25th Anniversary of the NATO Response to the Humanitarian Crisis in Kosovo: UK statement to the OSCE, March 2024
On the 25th anniversary of the NATO response to the humanitarian crisis in Kosovo, Deputy Ambassador Deirdre Brown underlines the UK's commitment to build forward-looking partnerships with Kosovo, Serbia and other countries across the Western Balkans.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
As we have previously stated, the conflicts of the 1990s that accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia were a very dark time for our continent. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives, and many times that number were displaced from their homes and suffered loss or injury.
The NATO Secretary General has made clear that the NATO-led campaign in 1999 was never against the Serbian people. It was to bring to an end the large-scale human rights abuses carried out by the Milosevic regime in Kosovo, with direct implications for regional and European security. The campaign followed more than a year of intense efforts by the UN and the Contact Group, and was a last resort in response to mass killings and a humanitarian crisis. The OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission, established by this Council in October 1998, played a key role in establishing, objectively, the situation on the ground.
After years of conflict and violence, the intervention brought an end to hostilities, re-opening prospects for communities to build a positive future together. The Kosovo of 2024 is unrecognisable from that of 1999, and we are proud of the UK’s role in supporting its progress. Like other NATO partners, the UK is working to build forward-looking partnerships with Serbia, Kosovo and other countries across the Western Balkans. We encourage all states in the region to abide by their 2018 Joint Declarations to cooperate on Good Neighbourly Relations, Missing Persons and tackling War Crimes, made in the framework of the Berlin Process. Recent events have shown that, even today, normalisation and reconciliation remain elusive. We call on the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo to implement their commitments to normalise relations between their two countries, and to deliver the peaceful, stable and prosperous future that their citizens deserve.