House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 1997, with 56% of the vote.
Kosovo April 15th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, I spoke this morning with Kofi Annan on the peace proposal. Our discussions included the importance of a negotiating process.
There is no agreement at the moment. A group has put forward ideas. It is very important to develop a negotiating process. It is still too early to ask the House of Commons to express its view. When agreement has been reached, I would like an expression of support from the House of Commons, but at the same time—
Kosovo April 15th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, I do not know where the hon. member gets his assessment. My sense of it is that there is a very active interest in trying to see how we can gain agreement. That is the essential ploy. There is no point in getting a resolution from the United Nations, whether it is the security council or the general assembly, if there is not agreement by the parties to the dispute to abide by it. We are trying to get that agreement. The essential diplomatic task is to get the Yugoslav government, Milosevic, to agree to withdraw his troops, to stop persecuting his people and to find some international force to make sure that implementation can be properly monitored. That is the issue. Get the agreement.
Kosovo April 15th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has it wrong. I do not think anything has stalled. I think the proposal has now been made public. As I said, there is a series of discussions going on. The Prime Minister indicated his engagement with leaders of other governments. I am engaged in discussions with my counterparts. We also have discussed this with the Secretary General of the United Nations, and the five basic principles he put forward are encompassed in this plan.
As I said to the hon. member's leader yesterday, let us give this particular proposition a chance to work. Let us give it a chance to see where it goes and then we will determine what the next course will be. We are actively engaged to see if we can find a solution.
Kosovo April 15th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, the statements made by the hon. member are false.
What I did say was that, last weekend, there was a meeting of senior G-8 staff. A discussion was held at that time, along with an examination of the possibility of proposing a peace agreement. Leaders of governments, ministers of governments, are holding discussions, but there is no specific agreement. A group has presented some ideas.
Kosovo April 15th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, at the NATO briefings this morning the pilot who was involved in this tragic incident described what happened.
He saw a number of villages being set on fire and destroyed. They reacted to that. A convoy with military vehicles was perceived to be responsible and they attacked it to try to stop the destruction. Unfortunately, those military vehicles also contained refugees.
It is a very regrettable accident and NATO authorities are putting in place measures to make sure it does not happen again.
Kosovo April 15th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, one of the great handicaps in this whole conflict is that the media is totally controlled by state authorities in Serbia. They do not allow any form of communication other than the ones which they dictate. Therefore, it is very difficult to get any independent evaluation. We are in a democracy and we have a wide variety of opinions being expressed.
In the meantime, I think there are very active presentations being made by Radio for Europe and by Voice of America to try to communicate the interests of NATO in finding a peaceful solution. We will get that information through to the Serbian people as much as we can.
Kosovo April 15th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, as the Prime Minister just indicated, on the weekend there was a meeting of G-8 senior officials in which a series of proposals were examined. They emerged, as the member calls it, with the German proposal.
What we are now doing is engaging in a series of discussions among ministers and among capitals to see how we can arrive at an agreement on those proposals. It is one thing to have proposals, the other thing is to get agreement on them.
I had a discussion with the Russian foreign minister this morning to determine how those proposals could be conveyed and communicated to the Serb authorities and to determine whether in fact they are prepared to accept them. That discussion is ongoing and I hope we will have some positive results. In the meantime, we will continue to work actively to secure those results.
Kosovo April 14th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, Canada did participate in the meeting of G-8 senior officials on the weekend. The proposal put forward by Germany was discussed. It was looked at, elaborated on and examined very carefully. We were certainly part of that process.
If there is to be a meeting of G-8 leaders then of course we would be there. We would be there in a very supportive fashion because we think this particular proposal which we have all worked on does have some chance of success if we can get Russia's agreement on it.
Kosovo April 14th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, indeed there has been a number of reports of very serious crimes against humanity and violations against women by the Serb forces.
What is happening is that the investigators of the international tribunal headed by Justice Arbour are now investigating them. At the NATO meetings on Monday we agreed that we would give all possible information.
In fact there are Canadians, specifically from the RCMP, involved right now in taking evidence as part of that transfer of information so that the prosecution of any war criminals can take place.
Kosovo April 14th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, there is a very curious undertone to the member's question that somehow Canada was responsible for the violence, the persecution and the repression. It is Mr. Milosevic who is doing that. It is not Canada that is doing that. We are using all our resources not only to try to stop that repression from continuing but also to try to find a diplomatic solution.
We will continue to do them at the same time in a parallel fashion. What I am saying right now is that the most likely prospect we have at the moment is the one we have been discussing over the last three or four days. We hope it can bear fruition.
In the world of diplomacy we are never sure but we will continue to activate that. If it does not work we will look at other options at the United Nations, including the uniting for peace resolution.