Bosnia (Hansard, 13 January 1993)

§ 19. Mr. Mike O'Brien
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is his policy on safe havens for refugees in Bosnia; and if he will make a statement.

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what consideration his Department has given to the establishment of safe havens for non-combatants in Bosnia; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Douglas Hogg
The United Nations protection force, which includes British troops, is helping the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to deliver humanitarian relief to refugees and others trapped by the conflict in Bosnia. We believe that their activities are creating de facto relief areas which are a more effective and viable way of providing protection and relief than specifically demarcated militarily protected safe havens.

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment has been made of the number of aircraft flights that have transported(a) Serbian, (b) Croatian, and (c) Muslim forces in Bosnia; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Garel-Jones
The United Nations Secretary-General has issued regular reports to the Security Council giving details of violations of the no-fly zone established by resolutions 781 of 9 October and 786 of 11 November. It is clear from these that, to varying degrees, all parties in Bosnia-Herzegovina have conducted flights outside the terms permitted in the resolutions. We have no firm evidence that any of these flights were carrying troops.

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment has been made of the number of aircraft flights that have been used by(a) Serbian, (b) Croatian, and (c) Muslim forces in Bosnia for the purposes of military reconnaissance; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Garel-Jones
The United Nations Secretary General has issued regular reports to the Security Council giving details of violations of the no-fly zone established by resolutions 781 of 9 October and 786 of 11 November. It is clear from these that, to varying degrees, all parties in Bosnia-Herzegovina have conducted flights outside the terms permitted in the resolutions. It is likely that some of these flights will have been used to carry out visual reconnaissance.

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what information has been provided by his Department's personnel to the United Nations about human rights violations in Bosnia; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Douglas Hogg
The preliminary report of the investigative mission on the treatment of Muslim women in former Yugoslavia, led by Dame Anne Warburton, has been submitted to the United Nations Secretary-General. Its full report will be drawn up after the second phase of the mission. This will be submitted to the United Nations commission of experts.