KOSOVO: TRANSITION WORKING GROUPS BEGIN IN EARNEST

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 001095

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR DRL, INL, AND EUR/SCE, NSC FOR BRAUN, USUN FOR
DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: TRANSITION WORKING GROUPS BEGIN IN EARNEST


Classified By: COM TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: After a slow start, the five working groups
on transition meeting since late November and bringing
together representatives of UNMIK, the preparation team for
the post-status International Civilian Office, U.S.
representatives, and the Kosovo government have picked up
their pace. Three additional working groups covering
communication and public outreach, the drafting of a new
constitution for Kosovo, and future elections are still being
formed. Initial drafts of transition implementation plans
for the five (legal issues, civil administration, governance,
economy and property, and rule of law) were submitted
December 15 and merged by UNMIK into a revised draft
Transition Planning and Implementation non-paper (forwarded
to EUR/SCE). While these initial drafts are incomplete, they
serve to keep the momentum going as we enter the two-week
holiday period when most internationals leave Kosovo on
vacation. It is a key priority for us to ensure that these
working groups make progress so that Kosovar authorities can
take increased responsibility, and be effective in doing so,
when final status is resolved. END SUMMARY.

First five working groups accelerate after slow start


2. (SBU) The five working groups dealing with the transition
of UNMIK's remaining competencies to the Kosovo government
and the post-UNMIK International Civilian Office (ICO) have
begun weekly and, in some cases, twice-weekly meetings since
their creation in November. (U.S. representatives are
present in all working groups.) The five groups have already
agreed on terms of reference for their work and discussed
plans to implement the transfer of competencies set out in a
Transition Planning and Implementation non-paper developed by
UNMIK staff over the summer. The coordinators of four of the
groups (covering property and economy, rule of law, civil
administration and governance) submitted initial draft
implementation plans on December 15. The coordinator of the
fifth group on legal transition, the head of UNMIK's Office
of the Legal Advisor, has promised that his group's draft
plan will be ready the last week of December.


3. (C) After a slow start getting the Provisional
Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) and opposition groups
to send the right representation, the groups have began to
discuss transition in earnest. The rule of law group (which
quickly expanded to 29 participants) has discussed police and
customs issues with international organizations currently
performing these duties, first providing an overview of how
they see transition and preparations for transition in their
respective areas. The group then prepared a draft paper, to
which representatives of the PISG provided comments. Not all
has gone smoothly -- the group went somewhat off course by
discussing issues like increasing the capacity of Kosovo's
penal system, which, though needed, have nothing to do with
post-status transitioning from UNMIK.


4. (SBU) According to UNMIK's draft transition document, the
Property and Economy working group is charged with
transferring UNMIK's responsibilities relating to the Kosovo
Trust Authority, Kosovo Property Agency, banking regulation,
the auditor general and other regulatory bodies. This group
got off to the slowest start because the proper PISG experts
had not been invited to the first several meetings. It has
now taken up thorny issues which will need considerable
international consensus and guidance, including the future of
the Kosovo Trust Agency (the agency responsible for
privatizing Kosovo's remaining state and publicly owned
enterprises),as well as the role of the ICO in various
regulatory bodies.


5. (SBU) The Civil Administration working group has tackled a
wide range of issues ranging from preparation for a new
census to voluntary returns and repatriation. UNMIK has
three responsibilities regarding the census: providing
technical assistance; providing two members to sit on the
Central Census Commission, the body that coordinates all
activities for census preparation; and cooperating with the

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Kosovo Assembly to determine the date of the census. UNMIK
and the ICO will need to discuss which of these competencies
will be transferred to the ICO. Transition of UNMIK's
responsibilities for voluntary returns and repatriation to
the PISG is already underway. Until the recent resignation
of Slavisa Petkovic, the controversial Minister for
Communities and Returns, the primary recipients of UNMIK
competencies in the areas of returns were the Ministry of
Local Government Administration (for voluntary returns),and
the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Labor and
Social Welfare (for repatriations or other forced returns).
(NOTE: It is still unclear if the departure of Slavisa
Petkovic has rehabilitated the ministry. Current acting
minister Branislav Grbic received high marks for his work as
Acting Permanent Secretary and the current Acting Permanent
Secretary, Slavica Cvijovic, attended the last working group

SIPDIS
meeting as the ministry's representative. END NOTE).


6. (C) The Governance working group deals with external
relations, new Kosovo governmental structures that may be
needed after status, decentralization, minority rights,
cultural heritage, and emergency management and security (a
separate working group will have to be created to deal with
security organs after a decision on Kosovo's final status).
This working group has also provided guidance on the transfer
of UNMIK's archives and tasked the other working groups to
develop a list of categories of archives and working
documents that need to be handed over for the proper
functioning of the successor authorities. Representatives
from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) have begun work
on the creation of a future Ministry of Foreign Affairs for
Kosovo (if under the final status decision Kosovo becomes
independent),while the ICO representative is preparing a
version based on external relations being handled by an
international organization like the ICO or the EU. The
latest OPM proposal calls initially for a 60-person MFA.
(NOTE: The former head of the British office in Pristina,
Mark Dickinson, is advising PM Ceku on the creation of this
future MFA. END NOTE). The PISG is limited in its hiring by
IMF restrictions on public employment. One possible source
for slots would be to get rid of some of the 94 employees
currently employed at the Kosovo Archives, a remnant of the
socialist system of the former Yugoslavia, and transfer the
billets to the new MFA.


7. (C) Included in this group's preliminary discussion of
security issues has been the question of situation centers
(SITCENS),military liaison offices and civilian authority
over the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC),currently exercised
by UNMIK's Office of KPC Coordinator (OKPCC). In its
December 19 meeting, ICO Coordinator Ben Crampton affirmed
that the ICO saw no need for either an ICO SITCEN or military
liaison office to replace those currently staffed by UNMIK.
OKPCC head Maj. General Chris Steirn briefed the group
December 19 on KPC transition, stressing that it would only
be possible to begin planning for the future civilian
authority over the KPC or any successor organization after
Special Kosovo Envoy Martti Ahtisaari has presented his
proposal to Belgrade and Pristina in early 2007.


8. (SBU) Meetings of the Legal Transition working group, led
by the head of UNMIK's Office of Legal Affairs, have been the
most contentious. The group has formed four sub-groups to
transform all of UNMIK's Administrative Directions and
legislation that currently govern Kosovo into interim
legislation by the Kosovo Assembly. The aim is to divest
UNMIK of responsibilities for governing Kosovo, a huge task
which has only just begun. Our USAID representative on this
working group, along with the ICO representative, has pushed
the Coordinator to prioritize the work, but he has yet to
effectively do so.

Three additional working groups just getting started


9. (SBU) Three new working groups on Kosovo's new
constitution, elections, and public outreach are just getting
started. Kosovo's Unity Team (UT) provided a list December
20 of its seven representatives to the constitution and

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elections working groups (divided roughly between the four
major parties based on their representation in the Kosovo
Assembly),but delayed a decision on naming a Kosovar
representative to co-chair the meeting. Neither of these
groups has met, and the current plan is for them to begin
their work in January 2007 after internationals have returned
to Kosovo from their holidays abroad. The ICO will chair the
constitution Working Group. UT Coordinator Blerim Shala
questioned Working Group on Elections co-chair and OSCE head
Werner Wnendt's proposal to include representatives from NGOs
in this group. He reiterated this opposition by the UT at
the December 20 meeting of Strategic Group on Transition --
the body which oversees the entire transition process from a
policy standpoint -- and requested that civil society
representatives not be included in the early stages of the
"political" discussions on future elections. USOP sponsored
the initial meeting on December 20 of the Working Group on
Public Outreach (reported septel),but subsequent meetings
will likely be chaired by the OSCE with a Kosovar co-chair.



10. (C) COMMENT: The five existing working groups that have
been meeting over the past month did, for the most part, meet
their first deadline -- the submission of draft
implementation plans by December 15. There is still much
work to be done, but the collegiality and seriousness of the
government and opposition representatives to the task ahead
could bode well for the future of the transition process. We
will do our part to ensure that these working groups make
progress so that Kosovar authorities can take on increased
responsibility, and be effective in doing so, when final
status is resolved. END COMMENT.


11. (SBU) U.S. Office Pristina clears this cable in its
entirety for release to U.N. Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari.
KAIDANOW