HL Deb 10 June 1993 vol 546 cc60-1WA
The Earl of Swinton

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What steps they are taking to strengthen British forces in the former Yugoslavia theatre of operations.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Viscount Cranborne)

Following the adoption of Resolution 836 by the United Nations Security Council on 4th June, a squadron of Jaguar aircraft of the Royal Air Force is being offered to NATO to participate if necessary in air operations to support UNPROFOR authorised by paragraph 10 of the resolution.

We have a battalion group deployed in Bosnia as part of UNPROFOR. We have no plans to send additional major units. We maintain contingency plans to provide additional protection for our forces should circumstances warrant, through both maritime and land based assets. To complement these existing arrangements, a number of Army units and individual officers and men are being placed at readiness to move to former Yugoslavia at short notice to provide a range of options should the need to protect our forces make this necessary. It will not be necessary to deploy them to theatre as part of this precautionary plan.