§ Lord BachMy right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Geoffrey Hoon) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
Last week saw a deterioration of the security situation in Kosovo. Violence broke out between ethnic Serbs and Albanians in Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, which subsequently spread to other ethnic Serb populated areas in Kosovo. The violence has resulted in deaths within both communities, as well as hundreds injured, including some KFOR troops. The situation in Kosovo, although still tense, now appears calmer.
The troops already in Kosovo were heavily committed in dealing with the situation. Commander KFOR therefore took the decision to authorise the deployment of his in-theatre tactical reserves to assist with the situation. NATO also issued instructions to reinforce KFOR with additional SFOR troops from Bosnia, including a UK company of 1st Royal Gurkha Rifles, a US company and a company from the Italian Multinational Support Unit (Carabineri).
In the early hours of Thursday 18 March. NATO called upon the Operational Reserve Force (ORF) Ready Battalion. The ready battalion role is one that the UK has responsibility for during the first six months of 2004. This means that, as part of our overall commitment to the Balkans, the UK provides NATO with a battalion that could, in circumstances such as these, be rapidly deployed into either Bosnia or Kosovo. The lead elements of the ORF, totalling approximately 150 men and 12 Land Rovers, departed from RAF Brize Norton on Thursday afternoon and landed in Kosovo late that evening. The vast majority of the ORF battalion of around 660 men has now deployed. 1st Battalion The Royal Gloucestershire Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment are providing the core of the battalion group. There are now around 1,100 UK Armed Forces personnel deployed in Kosovo.
The purpose of this deployment is to restore calm to the province and prevent unrest spreading to areas outside Kosovo—the type of task for which the Operational Reserve was designed. UK troops will conduct routine patrolling, the guarding of sites (such as the UN mission) and public order duties, as tasked by Commander KFOR.
Further to the deployment of the UK battalion, NATO has requested that an element of the NATO Strategic Reserve Force, provided by a French battalion, also be deployed to Kosovo. NATO has also requested the deployment of the three standby battalions that make up the full Operational Reserve Force. These battalions are provided by the US, Germany and Italy. The German battalion has been deployed to Skopje, Macedonia, in the first instance.
It is for NATO to determine how long reserves will be required, but in terms of an initial estimate, and with the situation changing, we believe a sensible course of action is to initially plan for a deployment period of approximately 30 days.