Madam Speaker, with your permission I will make a statement on Kosovo.

As I speak, it is still unclear what the outcome of Mr Holbrooke’s talks in Belgrade will be, but there is little cause to be optimistic. On the assumption that they produce no change in President Milosevic’s position and that the fighting between the KLA and Serb forces continues, Britain stands ready with its NATO allies to take military action on behalf of the KLA.

We do so for very clear reasons. We do so primarily to escalate what would otherwise be a serious conflict into a humanitarian disaster in both Kosovo and the rest of Yugoslavia.

We act because we know from experience throughout this century, most recently in Croatia and Bosnia, that instability and civil war can easily be created by backing separatist movements. In the ensuing turmoil it is easy for the United States, or Germany, or other Western powers to pose as peacekeepers, and move in to exploit the country, buying up or taking over prize economic assets at give-away prices.

In Kosovo we have shown our contempt for democracy and peaceful negotiation by deliberately sidelining the Kosovo Albanian leader, Ibrahim Rugova, who has the overwhelming support of his people. For many years he has been seeking a peaceful resolution to their disagreements with the Yugoslav government. We reject this approach.

We have been backing a terrorist organisation, the KLA, which has no democratic support and which has carried out numerous kidnappings, and murders of Serb civilians, police, and soldiers in a campaign to provoke the Serb authorities into violent counter measures. The aim of this has been to present the Kosovo Albanians to the world media as victims, and to present the Serbs as ruthless aggressors - not that we have the slightest affection for, or commitment to, either side. Our interest is simply control and exploitation.

Sometimes Serb forces have shown restraint and hesitated to respond to attacks and murders, but often their use of force in countering KLA violence might be described as excessive. As a result of the conflict we have helped to encourage we have convinced public opinion that the Yugoslav Government is not worthy to continue to control its Kosovo province and that drastic action must be taken.

Through talks at Rambouillet we have tried to install in Kosovo a free-market economy and a military dictatorship under our control whilst pretending to be seeking a genuine peaceful resolution to a conflict which we have succeeded in blaming on the Yugoslav side. We now propose to bomb Yugoslavia until it agrees to the military and economic takeover of Kosovo by NATO.

An unfortunate side-effect of our action to take over Kosovo is that, even now, the Yugoslav army is moving into the province to assert its control over as much territory as possible, making itself ready to resist NATO ground forces which we are presently assembling in Macedonia. In order for its control to be secure it will have to drive out Albanians from the areas which Serbs have inhabited for six hundred years. In place of limited responses to KLA attacks there will be an all-out war against the KLA, and inevitably, there will be refugees fleeing from the fighting. Already, we believe 50,000 people have left their homes. As soon as we start to bomb Kosovo we may expect the flood of refugees to increase dramatically. Of course, we support the ethnic cleansing of Serbs and other minorities by the KLA and will not use NATO troops to prevent this from happening. Indeed, it will simplify the administration of Kosovo to have a mono-ethnic community.

We take our action in outright defiance of the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter, the NATO treaty, and international law. This will be the first NATO war in its nearly 50 years of existence. It will be a war, not of self-defence, but of aggression.

I say this to the British people: there is a heavy responsibility on a government, when putting their armed forces into battle, to justify such action. I warn that the potential consequences of military action are serious. There will be danger, pollution, bloodshed, death, and destruction.

Thankfully there will be no physical risk to the British people, although there will be some moral and economic penalties. The unenviable task of the British people will be to keep quiet and pay the increased taxes.

Amongst the weapons we will use will be a triumph of British engineering skills, cluster bombs. These are, in effect, land mines dropped from the air. If we used to the term land mines then, of course, they would be illegal under international law. However, they are an advance on landmines because of their increased power. They explode with such a force that fragments of metal can penetrate armour plating, five inches of steel. We will scatter many thousands of them around Yugoslavia.

Also, as evidence of the seriousness of our humanitarian concern, we shall use cruise missiles at a cost of £800,000 each.

Most of the bombing will be aimed at the civilian infrastructure of Yugoslavia. A substantial part of their industry, power supplies, road and rail bridges will be destroyed and there will be immense pollution. After eight years of crippling sanctions the bombing will just about finish off the economy of Yugoslavia. Of course, we shall not accept the blame for this ourselves because we can easily explain that the economic failure of Yugoslavia is due to the economic incompetence of Mr Milosevic. There will be such economic ruin that Yugoslavia will be desperate for western companies to take over their prime assets.

Sadly, tens of thousands will immediately be thrown out of work by the bombing. Schools, homes, and hospitals may be hit accidentally. Thousands may be killed, accidentally, and many more may die as a result of the destruction of basic services and pollution. Accidentally.

With a deep sense of regret I tell you that all this will happen to one of the poorest countries in Europe, whilst we ourselves can be confident that the people of Yugoslavia will not be able to hurt us or to resist our overwhelming military superiority. The role of the people of Yugoslavia will be simply to suffer the death, terror and destruction until they can resist our demands no longer.

I ask for the support of Parliament and the country in this noble cause.

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