To the House of Commons on Kosovo Peace Agreement

This is a great day for the values we have been fighting for in the world. This is a great day for the stability and security of Europe. This is a great day for Canada. I want to thank the Canadian military and especially our pilots who risked so much to ensure our objectives were met. I also wish to pay tribute to Canadian diplomatic efforts to bring this conflict to a just conclusion.

This House always recognized that Canada had to be on the side of justice, freedom and human rights in the Balkans. There was strong support for our action against the crimes perpetrated in Kosovo. I thank the members of this House and all the Canadians who supported our action in these difficult times.

And to those who opposed the NATO air campaign, I want to say that I share their dislike for offensive military action. We did not engage in this action lightly. While we were working for Peace, President Milosevic was building up his forces and planning to impose the rule of terror in Kosovo.

After all our efforts for peace failed, we knew the only option left was military action. The other option would have been to stand by while a whole population was terrorized and expelled from its ancestral land.

Our NATO partners knew that they could count on Canada, as they did every time European democracies have resisted the brutal force of tyranny throughout this century. During 78 days, our brave Canadian pilots risked their lives to accomplish their duty in the name of Canadian values.

And our efforts were not limited to military action. Canada played a central role in the diplomatic effort to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. Patiently, we worked through the G-8 and bilaterally to bring Russia to understand our action and to play a constructive role in dealing with the Yugoslav regime. In the end, Russia was a peace broker and this country deserves the gratitude of the international community.

At the request of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Canada welcomed over 5,000 refugees from Kosovo. Canadians demonstrated again that they spontaneously open their arms and their hearts to those who suffer. We made important contributions to the work of relief agencies assisting the refugees in countries neighbouring Kosovo: Albania and Macedonia.

Mr. Speaker, today is an important milestone in the search for a solution to the Kosovo crisis. But we are aware that a gigantic task remains ahead of us. First, let us have no illusion. While we are confident that the agreement between NATO and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the obligations set by the Security Council will be respected, we remain realistic. We have seen the Yugoslav regime betray its commitments many times before.

I call on the Yugoslav authorities to fully respect all the provisions of the Resolution. But until the last Yugoslav soldiers and policemen have left Kosovo, and until the international peacekeeping force is firmly in control, there remains a possibility that hostilities will return. Our most urgent task is to monitor the departure of the Yugoslav forces and to deploy the peacekeeping force with no delay.

Another key element of the peace plan and the UN Security Council resolution is the demilitarization of the Kosovo Liberation Army. We welcome the commitment of the Kosovo leadership to fulfill this obligation. And we call on the KLA and all Kosovars to cooperate fully with the peacekeeping force.

I am pleased to confirm that the Canadian KFOR contingent is on its way to Kosovo, and will be ready to move in within days. The challenges and risks that our peacekeepers will face will be real and we wish them god speed in their important work to secure and stabilize Kosovo.

Once the peacekeeping force is deployed in Kosovo, we will start to organize the return of refugees, build democratic institutions, work towards confidence and reconciliation and reconstruct the province. Canada will participate in this effort within international organizations such as the United Nations, the OSCE and the World Bank and through its own bilateral assistance program.

Mr. Speaker, there will be no sustainable peace in Kosovo, and elsewhere in the Former Yugoslavia, without justice. Canada has strongly argued for the provisions of the UN Security Council Resolution which facilitate the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The Tribunal's role will be indispensable in building confidence in a just settlement in Kosovo, one in which the perpetrators of crimes against humanity will be held accountable. Canada has supported the Tribunal's efforts in other parts of the former Yugoslavia and will continue to do so in Kosovo. Earlier this week, we already announced that we were contributing a team of forensic experts to assist the Tribunal's investigations there.

Mr. Speaker, this was not a war against the Serbian people. Canada remembers that for years Yugoslavia was a friend. We fought along with Yugoslavia, in the struggle against tyranny during two world wars. Our friendship with Yugoslavia has deep roots and could be revived easily. But this friendship did not extend and will never extend to a regime who adopted the thinking and the methods of the tyrants of the Europe of the 1930s.

We sincerely hope that Yugoslavia will soon be reintegrated in the community of democratic nations, sharing the values on which the Euro-Atlantic nations are based. We extend our hand to the Yugoslav people. We will be pleased to offer them assistance for the democratization, the economic reforms and the reconstruction of Yugoslavia.

But before this can happen, major changes will have to happen in that country. First and foremost, the leadership of Yugoslavia will have to change. Five of the leaders of the country, including President Milosevic, are indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. They are entitled to a fair trial and I hope that they will seize that occasion to defend themselves, paving the way for a new leadership to take the helm.

Mr. Speaker, the decision of the UN Security Council is a recognition of the human dimension of international peace and security. From Rwanda to Kosovo, there is mounting evidence that internal conflicts not only crush human security but also threaten to destabilize entire regions. We believe that humanitarian and human rights concerns are not just internal matters. Canada has fought for this issue to be given new weight in the international community, and in particular in the United Nations. We believe that the agreement reached today in the Council is an important step towards a broader definition of security by the international community.