Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-17-Speech-4-165"
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"en.20000217.8.4-165"2
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"Mr President, what is happening in Mitrovica in Kosovo is appalling and reprehensible. Violence begets violence, and revenge begets revenge. The police forces which have been sent out do not have the manpower to stop what is going on. The Chief Commissioner of Police, Svend Frederiksen, has expressed his desperation at the fact that he constantly has to make do with less than half the manpower which was agreed. He has fewer than 2 000 officers, and it was agreed that there should be nearly 5 000. The police force should be large enough for it to be a visible presence, so that people can believe that it is in a position to stop atrocities. It should also be large enough to be able to clear up crimes and punish those who are guilty of them. Otherwise, there is a danger of people taking the law into their own hands. It is therefore also important that local officers should be trained, and the idea was, in fact, that 2 000 to 3 000 officers should be trained. However, there are still fewer than 200 trained police officers to contribute to clearing up crime. A year ago, we did of course see what happens when agreements and resolutions which have been made are not followed up. I was in Kosovo on 27 October 1998 when the Serbs withdrew. The agreement was that 1 800 OSCE observers should arrive to guarantee the peace. After a month, however, there was still only a handful of observers. By Christmas, there were perhaps 100 and, by the spring, still only a fraction of the force it had been agreed should come was, in fact, in place. Atrocities were not even being recorded. Then the war came, and the observers were withdrawn. I would therefore ask the Commissioner: can you not in fact do anything to stop us repeating our follies here in Europe? Can you not guarantee increasing the police presence to 5 000 officers and training local officers, who would naturally find it easier to clear up crimes than would officers from abroad? I might also ask: when do you anticipate that they will be in place? And when is more responsibility to be transferred to local democratic authorities? I mention this last issue because it is the solution we should be embracing as quickly as possible if peace is to have any chance at all."@en1
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