (Yugoslavia of course is now represented by the remaining two federal republics, Serbia and Montenegro.)

On many occasions in your Lordships' House we have discussed the circumstances in which the rule of non-interference in the affairs of another state might no longer be appropriate. In the case of Kosovo that scarcely applies since the Kosovars have never acknowledged that they should become part of Serbia. As I mentioned, 87 per cent. of the Albanian population voted for independence in 1991. I believe that we bear some responsibility historically since we were a party to the several treaties which, I believe mistakenly, fixed the boundaries of Yugoslavia after the First World War so that a majority of Albanians live outside Albania.

In conclusion, I ask the noble Baroness to state on behalf of the Government their opinion of Serbia's behaviour in this part of the former Yugoslavia. Do they agree that those actions are completely at variance with the letter and spirit of the United Nation's Declaration on Human Rights; and will they condemn them as strongly as possible? By making such a statement and linking it with a call for renewed vigilance and strengthening of the sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro—as I understand in reading the papers today that we are attempting to do—we might encourage more moderate policies to prevail in Belgrade not only towards Kosovo but possibly towards Bosnia too.

1.22 p.m.

Lord Selsdon

My Lords, I am interested in one philosophy that has emerged and a question that seems forever to be asked of me. Why was it that those who sought to break up communism in Eastern Europe and Asia Minor did not think hard about what they were going to put in its place? In its place is a return almost to the Dark Ages; communism replaced by tribalism. Tribalism with no form of institutional democracy is as dangerous as anything that one can find in the world. We are talking about a part of the world where tribalism has spread. It is rife and dangerous.

A little while ago, not fully understanding the history of that part of the world, I found myself with a creative and highly intelligent young girl, half French and half English, who was having to study the history of the First World War for the GCSE. She asked me how that war began. I had to admit that I was not sure. I had never studied it in history; it was assumed at my school that one knew all about it automatically because one had been told by one's father or grandfather. She asked me what an entente cordiale was. I came rapidly to the Library of your Lordships' House and that evening was able to give a modest lecture.

However, things began to worry me. I became interested in those parts of the world when I was considering what commercial opportunities might be released for the United Kingdom following what I describe as the widespread break-up. There were many opportunities but information was scarce because communist regimes had denied that information to the outside world. Suddenly I experienced a fear that perhaps the histories of the outbreak of the First World War and the Second World War were evolving, the first due to the break-up of an empire and the second due in part to territorial ambitions and denial of human rights.

I was in Albania recently. I shall refer to the visit later. I was looking for a commercial interest and may well have one. Obviously the Albanians spoke about Kosovo. I did not realise that 90 per cent. of the population were of Albanian origin. Nor did I fully understand its history, not knowing the country or its geography. However, it was explained to me that after the second Balkan war, Russia and France were on the side of Serbia. Having territorial ambitions over Bosnia, Serbia was to some extent appeased by receiving Bosnia. But the area has always been an Albanian territory. One looks to its principal city, Prizren. Noble Lords may remember Aubrey Herbert and Edith Durham better than I do. They wrote that Prizren had had an Albanian population for more than 100 years.

What are the human rights to which we refer? What has happened even in the weeks since I was there? The report to which the noble Lord, Lord Rea, referred, is true; but the position is even worse. The ratchet is beginning to tighten. First, one admires to some extent the restraint of the Albanian-speaking Kosovars that there they are, suffering oppression and having thrust upon them some form of latter day gauleiter called Mr. Arkan. He is known for having perpetrated "war crimes". He has been accused of the greatest atrocities relating to Bosnia. He is put in charge of a city which historically is Albanian. He has absolute power. I am told that he is wanted by six or seven European police forces for various crimes. That is not likely to make a population feel very secure. If one combines with that the removal from public life of not only members of the education profession and doctors but all Albanian-speaking Kosovars, one thinks back to the 1930s and the Jewish population of Germany, when the academics were gradually and systematically encouraged to move on. When the Albanian Kosovars move out into Skopje or the Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, they are stopped, searched and all their valuables taken away from them. They are sent out destitute.

One recalls further: the knock on the door is there. I believe that there are more police in the streets than in any other part of the Balkans. Those are all worrying signs if no resistance is shown to them. We are talking about territorial ambitions and the potential for gain in the self-interest of Serbia which those like myself, who have only recently studied the history, can understand but cannot respect or support. We would do anything that we could to stop it continuing.

What will happen as tribalism spreads? Suddenly we find the spectre emerging that it is now a Christian-Moslem conflict. People are saying that they are trying to support moves against fascism. Two thousand Afghans who have come down from the mountains—they are great fighters—are joining up unpaid to fight the Serbs. The Hezbollah Iranians are coming down to fight saying that again the Moslem world is being oppressed and fought by Christians. It is not a Christian-Moslem war. But if we are not careful those excuses and reasons come to the fore. There is no doubt that oppression is rife and is greater than many of us have considered.

What can the United Kingdom do? When I go abroad I often think that we are respected and regarded out of all proportion to our economy. We have a position on the Security Council which might not be justified if we were to be re-evaluated today. It is justified in part because of our past, because of our sensitivity and honesty, and because when we impose sanctions we believe that everyone should keep them. Our standards are higher. At present sanctions are being busted by many countries which may follow only in word what the laws and regulations say.

Do we have any interest in the Balkans? We had the first Balkan war and the second Balkan war. Could there be a third Balkan war? From meeting people of all nationalities my assessment is that if nothing is done we shall see matters spread. Kosovo could be a major firing point. The Albanians, whom I have studied, are brave people. They have been some of the greatest soldiers throughout history in that part of the world. I believe that 200 of the leading generals in the Ottoman Empire were Albanian. They have not yet fought because they have had internal oppression.

I learnt that one way in which to unite a country, if one is totally undemocratic, is that one creates a tremendous fear of the regime and one creates an enemy to cause the people to have fear as well. I believe to some extent that has happened in Albania. What the people are looking for now is peace, security and stability; but they see their cousins and friends savagely oppressed. It would not surprise me if, before long, they gave in to the natural desire to retaliate. They are brave, strong people. If we study their history, we find that of those who lived outside the towns, 75 per cent. never died of natural causes because of vendettas and struggles. I would rather have the Albanians as allies than as enemies, for I believe that they are brave, pragmatic people. If they start to move and react, the fire will spread.

When we speak of Kosovo, we are also speaking of Bosnia and the whole of the Balkans, as well as the Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. We are speaking of the Christianity promoted by St. Paul when he said: "Come over to Macedonia and help us". We are speaking of the development of the Moslem religion and all the religions that have been oppressed over time. That is a power keg. It gives everyone who wants it an excuse to do something and they can easily find a reason.

What can the British do? Do we have any interest, other than the prevention of exploitation or the preservation of human rights? I think we do; we have a greater interest in the future of the Balkans than many of us believe. We have to ask why, strategically, it is important, but does it have any commercial opportunity? Ultimately, I believe that most empires were extended because of commercial interests. Thus I come to Albania itself, a country that fascinated me when I went there; remarkable people. I thought that they would appear depressed and oppressed. Yes, the problems of the breakdown of the structure of communism had left infrastructure difficulties, but it is a country which can feed itself and survive the winter and does not have to worry about food, other than organisation. Many of us have not appreciated that it is a country which has considerable mineral wealth. That is something I have been seeking to work with them on and I therefore declare an interest.

Albania also has another asset. Why are we not more enthusiastic about Albania at present? We do not have a big delegation there, only one part-time man. I remind the Minister of something that happened after the first Balkan war when an Albanian delegation came to see Lord Curzon to try to encourage support for an independent Albania. Lord Curzon received the delegation standing up. I believe that means that one does not intend to spend a long time with the visitor. The head of the Albanian delegation—a reasonable and very intelligent man—was asked by Lord Curzon: "What is of significance about Albania?" The leader of the delegation said: "My Lord, Albania has large quantities of oil". "Take a chair, please", said Lord Curzon.

I know that when the Minister for Overseas Development goes to Albania, following the visit of the Pope, she will be offered a friendly welcome and a comfortable chair by a very competent and pragmatic president whom I had the privilege of meeting.

I believe that we should show greater interest in Albania and that part of the world than at present. We should resist any attempt by Serbia in any area to increase its territorial gains, raise issues of great strength, not simply for human rights but for the interests of stability in the region and to prevent that awful nightmare of a major war emerging.

1.35 p.m.

Lord McNair

My Lords, I wish to thank the noble Lord, Lord Rea, for having this timely and important debate. The insane tragedy in the former Yugoslavia is the result of the fusion of two ingredients: first, history, and, secondly, psychiatry. I shall start with a brief look at the contribution that history has made to the present conflict and go on to describe how a synthesis of dubious psychiatric theories with fascist politics has caused an already difficult situation to erupt into the conflagration we see today.

June 28th 1914 saw the successful culmination of a plan to assassinate the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz-Ferdinand. One of those who rejoiced at that event was Vasa Cubrilovic, a Serbian nationalist and co-conspirator, even at the age of 17, and later to become a leading exponent of the idea of a Greater Serbia.

Cubrilovic's malevolent contribution to the history of the region included a paper delivered to the Serbian Cultural Club on 7th March 1937. In the memorandum he referred to "the Albanian problem", a chilling parallel with Hitler's concurrent rhetoric about "the Jewish problem". He referred to an area as having been "radically cleared of Albanians". The word "radical" has to do with roots; we can assume that he meant by this at the very least that those Albanians had been uprooted. He further applauded the historical Turkish customs of the Sheriat, according to which victory in war and the occupation of a country confers the right to the lives and properties of the subject inhabitants. In 1937 he said: At a time when Germany can expel tens of thousands of Jews and Russia can shift millions of people from one part of the continent to another, the shifting of a few thousand Albanians will not lead to the outbreak of a world war". Noble Lords may feel that this is all in the past, but Vasa Cubrilovic lived until 1990 and his ideas are reflected in a continuous flow of policy from long before that day in June 1914 until the present day.

That callousness, that utter disregard for the rights that we take for granted are the well spring of the current ethnic cleansing campaign by Serbia and the Serbians in other republics. In fact, I wish that we did not automatically use this media-friendly term, "ethnic cleansing". It has been used so often that it has almost lost all meaning. It would be far more truthful to refer each time to wholesale destruction of cultures, to large-scale rape of female populations, to murder on a vast scale and the forced removal of whole communities to camps where a slow death by starvation and disease is inflicted.

Cubrilovic reappears in 1944 presenting a new project to the newly-emerging regime of President Tito, entitled: The Minority Problem in the New Yugoslavia. One only has to read a little of this and other Serbian nationalist writings to see that the horror and terror of the past three years are only an intensification of a programme that has been in place for well over a hundred years.

The situation in Kosovo at the moment is one of intensifying pressure. The Serbs, while only making up about 8 per cent. of the population of Kosovo, are completely in control. They control just about everything and above all they have guns which the Albanians, the Kosovars, do not.

The Kosovan reaction to the pressure is to adopt a policy of non-violent passive resistance. That is not particularly a national characteristic. Community leaders have been working successfully in recent years to stop the tradition referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Selsdon, of blood feuds and vendettas, which have in the past been a strong cultural pattern.

The reluctance to retaliate is born of the knowledge that that is exactly what the Serbs want, so they have an excuse for the sort of wholesale butchery that has occurred in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The schools have been closed to all teaching in Albanian, the mother tongue of 90 per cent. of the population. The one university has also been closed. The Kosovars have set up a parallel voluntary state with an administration and an education system which uses private homes and empty buildings for schools. A voluntary income tax of 3 per cent. for Kosovars abroad and 6 per cent. for those in Kosovo pays the teachers' salaries, among other things. I am not sure what the exact figure is, but it is obviously a major contribution of remittances from emigrant Kosovars.

I turn to the other factor in the Yugoslav equation. I should like to describe the role that psychiatrists have played in fomenting and directing the carnage. It takes two forms: first, manipulating the emotions of the Serbian population; and secondly, analysing the non-Serbian cultures in order to develop a psychology of terror. That was very clearly described in a recent article by Linda Grant in the Daily Telegraph. First, the Serb forces overrun an area; they then stage a series of public rapes and other humiliations of the female population. As a result, the community as a whole feels unclean and tainted, so when another officer arrives with the keys to some buses the Moslem population is only too willing to leave the area. Their destination is, of course, a camp some way away from their home area where the rapes and other forms of mistreatment begin again in earnest.

Let us look at recent history to examine the role played by psychiatrists. In the aftermath of the Tito era, Serbian nationalism came to fill the vacuum left by that powerful communist leader and war hero. According to an article in the French magazine L'Express, in 1986 Debrica Cosic, another war hero, and several other academics published what they called the "Memorandum". It was a 20-page booklet which to some extent is comparable to Hitler's Mein Kampf. It is a statement of intention describing how to organise a greater Serbia. Cosic has been president of the Yugoslav Federation (Serbia and Montenegro) since May 1992.

Milosevic, who was one of the leaders of the Communist Party, also decided to play the nationalist card, defending the Serbian minority in Kosovo during incidents with the people there and rose to power on an anti-Albanian platform. The man who lit the fuse was Jovan Raskovic, a friend of Cosic and a politician who worked as a psychiatrist. Boris Zmijanovic, a professional colleague, said of him: He was a practising psychiatrist who defended anti-psychiatry in public but used electro-shock and other sadistic psychotherapeutic methods with particular pleasure in the case of Croatians, especially Croatian women". He used meaningless psychiatric jargon to justify the rousing of the Serbian population of Bosnia. For example, he described the Moslems as anal erotic personalities, who like to amass wealth. About the Serbs, he said that they were the only Oedipal people who had overcome the phase of primary narcissism and dared to kill their father. He said that the Serbs alone had a feeling for authority and therefore must exercise it over the other Yugoslavian people. It is clearly the psychiatrists who are mad. It is said that those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. In this case, mad psychiatrists have incited the people to madness.

The theories developed in Raskovic's book A Mad Country were taken up by the newspapers and television as part of a media campaign in which Raskovic was presented as the great scientist and psychiatrist of his era. As a result, he became the leader of the Serbian people outside Serbia. He formed the Serbian democratic party. The war was started in 1990 by members of his party.

According to Dr. Boris Zmijanovic, the first three senior leaders of the Serbian democratic party were all ex-mental patients of Raskovic. He also said of him: Without scruples, Dr. Raskovic used his patients for his political ends. He manipulated them. It is not known whether … [he] turned his patients into political students or whether he turned his political students into patients in order to facilitate their manipulation". Without question, his rabble rousing speeches at many public meetings did a great deal to inflame the Serbian people.

In the chaos of the Balkans at present it is probably of little import that Radovan Karadzic, who is also a psychiatrist, was banned from the Communist Party for having served time in prison for property fraud and embezzlement. Karadzic was an active participant in Raskovic's campaign to incite the Serbs against other religious and ethnic groups; he is now (since Raskovic's death) the leader of the Bosnian Serbs. It is clear from what I have said that the distortion of an inexact and unsuccessful science to suit the purposes of politicians represents a new development in the progress of fascist terror politics.

So where does all that leave Kosovo? That formerly autonomous region of Serbia had nearly equivalent status as a member of the Yugoslav Federation until that status was revoked by Serbia in 1990. The Kosovars are doubly punished by sanctions. First, they are punished by Serbia; and secondly, the sanctions hit them very hard.

The people of Kosovo want to disassociate themselves from Serbia and form an independent state. As an independent state, Kosovo would be open both to Serbia and to Albania. The Serbs would have full rights of citizenship, with full and free access to all religious and cultural buildings. That would also be the case for Serbs outside Kosovo. The Kosovars did not want to participate in Serbian adventures. They were prepared to be part of Yugoslavia as an equal entity. But since the federation has disintegrated and since other areas are being promoted to the status of sovereign states, they see no reason why that should not apply to Kosovo. What they need and what they want is the immediate arrival of a UN peacekeeping force to prevent the situation in Kosovo breaking out into open warfare. We have done too little, too late, too often. Let us persuade the United Nations to act now and prevent a further tragedy.

My honourable friend Sir Russell Johnston was in Kosovo on 24th May 1992, the day on which the people there held a fair and well organised election under very difficult circumstances. The result is accepted by the large number and variety of political parties which took part. I feel that further elections would be rather a luxury under the circumstances. The primary need is for the Serbs to stop their campaign of repression. That will take place only with a strong UN presence in Kosovo.

I should like to finish with a few words about Macedonia. What is planned there for the end of the year is a census to establish the balance of ethnic and religious groups in that territory. It must be carried out under international supervision. Decisions about the future of that part of former Yugoslavia can then be reached on the basis of knowledge rather than emotion. It may well be that the best solution for Macedonia is for that state to be divided into semi-autonomous regions along ethnic lines—as the noble Lord, Lord Owen, is trying to establish in Bosnia—but for that to be done before violence erupts.

1.50 p.m.

Lord Hylton

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Rea, for the way in which he has introduced this short debate. Perhaps I may be allowed to congratulate him on the visit of the international parliamentary delegation.

The present unsatisfactory situation in Kosovo somewhat predates the appalling war in Bosnia. Both flow from the death of Marshal Tito and the break-up of Yugoslavia, which was followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Your Lordships' House debates an enormous range and variety of subjects. I therefore find it just a little extraordinary that the break-up of Yugoslavia has only twice been debated since the 1st July last. The first occasion was my own Unstarred Question about refugees. The second occasion was on 25th September when the House was recalled and debated the United Nations' operations from Iraq to Somalia, including Yugoslavia. The important details of Bosnia and Kosovo were thus submerged under many wider issues.

I shall refer briefly to Bosnia. I wish to state that the war there is not a civil war. It is primarily an international war. If anyone doubts that let him consult the statement of the UN Secretary General made at the London conference last August.

There has been genocide. We all need to acknowledge that with great regret. There has been a deliberate policy of killing the young men, raping the women and expelling the old. That policy has been accompanied by the destruction of mosques and the burning of countless houses. No national group has been blameless but the severest condemnation falls on the Government of Serbia, its airforce and army and upon its allies in Bosnia. Those atrocities outweigh anything seen in Europe since 1945. I believe that an obligation rests on the powers to ensure that such events never recur. There is a similar obligation to prevent the spread of such atrocities to Kosovo. Appropriate measures are needed to restore basic rights and freedoms so that their absence does not provoke an explosion.

It may be helpful to glance at the geography and history of Kosovo, which has some 2 million inhabitants. It is an isolated region which used to make up 4 per cent. of the area of Yugoslavia and some 8 per cent. of its population. Only one major road joins Albania and Kosovo. Two roads link with Macedonia and six roads with Serbia and Montenegro. Kosovo was most important in the medieval Serbian kingdom and, as has been mentioned, was the scene of its defeat by the Ottoman Turks. Pečs and some monasteries are still holy places for the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Between the two world wars about half a million Albanians emigrated and some 40,000 Slays were settled in Kosovo but most of them left again from 1971 onwards. The Albanian birth rate has been consistently higher than anyone else's with the result that now some 50 per cent. of the population is thought to be under 20. The proportion of Albanians in Kosovo used to he reckoned at 90 per cent. Recent visitors put it at about 94 per cent. and one qualified observer has even estimated it at 98 per cent.

In 1968 Kosovo became an autonomous region. The Albanian flag was used. There were newspapers, radio and television in Albanian, which was also the language of the schools and the university. The 1974 constitution gave de facto equality with the other republics. In 1981, following Tito's death there were student and other riots in Kosovo. The security forces killed some 10 people and wounded hundreds. Two thousand people were arrested and many received heavy sentences. An agitation followed for a formal republic. Slays made counter-accusations of Albanian genocide. Some Albanians were evicted from Serbian villages and Serbs were forbidden to sell to Albanians.

The year 1987 saw the rise of Mr. Milosevic and moves to withdraw autonomy. In the following year there was a general strike. In March 1989 autonomy was finally removed. The central army moved in, killing at least 24 people. Two thousand people were jailed and 100,000 or more Albanians were dismissed from state employment. Schools were closed. In September of that year two-thirds of the elected deputies proclaimed their own republic.

The pattern has been clear ever since Mr. Milosevic's speech at Kosovo Polje in April 1987. He has consistently raised the stakes and the Albanian population has responded non-violently. Repression has been and still is severe and is reinforced with beatings. It was that very repression which convinced the Slovenes and the Croats that they could only be safe as independent states.

How do the Albanians of Kosovo survive? Eye witnesses recount that there is great poverty at the moment, which is mitigated by self-help and small amounts of aid. There is an underground education system, unofficial clinics and a voluntary 3 per cent. tax on Albanian businesses, plus some support from overseas remittances.

We need to ask how long that situation can continue. How long will the Albanians tolerate it? What will be the attitude of the Albanian Republic and the further half million or so Albanians in the adjoining territory? How long will Turkey and the major Moslem powers accept an intolerable situation?

Normal human rights have to be restored. I look forward to hearing from Her Majesty's Government how they foresee that that may be done. It would be good to hear the Government's views on the role of the CSCE and I personally would be very glad if the Minister would say something about the enforcement of the present sanctions, particularly by night. I understand that there is some check on what enters Serbian and Montenegran territory by day but very little check by night.

In my view, both Bosnia and Kosovo present serious threats to world peace. I suggest that they cannot be ignored.

1.57 p.m.

Baroness Strange

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Rea, for introducing this important subject at this time and for his extremely interesting historical summary. It is now after 12 o'clock and so we are all safe from being made April Fools. I should say that as I am the last speaker in the last debate before the Recess, I shall certainly not detain your Lordships for long.

I was one of the three Members of this House who hosted the visit of the parliamentary delegation from the Republic of Albania to the Inter-Parliamentary Union last month. We had many discussions about the vexed question of Kosovo. The leader of the delegation, Mr. Pieter Arbnori, was the Speaker of the Albanian Parliament and the group included six other Members of that Parliament. I was lucky enough to show them round the Palace of Westminster on the first day of their visit. I have never met anyone more enthusiastic about the working of our Constitution, our freedoms and above all the beautiful place in which we are fortunate enough to work. Mr. Arbnori had been in prison for 281½ years and Mr. Ali Spahiya had also been in prison for four years. He knew by heart the plays "Julius Caesar" and "Hamlet" as well as many of Shakespeare's sonnets and much of Tennyson, Shelley and Keats. He went into raptures about the pictures from the Arthurian romances in the Robing Room.

One of the first things that we learned was that there are more Albanians living outside than inside Albania. It soon became apparent that 80 per cent. of the population of Kosovo were in fact Albanians. On 14th March this year there was a large rally in Bonn of 40,000 Albanians, who came from Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden. Many people, including Dr. Otto von Hapsburg from the European Parliament, sent them telegrams for their success and they sent a petition to various European governments and to the American State Department, pleading for recognition of Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state, and the halting of the Serbian terrorising of the population of Kosovo.

The Serbs in Kosovo are making life extremely difficult for the Albanian majority by closing down Albanian clinics, refusing to allow Albanian doctors to treat Albanian families or to make health visits in schools to Albanian pupils. Infectious diseases are rife and in some areas there is no medical care at all for Albanians. In the medical centre at Prizren, patients have to provide their own medication, mattresses, sheets and blankets, and hygienic conditions are appalling.

The Serbs are also introducing violent and aggressive house searches, constantly hauling the local Albanians into the police station on the pretext of searching for weapons. When they disclose that they have no weapons, they are told to go and buy them to give to the police. For example, on 10th March at Vushtrri, six Albanian houses were searched and in the home of Halil Hyseni the police broke all the doors and destroyed all the furniture. On 11th March in Gjakova they told a former policeman whose house they searched—Zhelal Hafizademi—that he must give them a firearm if he wished to keep his kidneys.

Every day there are house searches. The occupiers often have their furniture destroyed and are beaten up. On 18th March a large group of Serbian police, backed by armoured personnel carriers, blocked the exits and entrances of an arts and crafts centre in Skanderag. All customers at cafes and restaurants were interrogated and many were beaten. Many young Albanians who are called up into the Serbian forces are so ill-treated during their time there that they return mentally unhinged.

On 17th March the Albanian Foreign Minister, speaking in Vienna, said, The Yugoslav crisis is complex. Kosovo is a very delicate element of this complexity, whose solution conditions the outcome of the peace process and determines the security of the region". Two days later when Manfroed Woerner, the Secretary-General of NATO, visited Albania he said, An outbreak of violence in Kosovo would threaten international peace and security". There is still time to exert all possible economic, diplomatic and moral pressure to prevent the situation in Kosovo erupting into conflagration. Already the Serbian Parliament is making inflammatory speeches against the Albanians in Kosovo. What is needed now is less violence, more mercy and more generosity of spirit—all the values of the Arthurian knights which the Albanians so admired when they were here.

2.3 p.m.

The Earl of Lauderdale

My Lords, I apologise for not having put down my name to speak earlier. I rise now only because I have been to Albania many times. Only once was I escorted and that was as a prisoner of the Italians. Most times I travelled on my own. It is prudent, I believe, to take a calm view of the situation. That is what I urge upon the House.

Nothing is simple in the Balkans. There is no single part which is either racially or culturally homogeneous. I am surprised that after all the talk and, if I may use the term, repetition of Albanian propaganda this afternoon, the most famous Albanian in the world has not even been mentioned. I refer to Mother Teresa.

The picture of Albania as a largely Moslem country is not strictly correct. The north of Albania is to a considerable degree Catholic; the south is to a considerable degree Orthodox. If anyone queries my credentials for talking on Albania, I was a Times correspondent many years ago in South-East Europe and had occasion to go there more than once. On the one occasion I know of when I escaped assassination —there may have been other times—I did so by hiding in a gentleman's harem in Albania. I did not stay long and do not recommend it as a hiding place.

The picture of Albania, let alone the country stretching east of Albania to Kosovo, as being in any way homogeneous is not true. In the city of Korca in South-East Albania I have not only spoken Greek, but also Kutzovlach. Of that there has been no mention whatever. The Kutzovlachs are to be found all the way across from the Adriatic to the Black Sea and are also on the Aegean. The area is much more complex than any escorted parliamentary delegation will ever be allowed by their escorts to imagine, let alone understand. I rise therefore not to discuss the Serbian behaviour, which at the very least has been ham-handed, but to put another side of the picture.

We are told that Kosovo is 80 or 90 per cent. Albanian. In fact, over the past 25 or 30 years there has been a steady immigration to that area from Albania proper. Secondly, incoming Albanians have terrorised and damaged Serb farms and churches and pillaged them. Thirdly, by pressure of various kinds, which has been a kind of pre-ethnic cleansing exercise, they have helped to push the Serbs out. The present Albanian ethnic strength in Kosovo is largely due to expansion over the past 30 years.

I implore the Government to tread carefully. The whole of South-East and Eastern Europe is a patchwork of minorities. Once one sector starts raping and pillaging the next, others return the fire. There is no monopoly of villainy, nor any monopoly of sainthood. A great many people are trying to work for peace. To widen the subject a little, the fact that Mr. Panic, who can hardly speak the Serb language, managed to obtain 30 per cent. of the votes in a fairly well-rigged recent election, shows that many people do not approve of the operations of the Serbian Government. I do not want to say more than that. I implore Her Majesty's Government—I am sure my noble friend will reciprocate—to tread extremely carefully and never to accept any simple generalisation about that part of the world.

Lord Hylton

My Lords, before the noble Earl sits down, perhaps I may tell him that I recently had the pleasure of visiting Mother Teresa's sisters both in Tirana and in Korea. May I ask him if he will be so kind as to withdraw his remark about Albanian propaganda?

The Earl of Lauderdale

My Lords, I thought that propaganda had rather a noble sound —think of the Vatican Department De Propaganda Fide. Propaganda is propagating the truth. When people try to propagate the truth they sometimes exaggerate.

Lord Rea

My Lords, before the noble Earl sits down, I should like to add a little about our visit. We repeatedly tried to have discussions with the Serbian authorities to hear their point of view. This was just as consistently refused or conditions were imposed such as they could see us only on the very morning when we were booked to depart—and they knew it. This tended to confirm our impression that we were being given a fairly balanced account.

The Earl of Lauderdale

My Lords, I can understand that. That is what happens all over the Balkans all the time.

Lord Milverton

My Lords, I rise to express the hope that the aggressors will realise that there will be a moment in time when they will not be able to go on and will know that there are many hearts and spirits who wish for the end of what is happening in those parts.

2.9 p.m.

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Chalker of Wallasey)

My Lords, I begin by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Rea, for giving us his first-hand account of the appalling human rights abuses in Kosovo. I was extremely grateful to him for the way in which he did so and to all noble Lords who have spoken in the debate for the calm way in which they have approached a very difficult subject. The final words of my noble friend Lord Lauderdale in saying that that is an area of great complexity is, if it could be, an understatement of the situation.

The report on the Interparliamentary Human Rights Network Mission to Kosovo, Slovenia and Macedonia, which the noble Lord chaired, is valuable in drawing attention to the injustices being perpetrated daily by the Belgrade regime. We must treat very carefully all the information that comes in, but from wherever we get the information, it is pointing in a similar direction. I have before me a list of the human rights abuses, to which I shall turn a little later, which shows just how bad things have become in Kosovo.

Her Majesty's Government are deeply concerned by the plight of the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo—known as the Kosovars —on two counts. First, it is clear that there is continuing and widespread human rights abuse and that this seems to form part of a deliberate strategy to pressure Kosovars to leave the country. The vile policy of "ethnic cleansing", with which we have become all too familiar in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia, is thus again to be found as the basis of Serbian government policy. Secondly, Her Majesty's Government are deeply concerned at the risks of an outbreak of conflict in Kosovo spilling over into neighbouring countries, particularly Macedonia. As my noble friend Lord Selsdon said, that would risk igniting a wider conflict in the Balkans. Repression of the Kosovars is therefore of particular international concern, not only morally but also strategically.

As the noble Lord, Lord Rea, my noble friend Lord Selsdon and others have said, Kosovo has a sad and bloody history and has long been contended between the Serbs and Albanians. It has particular emotional significance to Serbs, who see it as the birthplace and heartland of their nation. But as the noble Lord, Lord Hylton, said, the Kosovars have one of the highest birth rates in Europe and now constitute more than 90 per cent. of the population, a high percentage being young. In recognition of this fact, in 1974 Tito's Yugoslav constitution gave Kosovo considerable political and legislative autonomy. As the noble Lord, Lord Rea, said, in 1988 Milosevic successfully played on the Serbs' deep national feelings about Kosovo, cancelling the province's autonomy and accelerating the destruction of the Kosovars' political rights. I have to say to the noble Lord, Lord McNair, that I am not qualified to comment on psychiatry. However, I must say too that one does see a mental pressure on every Kosovar in that part of Serbia which must be overwhelming. One can imagine that it encroaches on everything that they do.

A number of your Lordships have asked about the CSCE—an observer mission already in Kosovo. It is now up to 10 monitors and soon to be increased to 20, including two from the United Kingdom. That mission reports on human rights abuses and tries to establish dialogue and to build confidence between two communities. It serves a valuable purpose as the eyes and ears of the international community and acting as an independent observer to which the Kosovars can refer complaints of human rights abuse. The mission is also helping to build confidence by its very presence as a visible sign of the concern of the international community. I do not believe that any of your Lordships have made a comment on human rights abuses today which has not already been reported to us by the CSCE observer mission. That shows that they are well in touch with what your Lordships have discovered.

The Government believe that the preventive role of international observers is extremely important, not only in Kosovo but also in Macedonia where we already have observers. We believe that there is a case for deploying United Nations military observers in Kosovo which might help us to further prevent conflict and deter aggression by the Serbian authorities, although that seems, as the noble Lord, Lord McNair, said, to be pretty well entrenched. But since Kosovo is part of Serbia, a UN deployment there would require the agreement of the Serbian authorities. That is the problem with sending UN military observers there. It will also need to be reconciled with the very heavy demands for UN observers in many parts of the former Yugoslavia.

Your Lordships may know that the EC presidency has already pressed Milosevic to accept an EC monitor mission presence in Kosovo integrated with the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe observer mission. Needless to say, and not unsurprisingly, I suppose, Milosevic has rejected that request but we may well try again in due time, depending on the discussions going on.

As most noble Lords have said, Kosovars are sacked regularly from official and managerial positions. Their education in the Albanian language has been banned, the university closed, and human rights have been routinely violated by the security forces; and, increasingly, by Serb paramilitary gangs, including a number controlled by the notorious Serb fascists Arkan and Seselj acting with the connivance of the authorities.

As a direct result, over 100,000 Kosovars have fled abroad. Some 2 million remain, sustained, as was noted earlier, by remittances from abroad and a remarkable sense of solidarity. They have organised what is in effect a parallel society, with their own schools and health system. They have boycotted Serbian elections, but have elected their own Parliament, although they have so far withheld from convening this in order to avoid allowing the Serb authorities an excuse for provoking further violence.

But the authorities' own policies of repression are back-firing. It is becoming steadily clearer that life in Kosovo for ordinary Serbs is increasingly unattractive. Although incidents of violence against the Serb population are very rare, they live with a siege mentality and are heavily armed. Despite official encouragement from the Serbian Government in Belgrade, efforts to encourage Serbs to stay, and to attract new Serbs into the province, appear to be failing.

Obviously, there is a tense and volatile situation; I suppose it is a stalemate. The Serbian policies of ethnic cleansing and repression are driving the whole place into a dead end. The Kosovars, for their part, insist on an independent, neutral state of Kosovo. Any signs of compromise by either party are interpreted by the other as weakness. Neither side seems willing at present to stage a major confrontation. The unarmed Kosovars face a huge and heavily-armed Serbian security presence, and are conscious that any uprising will be rapidly and brutally crushed. Serbian military resources are already stretched by conflicts elsewhere in former Yugoslavia. The Serbs may also be restrained by the calculation that it is not in their interests to provoke the international community on this issue at present.

Nonetheless, there are hotheads and extremists on both sides. They could seek to provoke an incident, which could set off a tide of violence. And there remains a danger that, if Milosevic were to come under severe domestic pressure, in Serbia as a whole, and if things quieten down in Bosnia, he might be tempted to create a diversion by provoking conflict in Kosovo. If conflict breaks out, that will trigger a flood of Albanian refugees into Macedonia because the best road out of Kosovo leads into Macedonia. It will destabilise the area, potentially leading to a much wider conflict.

The noble Lord, Lord McNair, asked me about the proposal for Macedonia to be divided along ethnic lines. Such a break-up could easily spark off another war. It would certainly bring in other countries in the region as they sought to gain advantage or to secure their own borders by enforcing chaos. That is why our policy has been to work for the rapid admission of the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia to the United Nations and to promote talks with Greece on the differences between the two states to enable the republic to gain full international recognition and to help it to gain the benefits of the greater stability which that could bring.

What about further international action? The noble Lords, Lord Hylton and Lord Rea, asked me about sanctions. The enforcement of sanctions has been greatly tightened since they were first imposed last May. In particular, the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe has sent sanctions assistance missions to help the customs authorities of the neighbouring countries. Perhaps I may assure your Lordships that the missions work on a 24-hour basis, as does the Western European Union/NATO joint naval force in the Adriatic. This intercepts ships heading for the Montenegran ports. There are, however, a variety of further means which might be used to tighten sanctions, and they are currently being pursued urgently in the United Nations.

The international community as a whole has consistently pressed the Serbians to end their oppression of the Kosovars and to grant the province autonomous status. That is not just talk. Although the sanctions on the former republic of Yugoslavia, including the new package of tougher measures which, as I have just mentioned, is currently under discussion, are aimed at pressurising the Serbs to make peace in Bosnia, we also hope that they will press the Serbs to co-operate fully in negotiations across the whole range of problems created by the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, including Kosovo. At the same time, we have urged the Kosovars to compromise on their call for full independence and to settle for autonomy.

If there is to be a lasting settlement to the problems in Kosovo, it will have to be arrived at by negotiations under the auspices of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia, under the co-chairmanship of the noble Lord, Lord Owen, and Mr. Cyrus Vance. Their predecessor, my noble friend Lord Carrington, elaborated a detailed set of constitutional principles, focused on minority rights, which could be applied to the Kosovars, as well as to the Serbs in Croatia. But such is the polarisation between the two sides that talks on the status of Kosovo have made no progress.

The international conference negotiators have therefore lowered their sights for the time being and begun by concentrating on practical issues such as the Serb ban on education in the Albanian language. But Serbian intransigence has prevented any progress so far.

It is essential that the international community continues to put pressure on the Serbs to restore human rights and political autonomy to the Kosovars. There are some signs that the Serbian authorities may be beginning to look for a way out of what has become for them a hugely expensive dead end. We must sustain the diplomatic pressure and sanctions to ensure that they deliver.

I noted the comments about the number of police and troops that have come down into Kosovo. Obviously, that is one of the reasons for the people there feeling so oppressed. As I said, the police and troops are there in very large numbers and they must be costing the government in Belgrade a very great deal of money.

In a very wise and thoughtful speech my noble friend Lord Selsdon spoke about the danger of Albanian involvement. Albania is deeply concerned by the plight of its cousins across the border in Kosovo. My noble friend Lady Strange spoke about the delegation that she looked after here and their concern about what is happening to their cousins.

We continue to urge the Albanian Government to take a moderate line. I am pleased to see that at present they are doing so. We do not believe that Albania has the economic or military capacity to intervene in Kosovo, but there is now an EC monitoring mission in Albania to observe the situation on the Kosovo border and to try to lower the tension there. That border is a pretty difficult one to cross, but there is a real danger of a flood of refugees trying to cross into Albania if a conflict were to break out in Kosovo.

I was glad that none of your Lordships suggested that military intervention was the answer for Kosovo. There is already enough conflict in former Yugoslavia without provoking more. Talk of military intervention, as some do, serves only to encourage the Kosovars to be unrealistic in their quest for independence.

Any international military action in Kosovo would also leave all UN operations in the former Yugoslavia, especially Bosnia, open to attack by Serb forces. UNPROFOR and UNHCR would have to suspend their vital humanitarian operations in Bosnia, leaving millions to fend for themselves and hundreds of thousands to die. It could also provoke reprisals by the Serbs against Moslems in Bosnia and Sandjak as well as in Kosovo.

Air strikes alone would be unlikely to release the Serbian grip on Kosovo but might provoke even more bloody repression. Use of military power must have a clearly defined political objective. That is lacking in the case of Kosovo. If ground forces were used, the danger would be of a situation in which Kosovo was eventually wrested, with much bloodshed, from Serbia's grasp. But Kosovo would then be left with a hostile and heavily armed force reforming just beyond its borders and the international community with an endless commitment for protection.

In view of the fact that last night Security Council Resolution 816 was passed at the United Nations requiring that violation of the ban on flights in Bosnian airspace should cease, the response of the British Government, which I believe will be of interest to your Lordships, is that the UK is willing to contribute aircraft for the enforcement task, if so requested by NATO. We are discussing with NATO the nature and scale of that contribution, and that of other countries, and the practical aspects of conducting the operation. The UN is not going beyond that, so there is no question of our intervening militarily in any sense in Kosovo.

As a number of your Lordships have said, the Kosovars are largely unarmed. They face the overwhelming strength of the Serbian military and paramilitary, which many of your Lordships mentioned. The only possible outcome of conflict would be refugees. Those refugees would have a sad time, as do so many hundreds of thousands who have fled from Bosnia and other areas of the former Yugoslavia.

The noble Lord, Lord Rea, asked whether we could formally indict Serbia and Montenegro under the Geneva conventions. I want to check that point with our legal advisers. I have not seen the idea mentioned in relation to Kosovo, and so obviously I cannot commit myself. The UN Commission for Human Rights has already condemned Serbia and Montenegro for their human rights abuses whether they be in Croatia and Bosnia or in Serbia and Montenegro. Whether or not it is a question of indictment, the entire world is united in condemning the numerous human rights abuses referred to throughout the debate.

The situation in Kosovo remains tense and highly unpredictable. We fear that conflict could break out at any time; it is a conflict which would spread beyond Serbia's borders and, potentially, engulf the whole Balkans. At the same time human rights abuses are being perpetrated by the Serbian regime on a widespread basis. The international community has put in place a mechanism, in the shape of the international conference on the former Yugoslavia, for the negotiations between the Serbians and the Kosovars. Those negotiations are not being pursued with good faith by either side. There is no doubt that the Serbs must bear the primary responsibility for the failure.

The international community continues to put strong pressure on Belgrade, both diplomatically and by strong sanctions, to co-operate fully in the international conference. In the meantime the CSCE observer mission and perhaps in the future a UN mission will play an essential role in monitoring human rights abuse, helping to promote contacts between the two sides and preventing an escalation of the tension into a fighting scene.

The presence of observer missions has done much to keep the situation a little steadier than it could otherwise have been. But I am afraid that until the main parties come to some agreement for a lasting cease-fire the real business of re-building the lives of people in the region cannot begin. In the meantime we must watch their needs and the need for further international action with the greatest of care. I assure your Lordships that we shall be doing that for the Kosovars as well as for other people in the Balkan area.

House adjourned for the Easter Recess at twenty-eight minutes before three o'clock until Wednesday, 14th April next.