“Let me give the House an indication of the scale of what is happening:
A quarter of a million Kosovars–more than 10 per cent of the population–are now homeless as a result of repression by Serb forces; 65,000 people have been forced from their homes in the past month, and no fewer than 25,000 in the four days since the peace talks broke down; and only yesterday, 5,000 people in the Srbica area were forcibly evicted from their villages.
Much of the Drenica region of northern Kosovo is being cleared of ethnic Albanians. Every single village that the observers of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees could see yesterday in the Glogovac and Srbica region was on fire. Families are being uprooted and driven from their homes.
There are reports of masked irregulars separating out the men: we do not know what their fate will be, but the House will recall that at Srebrenica, men were killed. Since last summer, 2000 people have died. Without the international verification force, there is no doubt that the numbers would have been vastly higher. (1)
UN has been important in relation to Kosovo. It has passed important Security Council resolutions. Let me read them to my right hon. Friend. The last one, Security Council resolution 1199, demanded that Serbs cease all actions by their security forces against the civilian population, and demanded that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Government order the withdrawal of security units used for civilian repression. A further resolution in October last year, UNSCR 1203, reiterated the previous one and endorsed the agreements between Holbrooke and Milosevic, including the verification missions. Milosevic has been in breach of every single part of those UN resolutions.” (2)
[Our comments
1. Very soon after the end of the Kosovo war, UN officials completely dismissed the charge that Serbian forces had forcibly ejected Kosovo Albanians from their homes after the Rambouillet negotiations broke down. They made it plain that the mass movement of Kosovo Albanians did not begin until the Nato bombing began on 26 March 1999. The Serbs were not involved.
2. Unlike the KLA, the Serbs complied with the all the Security Council resolutions. The UN did nothing when the KLA immediately re-occupied territory recaptured by the Serbs before the internationally imposed ceasefire.]