§ Mr. Home RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will take steps to improve the availability of telephones to service men in Bosnia to contact their families.
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§ Mr. Archie HamiltonWe attach a high priority to ensuring that service personnel are able to keep in contact with their families in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, including by telephone. The provision of telephone facilities in Bosnia for welfare calls depends to an extent on where service personnel are deployed and whether civilian facilities exist. We have recently increased the availability of military satellite links for welfare calls where civilian facilities are not available. The present arrangements are believed to be adequate, given the operational circumstances. The situation, however, remains under review.
§ Mr. Home RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the sleeping accommodation which has been used by the 200 REME personnel at Vitez, Bosnia, since November 1992; how many toilets and showers are available for those soldiers; and if he will make a statement on the delay in commissioning the purpose-made accommodation units on an adjacent site.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonA total of 98 REME personnel and a mixture of 182 other troops from 1 Cheshire, national support element and 1 Cheshire light aid detachment live and work at the site known as Vitez garage. At Vitez garage there are four European lavatories, four urinals and two showers. The showers run with hot water 24 hours a day. There are plans to build a further 13 toilets, nine urinals and 10 showers in purpose-built units which are on site but have yet to be commissioned. Additional ablution facilities are available at the Vitez school site 2.5 kms away. The delay in installing 35 four-man purpose-built accommodation units at the Vitez garage site resulted from a revision of engineer priorities towards base hardening following the shelling of Tomislavgrad; long procurement lead times, both in the United Kingdom and Croatia, for units, electrical switchgear and wiring; and adverse weather conditions with permafrost, ice, snow and low temperatures (— 30 degrees Celsius) delaying site preparations.