Select Committee on Foreign Affairs Minutes of Evidence


Examination of Witnesses (Questions 120 - 125)

THURSDAY 18 NOVEMBER 1999

MR EMYR JONES PARRY, SIR JOHN GOULDEN, AND MR BRIAN DONNELLY

Sir David Madel

  120. I think it did in The Sunday Times. Forgive me interrupting. You mentioned a German newspaper but I think it appeared in The Sunday Times as well.
  (Mr Jones Parry) The original came from Germany.

Chairman

  121. Some claim that the actual scale of the exodus was planned in advance, the fact that the trains were available, the lorries and so on. Is it the assumption that that logistical basis for the cleansing had been well planned in advance?
  (Mr Jones Parry) Precisely because we were not aware of it, we have little detail even with hindsight of what transpired to lead them exactly to do it. By definition we were not that close to the centres of decision-making and Brian Donnelly has explained how these things are arrived at. The answer is we do not know.

  122. Was that a massive failure of Western intelligence?
  (Mr Jones Parry) I think in aggregate we receive lots of information, some of it very helpful, but Western intelligence itself in a time of conflict is inhibited by the conditions on the ground.

  123. Before the conflict.
  (Mr Jones Parry) I know nothing to predate the first newspaper report to suggest it was there and we should have known.

Sir Peter Emery

  124. Chairman, I wonder whether we might ask Mr Parry whether he would consider the possibility of putting together a small document for us which might be only for the Committee, he may wish to restrict it because of high information and so on and so forth. I think it would be very helpful and we could save embarrassment at this moment if something could be put together for the Committee.
  (Mr Jones Parry) I am very happy, Mr Chairman, to look at that.

Chairman

  125. It was quite clear that the scale of humanitarian disaster was not anticipated by ourselves or our allies.
  (Mr Jones Parry) I explained earlier, Mr Chairman, why on the basis of what had happened before and on the basis of what one might rationally expect that an action at the end of the 1990s of that sort was something that we had no reason to believe would happen.

  Chairman: That is a sad and sobering thought. Can I thank you very much, gentlemen, on behalf of the Committee and stress that the debate will continue.





 
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