London - The first UK aid plane left its air base in Kent for Albania yesterday to help ease the plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing Serbian forces in Kosovo, reports Rachel Donnelly.
The International Development Secretary, Ms Clare Short, announced the departure of the flight at the daily Ministry of Defence press briefing in London as part of a co-ordinated international effort to distribute aid to some 150,000 ethnic Albanians flooding into Albania.
With confirmation that four of the extra eight Tornado GR1 bombers pledged by Britain to NATO were now operational, the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, speaking in Belfast, said air strikes against Yugoslav forces would be intensified as reports of "unimaginable suffering and barbarism" emerged.
"This is happening on our doorstep and we simply cannot stand by and let it happen. Do not let anybody tell you that the air strikes are causing the exodus. It is the programme of ethnic cleansing that is causing the exodus and NATO action is the only way to stop that programme."
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Paddy Ashdown, has written to Mr Blair asking him to begin planning for the use of ground troops in Yugoslavia. In his letter, Mr Ashdown urged him not to exclude the possibility "and secondly, to start planning, even if only on a contingency basis".