Kosovo: UK Monitors (Hansard, 14 January 1999)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)
My Lords, British members of the Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) played a crucial role in securing the release yesterday of eight Yugoslav Army officers captured on 8th January by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The head of KVM has also paid fulsome tribute to two British verifiers involved in mediating with both sides after fighting around Podujevo over the Christmas period. United Kingdom monitors were first deployed in Kosovo as the UK Kosovo Diplomatic Observer Mission. When the KDOM was folded into the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission, British monitors based in Prizren played an important role in encouraging displaced people to return to their homes and in building confidence among local communities.

Lord Campbell of Croy
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for her comprehensive reply which confirms that these unarmed monitors are successfully playing a vital role, with the additional functions of negotiating about hostages and forestalling local attacks. But who will take the difficult decisions, if nonetheless serious hostilities break out, on when the NATO extraction force will be sent in from Macedonia in order to rescue the monitors?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Campbell of Croy, for his recognition of the important role being played by the British element in the verification mission. They are, of course, not only negotiating on the hostage issue, but they have also played an important part in ensuring that the hostilities which were engaged in over the Christmas period were put on one side in a period when I think it is 274 acknowledged there is heightened tension. Ambassador Walker, the head of the OSCE, should the need arise to use the extradition forces currently in Macedonia—I am sure that all of your Lordships hope that the need does not arise—would make a request to NATO for that to be taken forward. That would involve both the OSCE element and the NATO element.

§ Lord Wallace of Saltaire
My Lords, is the Minister confident that once the snows melt the monitors will be able to contain what is clearly a potentially threatening conflict? Can she confirm reports that heavier weapons have been coming in from northern Albania for the KLA and that Serbian troops have been involved? Would she care to comment on the remark of Carl Bildt, the former mediator, that NATO and/or the Europeans would have done well to put their forces into northern Albania as well as into Macedonia?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, this is a period of heightened tension. The verification mission is being strengthened at the moment. Currently 110 Britons are involved. It is hoped that that number will increase to about 150 by the end of this month and that the full force of the mission will rise to about 1,200 at the end of the month. We must take advice from those on the ground. Major General Drewienkiewicz himself—Major General DZ, as he is commonly known—has indicated that he wants a period of consolidation with regard to the verification mission before talking about any additional people who might be brought in. This is a period when we shall have to watch the situation closely. This matter is being discussed today by the EU political directors. It is considered on a weekly basis by NATO ambassadors, and of course the UN Secretary General is reporting regularly to the Security Council on the issue. Therefore it is not just a matter of what is happening on the ground; we also need to keep in touch with what is happening at a political level internationally.

§ Baroness Ludford
My Lords, can the Minister also tell us whether there has been any progress in the talks on a political settlement, as that clearly needs to be achieved as rapidly as possible? Can she assure us that those discussions, and any options that are considered, will not foreclose the possibility, whether in the medium to long term, of Kosovan independence?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, of course I think that everyone who has kept in touch with the situation in Kosovo must recognise the increasingly urgent need to make real progress on the political track. The United Kingdom is working hard with the United States and of course with the Contact Group partners to increase the momentum of the process engaged in by Ambassador Hill on the political track. It is essential that we continue to send clear messages to both sides, including the KLA, that the situation can be satisfactorily resolved only through negotiation. Her 275 Majesty's Government believe that both sides have a clear choice: to fight to a standstill and then negotiate, or to negotiate now. They should negotiate now.

§ Baroness Rawlings
My Lords, can the Minister explain how it is possible that the statement by the Foreign Secretary in the Financial Times on 28th October last year, that he was determined to keep in place that credible threat of NATO action, is consistent with delaying the dispatch of observers? Does the Minister agree that the simmering crisis in which the unarmed observers—only 745 of the promised 2,000—are increasingly cast as vulnerable peacekeepers proves that the western response is inadequate and disproportionate to its verbal threats?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, the noble Baroness and your Lordships can rest assured that we are in touch with the verification mission and listening very carefully to what the head of that mission and his deputy are saying to us about the need to strengthen the verification front. I hope that I have made it clear that there are more verifiers going into Kosovo this month, to the extent of there being 1,200 in the build-up at the end of this month. The noble Baroness spoke of 745; I think she will find that very shortly that number will be very significantly increased.
As to the extraction force, it will become operational tomorrow, 15th January, and we are confident that it will be able to do its job. I stress that that in no way relieves the Government on the ground of the responsibility they have for the safety of the verifiers and their mission.

Lord Campbell of Croy
My Lords, can the noble Baroness confirm that many of the monitors are former British Army officers whose experience and reliability are greatly valued by the international security organisation which she has mentioned?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, I am very happy to confirm that. I pay tribute to the courage of those who are prepared to go in to do very difficult work. There are serving and ex-military personnel. There are also human rights experts, non-governmental organisation experts, police officers, lawyers, weapons verifiers, election planners and customs experts. We have been able to draw on a wide range of expertise in putting together this verification force.

§ Lord Avebury
My Lords, what is the attitude of the Government to this problem of mission creep—the expansion of the role of the monitors into areas such as the rescue of hostages and the stopping of hostilities? Does the Minister think that the terms of reference of the mission should be amended so that the monitors have a formal remit to undertake these duties?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, may have misunderstood me. I did not suggest that the verification mission had rescued any hostages. It did not engage in any rescue mission but was able to negotiate with both sides. We 276 are on track with this at the moment. Some hostages were released yesterday; we hope and believe that some hostages from the other side will be released in a few days' time. I would not wish the noble Lord to think that the verifiers have somehow become involved in some sort of military action—they certainly have not. What they have done is entirely consistent with their terms of reference, both in regard to what they have done about the hostages and in trying to separate factions, through negotiation, in the sort of incidents that took place over Christmas. They have also been enormously important in ensuring that the humanitarian effort, which is so vital to the ordinary people in Kosovo—if I can use that term—is able to reach those who need it.