Statement Of Jewish Leader, Cedomir Prlincevic In Kosovo

EDM number 145 in 1999-00, proposed by Alice Mahon on 06/12/1999.

That this House is alarmed by the statement of Cedomir Prlincevic, the ethnically cleansed leader of the Jewish community of Pristina, Kosovo, that 'the Serbs and Roma of Orahovac are imprisoned in a new Warsaw Ghetto'; is deeply distressed to learn that only 3,000 Serbs and Roma of the 12,000 who lived in Orahovac, south-west Kosovo, remain since the deployment of KFor, that they are living as virtual prisoners - without food, water or electricity in their part of town and unable to leave for fear of attacks from KLA extremists - that they are totally reliant on international and Serbian humanitarian organisations to bring food and water to them, for which they sometimes have to wait for days, that babies were born this summer in basements with no electricity or water, and that they fear that they will be unable to survive the winter in these circumstances and wish to be escorted out of the province; is horrified that KFor has prevented Serb and Roma civilians from leaving Orahovac, including women and children, on the grounds that there could be suspected war criminals among them; believes that this breaks the mandate of KFor to protect all ethnic groups; demands that the basic human rights of the Orahovac Serbs and Roma are respected; and calls on the British Government to do all in its power to help right this wrong that is being done to them.

This motion has been signed by a total of 21 MPs, 2 of these signatures have been withdrawn.