§ Mr. MackinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what initiatives Her Majesty's Government are taking to assist the civil prison service in Kosovo; and if he will make a statement. [97404]
§ Mr. VazThe Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Department for International Development (DfID) arranged for a visit to Kosovo for Her Majesty's Prison Service experts in August to consider what assistance we could provide for prison administration. DfID is providing $1 million in repair assistance and has made available the DfID Emergency Engineering Unit to the United Nations and to the NATO-led international force in Kosovo (KFOR) to help repair prison facilities before winter sets in.
Two British prisons experts also went to Kosovo at the start of October for a two month visit to provide technical advice to the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) on the transfer of responsibility for prisons from KFOR to UNMIK, and the re-opening of prison facilities. DfID are also funding the secondment of four prison technical monitors to supervise local staff until February 2000.
§ Mrs. MahonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many houses of the minorities have been burnt in Kosovo since the KFOR occupation. [96101]
§ Mr. VazBetween KFOR's arrival in Kosovo on 12 June 1999 and mid-October there have been 1,157 reported cases of arson. Figures disaggregated by ethnic group or property type are not available.