Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06PRISTINA498
2006-06-12 17:08:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Pristina
Cable title:
UNMIK HEAD OF MISSION RESIGNS
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000498
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE, AND EUR/SSA, NSC FOR BRAUN,
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/12/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: UNMIK HEAD OF MISSION RESIGNS
REF: PRISTINA 481
Classified By: COM PHILIP S. GOLDBERG FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000498
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE, AND EUR/SSA, NSC FOR BRAUN,
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/12/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: UNMIK HEAD OF MISSION RESIGNS
REF: PRISTINA 481
Classified By: COM PHILIP S. GOLDBERG FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).
1. (C) SUMMARY: Soren Jessen-Petersen has resigned as
Kosovo's Special Representative of the Secretary General
(SRSG) and head of the U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK),
effective June 30. Principal Deputy SRSG (PDSRSG) Steven
Schook will become acting SRSG if a replacement is not in
place by the end of the month. Jessen-Petersen expects his
successor to remain in Kosovo for one year after his
departure, to include a six-month transition period to
European Union structures. END SUMMARY.
2. (C) U.N. Special Representative of the Secretary General
(SRSG) Soren Jessen-Petersen announced on June 12 that he
will be leaving UNMIK on June 30. He said in a press release
that this was the "time to be with my family in Washington,"
(NOTE: His wife has been ill and receiving treatment in
Washington for some time. END NOTE.) Jessen-Petersen was
fifth in a series of SRSGs posted to Pristina following the
end of the 1998-1999 conflict. Jessen-Petersen told the
press only that he would be visiting European capitals in the
coming days, but detailed in a follow-on meeting with the
heads of Pristina diplomatic liaison offices that he would
leave today (June 12) for a trip to Brussels, Vienna and New
York. He will then visit his family in Washington and said
he plans to spend a few days in Kosovo before leaving his
post permanently on June 30. He said he expected his
replacement to remain in place for the coming year, to
include a six-month transition period to European Union
structures.
3. (C) After a series of SRSGs who were alternately publicly
reviled or at the very least seen as less-than-effective,
Jessen-Petersen leaves behind a legacy of popular ethnic
Albanian support. During his two-year tenure, UNMIK's pillar
structure (Pillar I ) Justice and Police, Pillar II ) Civil
Affairs, Pillar III ) OSCE, and Pillar IV ) Economic
Affairs) dissolved and downsized, supposedly to a more
locally-managed, streamlined process, and he made many
friends through his rational diplomatic demeanor. While he
served as SRSG, the Standards for Kosovo process was
re-focused and energized and he presented two key positive
standards assessments to the UNSC. He oversaw 2004 general
elections deemed free and fair only months after the March
2004 ethnically-motivated riots which damaged 1000 residences
and churches and left 20 people dead; the privatization of
more than 100 communist-era state businesses; three stable
changes of government; an indictment of a sitting prime
minister, Ramush Haradinaj, on war crimes charges by the
International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia; and
the death of Kosovo's first president, Ibrahim Rugova, while
still in office.
4. (C) Jessen-Petersen did have his detractors, however. Key
decisions on telecommunications and energy languished under
his watch. Despite Jessen-Petersen's extensive experience
with the UNHCR since the 1970s, he delayed a decision on
removing refugee Roma from lead-contaminated camps in place
since 1999 until pushed by negative international press.
During his second year in office, he was criticized by ethnic
Serbs as being a friend of the ethnic Albanian cause of
Kosovo independence, especially after his public praise for
then Prime Minister Haradinaj ("my friend, my partner") when
the latter surrendered to The Hague.
5. (C) COMMENT. Soren Jessen-Petersen carried out his job
admirably during very difficult circumstances in his almost
two years as the head of UNMIK. The transition to EU
oversight of Kosovo (ref A),however, requires a clean break
in public imagination between the SRSG role and the new
leader of an international presence in Kosovo; his possible
replacement by an EU head as has been discussed by some in
EU circles will not accomplish this needed break in position
and function. END COMMENT.
6. (U) U.S. Office Pristina clears this cable for release,
PRISTINA 00000498 002 OF 002
with exception of paragraph 4, to U.N. Special Envoy for
Kosovo Status Talks Martti Ahtisaari.
GOLDBERG
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE, AND EUR/SSA, NSC FOR BRAUN,
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/12/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: UNMIK HEAD OF MISSION RESIGNS
REF: PRISTINA 481
Classified By: COM PHILIP S. GOLDBERG FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).
1. (C) SUMMARY: Soren Jessen-Petersen has resigned as
Kosovo's Special Representative of the Secretary General
(SRSG) and head of the U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK),
effective June 30. Principal Deputy SRSG (PDSRSG) Steven
Schook will become acting SRSG if a replacement is not in
place by the end of the month. Jessen-Petersen expects his
successor to remain in Kosovo for one year after his
departure, to include a six-month transition period to
European Union structures. END SUMMARY.
2. (C) U.N. Special Representative of the Secretary General
(SRSG) Soren Jessen-Petersen announced on June 12 that he
will be leaving UNMIK on June 30. He said in a press release
that this was the "time to be with my family in Washington,"
(NOTE: His wife has been ill and receiving treatment in
Washington for some time. END NOTE.) Jessen-Petersen was
fifth in a series of SRSGs posted to Pristina following the
end of the 1998-1999 conflict. Jessen-Petersen told the
press only that he would be visiting European capitals in the
coming days, but detailed in a follow-on meeting with the
heads of Pristina diplomatic liaison offices that he would
leave today (June 12) for a trip to Brussels, Vienna and New
York. He will then visit his family in Washington and said
he plans to spend a few days in Kosovo before leaving his
post permanently on June 30. He said he expected his
replacement to remain in place for the coming year, to
include a six-month transition period to European Union
structures.
3. (C) After a series of SRSGs who were alternately publicly
reviled or at the very least seen as less-than-effective,
Jessen-Petersen leaves behind a legacy of popular ethnic
Albanian support. During his two-year tenure, UNMIK's pillar
structure (Pillar I ) Justice and Police, Pillar II ) Civil
Affairs, Pillar III ) OSCE, and Pillar IV ) Economic
Affairs) dissolved and downsized, supposedly to a more
locally-managed, streamlined process, and he made many
friends through his rational diplomatic demeanor. While he
served as SRSG, the Standards for Kosovo process was
re-focused and energized and he presented two key positive
standards assessments to the UNSC. He oversaw 2004 general
elections deemed free and fair only months after the March
2004 ethnically-motivated riots which damaged 1000 residences
and churches and left 20 people dead; the privatization of
more than 100 communist-era state businesses; three stable
changes of government; an indictment of a sitting prime
minister, Ramush Haradinaj, on war crimes charges by the
International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia; and
the death of Kosovo's first president, Ibrahim Rugova, while
still in office.
4. (C) Jessen-Petersen did have his detractors, however. Key
decisions on telecommunications and energy languished under
his watch. Despite Jessen-Petersen's extensive experience
with the UNHCR since the 1970s, he delayed a decision on
removing refugee Roma from lead-contaminated camps in place
since 1999 until pushed by negative international press.
During his second year in office, he was criticized by ethnic
Serbs as being a friend of the ethnic Albanian cause of
Kosovo independence, especially after his public praise for
then Prime Minister Haradinaj ("my friend, my partner") when
the latter surrendered to The Hague.
5. (C) COMMENT. Soren Jessen-Petersen carried out his job
admirably during very difficult circumstances in his almost
two years as the head of UNMIK. The transition to EU
oversight of Kosovo (ref A),however, requires a clean break
in public imagination between the SRSG role and the new
leader of an international presence in Kosovo; his possible
replacement by an EU head as has been discussed by some in
EU circles will not accomplish this needed break in position
and function. END COMMENT.
6. (U) U.S. Office Pristina clears this cable for release,
PRISTINA 00000498 002 OF 002
with exception of paragraph 4, to U.N. Special Envoy for
Kosovo Status Talks Martti Ahtisaari.
GOLDBERG