Kosovo (Hansard, 14 February 2000)

§ Mrs. Gillan
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many United Kingdom police officers have been deployed(a) in Pristina and (b) throughout Kosovo in the last 12 months. [109713]

§ Mr. Hain
[holding answer 11 February 2000]: In July 1999, five UK police officers transferred from the International Police Task Force in Bosnia to assist the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo with the establishment of a Police Headquarters in Pristina. Their mission finished at the end of October 1999.
52 UK police officers were also members of six successive UK Scenes of Crime Teams, who were gathering forensic evidence from war graves throughout Kosovo over periods of three weeks at a time, from July to October last year.
Since August 1999, 32 UK police officers have been in Vucitrn at the OSCE Police Training School. This number is shortly to rise to 40 officers.
In addition, 60 RUC officers were deployed in early November 1999 to the UN International Police in Kosovo. Of these 60, 32 are based in Pristina, and the remaining 28 have been deployed to small towns in the British Sector surrounding Pristina.

§ Mrs. Gillan
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many Kosovo Albanian prisoners are detained in Serbia. [109717]

§ Mr. Vaz
[holding answer 11 February 2000]: The International Committee of the Red Cross, which is in regular contact with the Belgrade authorities, has visited a total of around 1,570 Kosovo Albanians currently detained in Serbia.

§ Mrs. Gillan
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what actions have been taken by(a) UNMIK, (b) the EU and (c) the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to (i) secure the release of the Kosovo Albanian prisoners detained in Serbia and (ii) ameliorate the conditions of their detention. [109718]

§ Mr. Vaz
[holding answer 11 February 2000]: The International Committee of the Red Cross is in regular contact with the authorities in Belgrade about the situation of the Kosovo Albanians held in Serbia. We remain in close touch with the ICRC. Several hundred of those detained last year have been released in recent months. We hope that all those still being held are either released or have their cases processed quickly. It is unacceptable that people should be detained without trial for so long.