§ Baroness Rawlingsasked Her Majesty's Government:
Following the endorsement by European Union Foreign Ministers of the involvement of President Ahtisaari of Finland in the diplomatic track on 19 May, what role it is intended that he should play in the brokering and implementation of a peace agreement in relation to the roles of the United Nations Secretary-General's special advisers, Carl Bildt and Mr. Kukan of Slovakia, and that of the Russian peace envoy, Viktor Chernomyrdin. [HL2632]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)EU Special Envoy President Ahtisaari of Finland played a key role in the diplomatic track which has now led to the withdrawal of Belgrade's forces from Kosovo. Following a series of meetings in late May/early June with President Yeltsin's Special Envoy Viktor Chernomrydin and US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, President Ahtisaari and Mr. Chernomyrdin visited Belgrade on 2 June to present President Milosevic with a text elaborating the general principles for a Kosovo settlement agreed by G8 Foreign Ministers in Bonn on 6 May. President Milosevic informed them on 3 June that the Serb Parliament and the Federal Yugoslav Government had accepted the text.
The main role envisaged for the UN Secretary-General's envoys Carl Bildt and Eduard Kukan was to look at the longer term, including regional aspects of the implementation of a Kosovo settlement. UNSCR 1244 of 10 June authorised the Secretary-General to establish an international civil presence in Kosovo to provide an interim administration for Kosovo. The UK is currently providing all possible support to the early establishment of this mission.