EXTENSION OF TRAINERS AT JORDAN INTERNATIONAL

UNCLAS VIENNA 001439

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR INL/PC (INGALLS) NEA/I, EUR/PGI, AND EUR/AGS

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: KCRM KJUS MARR MCAP PGOV PINR PINS PTER SNAR SOCI AU
SUBJECT: EXTENSION OF TRAINERS AT JORDAN INTERNATIONAL

POLICE TRAINING CENTER: AUSTRIAN RESPONSE

REF: STATE 72189

This message is sensitive but unclassified.


1. (SBU) Political-Economic Counselor and Pol Unit Chief

delivered reftel demarche on April 28 to the Bilateral

Affairs Director at the Interior Ministry (MoI),Brigadier

General Kurt Hager. Hager noted that any foreign deployment,

including to the Amman police academy, required a Council of

Ministers (Cabinet) decision and a subsequent positive vote

in Parliament's Standing Committee (Hauptausschuss). The

previous extension of Austria's commitment to the police

academy (until the end of calendar year 2005) had occurred in

November 2005. The rotation principle is the same for police

instructors at the academy in Amman as for other Austrian

foreign deployments, Hager explained. The head of the

four-person Austrian team, for example, had rotated out after

one year.


2. (SBU) Hager pointed out that there were EU initiatives

underway to provide training in Europe and/or the UAE,

including a program that Germany might organize for police

managers. Austria would feel an obligation, in the spirit of

European solidarity, to contribute to these programs as well,

he said. This might pose a barrier to expanding Austria's

contingent of four trainers, since qualified personnel were

limited in number.


3. (SBU) When we asked whether it would help if we also

presented our case to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hager

reminded us that the impetus for this mission had come from

MoI. Further, he added, his Ministry controls both the human

and the financial resources for these deployments. In his

opinion, opening a second channel to MFA would probably only

complicate the issue, delaying an official Austrian response.

Hager said he would refer the matter to the head of the

International Affairs Section and the Office for Foreign

Deployments in the operational section of the Ministry

(Directorate General for Public Security). Hager promised to

keep us abreast of his progress in securing the extension.

Minimize considered.

Brown