Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06LJUBLJANA54
2006-01-25 07:44:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Ljubljana
Cable title:  

SLOVENIA: GOS AND ITF CONSIDER CIVILIAN ENGAGEMENT

Tags:  MARR MOPS PREF PHSA SI 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L LJUBLJANA 000054 

SIPDIS


DEPT FOR PM/WRA, EUR/NCE, EUR/RPM

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/24/2016
TAGS: MARR MOPS PREF PHSA SI
SUBJECT: SLOVENIA: GOS AND ITF CONSIDER CIVILIAN ENGAGEMENT
IN AFGHANISTAN


Classified By: Ambassador Thomas B. Robertson for Reasons 1.4 (B,D)

C O N F I D E N T I A L LJUBLJANA 000054

SIPDIS


DEPT FOR PM/WRA, EUR/NCE, EUR/RPM

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/24/2016
TAGS: MARR MOPS PREF PHSA SI
SUBJECT: SLOVENIA: GOS AND ITF CONSIDER CIVILIAN ENGAGEMENT
IN AFGHANISTAN


Classified By: Ambassador Thomas B. Robertson for Reasons 1.4 (B,D)


1. (C) SUMMARY: The GOS is currently exploring the idea of
sending civilian reconstruction personnel to Herat,
Afghanistan, where 29 members of the Slovenian Armed Forces
(SAF) are currently stationed as part of a Provincial
Reconstruction Team (PRT) within the ISAF mission. The
reconstruction options currently being considered include
educational infrastructure development, agricultural
projects, and the administration of humanitarian aid.
Separately, the Slovenia-based International Trust Fund for
Demining and Mine Victims Assistance (ITF) is gauging its
donors' support for getting involved with building local mine
action capacity in Afghanistan. END SUMMARY.

-------------- --------------
GOS Explores Civilian Reconstruction in Afghanistan
-------------- --------------


2. (C) During a January 18 meeting with EUR/NCE Deputy
Director and PolMiloff, MFA Security Policy Director
Stanislav Vidovic told us the GOS was exploring the option of
sending civilian reconstruction personnel to Afghanistan to
the PRT in Herat where SAF troops are currently deployed.
Echoing our MOD interlocutors, Vidovic said that Slovenia
would not increase its troop levels within ISAF; however, the
GOS was interested in providing civilian assistance to
Afghanistan in the area of educational infrastructure
development (building schools and other facilities),and in
agricultural development (drainage and irrigation). Vidovic
noted that the GOS would appoint a National Coordinator for
PRTs to take charge of the effort. Vidovic told us that the
idea of providing civilian reconstruction aid to Afghanistan
was strongly supported by Slovenian Permanent Representative
to NATO Matjaz Sinkovec. (NOTE: Sinkovec is purported to
have very close ties to Prime Minister Janez Jansa dating
from their involvement in the DEMOS movement for Slovenian
independence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. END NOTE).

-------------- ---
ITF to Consider Demining Options in Afghanistan
-------------- ---



3. (SBU) During a January 24 lunch with PolMiloff, ITF
Director Goran Gacnik and International Operations director
Roman Tursic discussed Tursic's November 2005 fact-finding
visit to Afghanistan and other potential ITF mine action
programs outside Southeastern Europe. Gacnik said he had
tasked the entire ITF staff with urgently strategizing a
ten-year plan of operations that would extend the ITF's
mandate beyond Southeastern Europe after its major operations
in the region were completed. (NOTE: USG "matching funds"
are specifically earmarked for ITF operations in Southeastern
Europe. However, actual demining activities in this region
-- vice mine victims assistance -- are due to be completed
around 2010-2012.
END NOTE).


4. (C) Gacnik also said ITF was considering demining
activities on the Libyan-Egyptian and Libyan-Chadian borders,
but that these were still preliminary ideas. Asked about the
possibility of ITF-contracted demining operations taking
place in Darfur, Gacnik replied that these were also being
considered but that a more robust and credible peacekeeping
force would have to be in place before this would be possible.


5. (SBU) In Afghanistan, Tursic and Gacnik explained that ITF
could contribute to mine action programs by sharing its
experience with tendering, quality control, and coordination.
Gacnik said he had met with two of Afghanistan's Deputy
Foreign Ministers: in Zagreb in November 2005 for the meeting
of States Parties to the Ottawa Convention; and in Ljubljana
in December 2005 for the OSCE ministerial. According to
Gacnik, both Deputy Foreign Ministers had expressed interest
in ITF's involvement with mine action programs in
Afghanistan.


6. (SBU) Tursic explained that ITF was well positioned to
share best-practices with the Afghans since the UN's Mine
Action Program for Afghanistan (MAPA) relied on direct
contracting with deminers, whereas ITF employed a successful
tendering process that dramatically lowered the costs of
demining and promoted competition among demining providers.
Tursic further explained that the parcellization of demining
agencies in Afghanistan further impeded competition among
demining providers, each of which effectively presided over
its own "turf." As Tursic explained, introducing competition
through a tendering process would promote both greater
efficiency and better quality demining.


--------------
Comment
--------------


7. (C) The center-right government of Prime Minister Jansa
has demonstrated that it understands the importance of
democracy promotion and security assistance in strategically
vulnerable parts of the world -- even if they lie far from
Slovenia's borders. While most democracy promotion and
reconstruction assistance is still focused on the area of
highest strategic concern to Slovenia -- namely, Southeastern
Europe -- the Jansa government has shed much of the old
insularity and navel-gazing habits that characterized its
predecessors. The current options being explored are still
in the early stages of
deliberation, but they already demonstrate a willingness to
devote significant resources to reconstruction and
stabilization in Afghanistan, piggybacking on the ITF's own
recent fact-finding mission (and reflecting the close
relations between the new ITF Director and the Jansa
government). Mission will continue to encourage Slovenia to
expand its democracy promotion efforts in tandem with its
growing global security role.


8. (SBU) While ITF's transparency and low overhead make it a
model for mine actions programs around the world, its mission
must remain focused on its donors' (including the USG's)
preferences. The ITF's efforts to extend its mission beyond
Southeastern Europe reflect its leadership's anxiety over the
institution's future once its demining projects in the
Western Balkans wind down. We will continue to monitor and
report on the ITF leadership's strategic thinking for the
future as it looks to engage in other parts of the world.
ROBERTSON


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