Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 15 Dec 1998

Vol. 498 No. 4

Written Answers. - Kosovan Crisis.

Michael Ferris

Question:

39 Mr. Ferris asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will report on any EU initiative in ensuring the safe return of their homes of the thousands of citizens of Kosovo who have been forced to flee from their homes due to Serbian aggression. [27573/98]

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Andrews)

I propose to answer Questions Nos. 39 and 56 together.

The EU has played a very active role in addressing the question of Kosovo since the onset of the crisis. The meetings of the General Affairs Council, the most recent on 7 December, have concentrated in particular on the Union's operational input and how it could be enhanced through further initiatives.

I remain very concerned about the plight of refugees and displaced persons in Kosovo. This concern is shared fully by my EU colleagues and we have addressed this question in detail at all of our recent meetings. The combined contribution of EU member states and the Commission to humanitarian assistance already this year has amounted to 44 million ECUS. Ireland has already contributed £200,000 bilaterally and further assistance on the basis of actual need will be considered.

As the crisis intensified in Kosovo over the summer it was the European Community Monitoring Mission, ECMM, which initially had the sole international presence on the ground.

ECMM provided the core and most of the personnel and material resources for the Kosovo Diplomatic Monitor Mission, KDOM, which was subsequently established, with the addition of US and Russian personnel, to enable wider monitoring. The KDOM is still fully operational.

Now that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, has been entrusted with the task of establishing its Kosovo Verification Mission, on foot of the Holbrooke-Milosevic agreements and a UN Security Council Resolution, it will subsume the KDOM into its work as soon as it becomes fully operational. This is expected to happen in the next week or so.

The Kosovo Verification Missison will entail the deployment of two thousand persons on the ground to verify that the demands of UN Security Council Resolutions are being complied with. One such demand is to allow the safe return of refugees and displaced persons, and to put in place the necessary conditions for this to happen. The large-scale presence of the mission will endeavour to provide the local population with the necessary reassurance.

At last week's meeting of the General Affairs Council, it was established that combined contribution to the Kosovo Verification Mission will be 1,100 out of the overall total of 2,000 verifiers, and that our combined national contributions to the OSCE's common budget will amount to 66 per cent of the total. Ireland will be contributing up to 30 verifiers, as well as paying its assessed share of the common budget.

The General Affairs Council reviewed the situation and welcomed the fact that the considerable and flexible humanitarian assistance from the EU and its member states had already allowed refugees and displaced persons to begin returning to their homes; encouraged the Commission to continue responding flexibily and rapidly to emergency needs; noted that the EU would play a special role on reconstruction issues; noted the Commission's intention to organize an expert level meeting on overall damage assessment in early 1999; requested its competent bodies to ensure that the overall amount for reconstruction assistance in particular with regard to Kosovo meets the needs, and EU political priorities and urged the OSCE to present a detailed request for EU funding for demining to enable the competent bodies to examine it as soon as possible.

Demining will be necessary in several areas to provide a safe and secure environment for returnees.

Actual conditions on the ground in Kosovo will be crucial in order for these plans to be put fully into effect. It is therefore vital that progress be made towards a political solution, as required also by the Security Council Resolutions. As part of the effort to achieve this objective the EU appointed early in October a Special Envoy to work with the US Special Envoy on brokering an agreement between the Serb and Albanian sides. Such an agreement would then allow the sides to enter into direct negotiations. These intensive diplomatic efforts are continuing.

If progress is to be made which would lead to peace and reconciliation among the sides in Kosovo, then atrocities must be investigated and those responsible brought to justice. The UN Security Council in its Resolutions makes this quite clear and it expects co-operation with the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia as well as with other international investigators. The EU has established a forensic mission to carry out such investigations, and has prevailed with difficulty on the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to allow it to operate in Kosovo. The work of this mission will have the full support of the EU.