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Kosovan Refugees
15. Mr. Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne): How many Kosovan refugees are currently being accommodated in (i) the United Kingdom, (ii) East Sussex and (iii) Eastbourne. [85579]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (
Mr. Mike O'Brien): So far, 3,773 Kosovan evacuees have been airlifted to Britain under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees programme. Most of them have been housed in the midlands, the north of England and Scotland. However, 12,360 nationals of the former Yugoslavia have applied for asylum in the United Kingdom since 1996. We cannot identify the precise number living in East Sussex or Eastbourne without examining individual cases.
Mr. Waterson: Despite the fact that the Minister cannot give me the current figures, can he project how many of these refugees will eventually be housed in East Sussex and in my constituency? Will he give the House an assurance that there will be the closest and most detailed consultation between central Government and local government to ensure that the arrangements are proper, efficiently handled and put no undue extra burden on overstretched services in particular areas?
Mr. O'Brien: The hon. Gentleman makes a reasonable request. We shall endeavour to ensure that there is full consultation with the local authorities and that they are given as much information as possible about the numbers that they should expect in their area. We shall try to ensure that the arrangements for meeting any additional costs are arrived at after full and proper consultation.
Fiona Mactaggart (Slough): The Kosovan refugees have largely been accepted into hostels and settlement centres. Will my hon. Friend the Minister consider whether that approach might be appropriate for other groups of refugees if it is successful? Will he assure the House that the research unit in the Home Office will look carefully at the consequences of new decisions on support systems so that we learn the lessons of new arrangements for supporting refugees?
Mr. O'Brien: My hon. Friend asks two reasonable questions. I hope that I can give a positive response on both. The voluntary sector's use of reception centres for the Kosovans has been successful. We are looking closely at the lessons to be learned from that. We want to be sure that we get it right when we introduce new systems. We can learn a lot from our experience with the Kosovans. We want to ensure that research into support mechanisms is done effectively and that we learn lessons from it.
Closed Circuit Television
16. Mr. Tony McNulty (Harrow, East): What research his Department has commissioned about the effects of CCTV on crime levels. [85580]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Mike O'Brien): Research by the Home Office police research group has shown that closed circuit television reduces crime and, importantly, the fear of crime, particularly when it is deployed as part of a wider crime reduction strategy. We shall assess the effectiveness of schemes that received funding under the CCTV challenge competition as the information becomes available.
Mr. McNulty: I thank my hon. Friend for that answer and congratulate the councils of all parties across the
country which have successfully implemented CCTV. I should like assurances on two points. First, should not all subsequent bids be rooted in an understanding of local crime and disorder audits and strategies? Secondly, some independent research has been carried out on dispersal, but far more is needed so that we can be assured that the intuitive view that CCTV simply disperses crime elsewhere is not right.
Mr. O'Brien: I can assure my hon. Friend on both points. We want to ensure that any application for CCTV funding is rooted firmly in the local crime and disorder audits. We also want to ensure that displacement of crime is studied properly. A study commissioned by the Scottish Office of the CCTV system in Airdrie found that there was no evidence of displacement and that there was a genuine reduction in crime as a result of CCTV. We want to build on that, but my hon. Friend is right to say that we need to ensure that research is done on an even broader basis.
Mr. Edward Garnier (Harborough): During the assessment that the Minister mentioned, will he make a comparison between the situation in Market Harborough and that in the borough of Oadby and Wigston, both of which are in my constituency? CCTV was introduced in Market Harborough under the Conservative Government, but the Liberal Democrat borough council in Oadby and Wigston has refused to apply to the Home Office for funding under the previous Government and under this Government. Will he make a point of comparing levels of crime in the two areas so that the benefits can be made clear to the feckless Liberal Democrat council in my constituency?
Mr. O'Brien: That might be an interesting comparison, but the hon. and learned Gentleman should know that when we came to office, there was only £1 million left in the budget for CCTV. We have introduced a £170 million CCTV initiative that involves £150 million for England and Wales, £13 million for Scotland, £4 million for Northern Ireland and £3 million for Wales. That money is tied into a £250 million crime reduction package. We are investing in reducing crime, whereas the previous Government merely talked about it.
WPC Fletcher
17. Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow): If he will make a statement on the progress made in the inquiry relating to the murder of WPC Fletcher. [85581]
The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Jack Straw): The Metropolitan police have recently completed the report of their review of the evidence surrounding WPC Fletcher's murder and of the allegations made in the "Dispatches" programmes, and I understand that no evidence or intelligence was found to corroborate those allegations. Instead, the review has supported the findings of the original investigation that WPC Fletcher was killed by a bullet fired from the first floor of the Libyan People's Bureau.
Mr. Dalyell: I thank my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary for his sustained personal interest in the matter and for his letter of 3 June. Will the criminal investigation in conjunction with the Libyan authorities take a long time? What is the hoped-for time scale?
Mr. Straw: First, I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his remarks, but I wish to thank him in return for his great
forbearance because the investigation by the Metropolitan police took much longer than anybody anticipated. As I said to him in my letter, that is at least testament to the thoroughness with which the review was conducted. I cannot give my hon. Friend a precise answer to his second question, but I am happy to write to him and, as I said in my letter of 3 June, to meet him to brief him in more detail about the nature of the review.Kosovo
3.31 pm
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Robin Cook): With permission, Madam Speaker, I will make a statement on recent developments on Kosovo.
Today is the fifth day since the entry into force of the military agreement. I can report to the House that Serb forces are leaving Kosovo broadly in line with the phased withdrawal set out in that agreement. Meanwhile, NATO forces have entered much of southern and central Kosovo and are ahead of the planned timetable for their deployment. A quarter of all troops so far deployed are from the United Kingdom--the largest single national contingent. The whole House will wish to congratulate our troops on the professionalism with which they have deployed so quickly and efficiently.
Members of the House will have seen pictures of the spontaneous welcome the troops have received from Kosovo Albanians wherever they have gone. The warmth with which those Albanians have expressed their joy at our arrival speaks volumes for the brutality and the terror from which our campaign has liberated them. For the past two months they have seen their neighbours massacred, their young relatives raped and their homes burnt. Now, they can see a future in which none of those crimes can return to haunt Kosovo.
The presence of the Russian troops around the airport has not interfered with the deployment of NATO forces. Our forces are entering as planned from Macedonia. It is important to keep a sense of perspective on the numbers involved; there are only a couple of hundred Russian troops in Kosovo, compared with 14,000 NATO troops today.
General Jackson this morning had a business like meeting with General Zavarzin, the commander of the Russian troops at Pristina airport. He has just reported that he hopes that agreement can be reached on assimilating the Russian troops into KFOR. Nevertheless, it was plainly unsatisfactory that Russian troops should have entered without co-ordination. Yesterday, I spoke at length to Igor Ivanov, the Russian Foreign Minister, and we agreed that there should be no more surprise moves. He gave an undertaking that Russia would not deploy any further troops without prior agreement. Earlier undertakings about Russian deployments have not all been respected. It is crucial that this undertaking should be fully respected.
Negotiations, led by the United States, continue over how Russia's contribution to KFOR can be integrated into the overall operation. Those have been protracted negotiations. On the Russian side, its military have sought a sector of their own. On our side, we have insisted that any outcome must meet the terms of the peace plan for a single operation with a unified chain of command. There is no provision anywhere in the peace plan for partition of Kosovo.
Several non-NATO countries will contribute to forces in Kosovo. I have always made it clear that we would welcome Russia also working with us as partners in the peacekeeping force, but it must be as part of a single, integrated operation, not as an independent force. That reflects our commitment to liberating the whole, not part of Kosovo.
We now face a major challenge in helping Kosovo to recover from the atrocities of the past year. There are four immediate priorities. First, we must ensure that there is security and safety for all the people of Kosovo, whether Albanian, Serb or from any other ethnic group. KFOR will be alert and robust in ensuring that all Serb forces withdraw from Kosovo within the agreed timetable, which should be completed over the next week. KFOR will also be responsible for the demilitarisation of the Kosovo Liberation Army. I spoke last night to Hashem Thaqi, the leader of the KLA, and stressed that we expect restraint from the KLA as the Serb forces withdraw, and co-operation in our efforts to end all violence in Kosovo.
Secondly, we must provide urgent relief to the hundreds of thousands of displaced persons who have spent the past two months hiding from Serb forces on the hillsides and in the forests of Kosovo. A convoy with much British support delivered humanitarian supplies to Pristina yesterday on behalf of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and is reloading today in Macedonia.
Thirdly, we must manage the return of the masses of refugees who were deported as part of Milosevic's failed plan for the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo. We should not be too glib about refugees returning to their homes. Many of those homes have been blown up or burnt down by Serb aggression. We face a major task in helping the bulk of the refugees to rebuild their homes before the Balkan winter sets in. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development has today announced a further £50 million for humanitarian relief, on top of the £40 million already provided.
Fourthly, we must record the evidence of the war crimes that have been committed in Kosovo to enforce its ethnic cleansing. There has already been the horrific discovery of a mass grave containing a large number of villagers massacred at Kacanik. We have already started the deployment of a British police team to Macedonia, in order that the International War Crimes Tribunal can draw on its forensic skill and experience in exhuming victims of atrocities and identifying the cause of death. Although we have brought peace to Kosovo, its people will not live at peace with themselves unless we bring to justice those responsible for such atrocities.
For the immediate future, responsibility for the government of Kosovo will be in the hands of an international civil administration, which will be led by the United Nations but will draw on the contributions of the European Union, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the UNHCR. It will be charged with rebuilding the physical infrastructure of Kosovo, regenerating its economy and supervising free elections to new political institutions. Over a period it will transfer its powers to the local people, in line with our goal of democratic self-government for Kosovo.
From the start of the conflict, the Government have stressed that we want it to be a turning point for the whole region. All Serbia's many neighbours have shown total solidarity with the NATO campaign. We must not now forget the courage and commitment that those Governments showed in aligning themselves with us.
On Thursday I attended the launch of the stability pact, a forum bringing together the countries of the region with the European Union, the United States, Russia and other key international players. I pledged that, for our part,
Britain would be their partner in helping to accelerate their integration into the modern Europe. To do that we must open up the wealthy markets of the European Union so that those countries can share in our prosperity through increased trade. We must invest in developing their democratic institutions, civic society and open media in order that they can share in our standards of freedom.
We hope that one day the people of Serbia will also be able to share in the benefits from the stability pact, but first it will be necessary for the Government in Belgrade to renounce the policies of Milosevic, which have brought so much violence to their neighbours and so much poverty to themselves. We cannot embrace Serbia in the modern Europe until Serbia embraces our values of belief in the equality of all citizens, irrespective of ethnic identity, and respect for the rights of minorities.
There would have been no turning point for the countries of the region if the international community had not demonstrated that we would not tolerate the brutality and the ethnic cleansing that Milosevic visited on Kosovo. The revulsion around the world at the expulsion of the Albanians from Kosovo is confirmed in the text of the Security Council resolution, which was drafted by the G8 Foreign Ministers over 12 hours of negotiation last week.
The resolution condemns the violence against the people of Kosovo and demands full co-operation with the International War Crimes Tribunal. It meets all our key objectives: the withdrawal of all Serb forces, the deployment of an international military force with a unified command and the return, without hindrance, of all refugees.
There is much hard work still to be done before we have created a Kosovo that will give its people the opportunity to earn their living in peace. The time to celebrate will be when we have settled all refugees in their homes.
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