KOSOVO PROTECTION CORPS TO TAKE ON GREATER

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000259 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR PB/WRA, INL, EUR/SCE, AND EUR/SSA, NSC FOR BRAUN, USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: MASS MARR PREL EAID PGOV UNMIK YI SUBJECT: KOSOVO PROTECTION CORPS TO TAKE ON GREATER RESPONSIBILITIES FOR DEMINING AND ORDNANCE DISPOSAL IN 2006 REF: 05 PRISTINA 1115 (C) Sensitive But Unclassified, Please Protect Accordingly ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: During their March 12-15 visit to Kosovo, Department representatives agreed to provide up to USD 110,000 in funding through the Slovene International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victim's Assistance (ITF) for badly-needed replacement equipment for the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) demining teams. Without this additional equipment the KPC will be hard-pressed to continue responding to calls for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and to assume greater responsibility for demining as NGO-funded humanitarian deminers wind up their work in 2006. UNMIK's Office of the Coordinator for KPC (OKPCC) wants to double the number of demining teams and KPC commander General Sylejman Selimi reiterated the KPC's hope that in the future some of its deminers will be deployed outside of Kosovo. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) PM/WRA representatives Murphey McCloy and Ed Trimakas visited Kosovo March 12-15 to discuss USG humanitarian demining assistance in Kosovo. During their meeting with incoming KPC commander General Sylejman Selimi, they agreed to fund up to USD 110,000 in replacement equipment requested by the KPC for its demining teams. They were clear in meetings with both General Selimi and UNMIK EOD Management Section chief Steve Saunders that PM/WRA is not interested in funding KPC and OKPCC's desired doubling of the number of KPC demining teams (to 14) and that all current USG assistance funneled through the ITF is only for use by KPC demining teams in Kosovo. During their visit they also discussed new avenues for possible future cooperation between the Kosovo Ministry of Health and University of Pristina Hospital with the ITF on mine victim's assistance. ¶3. (SBU) Since it assumed primary responsibility for EOD response pursuant to a June 21, 2005 memorandum of understanding between the KPC, OKPCC and KFOR, the KPC has been unable to keep up with its demining responsibilities. According to OKPCC figures, in 2005 the KPC demined 1.7 million square meters of territory (or 40 percent of the total 4.3 million square meters demined by humanitarian and commercial demining organizations that year). In 2004 the KPC demined 2.2 million square meters of territory. According to the OKPCC's Steve Saunders and KFOR EOD specialists, this reduction is due to the requirement since June 2005 for the KPC to keep two of its seven demining teams on call for EOD response. Saunders, KFOR EOD specialists and representatives of the US EOD team at Camp Bondsteel noted that the KPC teams only respond during daylight hours (purportedly because they only work from 0800 to 1600),and that primary EOD response the rest of the time is still handled by individual KFOR contingents. ¶4. (SBU) According to OKPCC, Kosovo still has 15 areas known to contain a threat from mines or unexploded ordnance (UXO) -- down from 44 at the start of 2005. Three of these involve mines and the remaining 12 contain cluster munitions. Our interlocutors said that new areas could also be discovered in 2006 in heavily wooded areas. Saunders said that humanitarian demining organizations (Handicap International, HALO Trust and Mine Awareness Trust) that cleared an additional 2.4 million square meters in 2005 will be winding up their activities in 2006 as their funding ends. This will leave the KPC to pick up an even greater share of actual demining work in the coming year. (NOTE: The Dutch Liaison Office told USOP DATT that HALO Trust has a three-year grant from the Dutch government to support demining activities worldwide and confirmed that they are trying to convince HALO to focus its efforts outside Kosovo, but to donate their equipment here to the KPC. END NOTE.). ¶5. (SBU) COMMENT: The USG has already spent USD 7.9 million on demining in Kosovo since 1998, but the fact remains that diminishing international resources devoted to Kosovo demining will translate to a smaller amount of territory PRISTINA 00000259 002 OF 002 being demined during the upcoming April-November 2006 season. END COMMENT. ¶6. (U) This cable is cleared in its entirety for release to Special Envoy Ahtisaari. GOLDBERG