Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06PRISTINA600
2006-07-17 18:50:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Pristina
Cable title:  

KOSOVO: PISG PROGRESS ON CG STANDARDS PRIORITIES

Tags:  PGOV PREL KDEM UNMIK YI 
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VZCZCXRO1027
OO RUEHAST
DE RUEHPS #0600/01 1981850
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 171850Z JUL 06
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6308
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0765
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHFMIUU/AFSOUTH NAPLES IT
RHMFIUU/CDR TF FALCON
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEPGEA/CDR650THMIGP SHAPE BE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUFOANA/USNIC PRISTINA SR
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 PRISTINA 000600 

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: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: PISG PROGRESS ON CG STANDARDS PRIORITIES

REF: PRISTINA 567

PRISTINA 00000600 001.2 OF 004


Sensitive But Unclassified, Please Protect Accordingly.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 PRISTINA 000600

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: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: PISG PROGRESS ON CG STANDARDS PRIORITIES

REF: PRISTINA 567

PRISTINA 00000600 001.2 OF 004


Sensitive But Unclassified, Please Protect Accordingly.


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Kosovo's Provisional Institutions of Self
Government (PISG) continue to make progress on fulfilling the
Contact Group's 13 priorities for standards implementation.
Prime Minister Agim Ceku announced July 11 that two of the 13
had already been fulfilled and the PISG completed another on
July 17. Ceku's political advisor, Avni Arifi, assured
Contact Group representatives July 12 that the PISG is on
track to complete the others. Those priorities requiring
Kosovo Assembly action by the end of October, however, will
likely be subject to at least some delay as the Assembly
enters its August recess. END SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) The PISG is making progress in completing the CG's
13 priorities for standards implementation. PM Ceku
announced July 11 that two of the earliest milestones,
allocation of the 2006 PISG funding for returns by June 30,
and allocation of the first grant from the PISG Minority
Media Fund by July 31 had been met. Ceku's advisor on
standards implementation, Avni Arifi, updated CG
representatives on July 12 on progress since Ceku's last
briefing on June 27 (reftel).

-------------- -
New Minority Focused Laws Still Need Some Work
-------------- -


3. (SBU) According to Arifi, progress on draft laws focused
on minority rights (laws on languages, religious freedom and
cultural heritage) continue apace. Arifi claimed that
minority representatives (including from Kosovo's ethnic
Turkish community) had agreed to proposed amendments to the
draft law. The government submitted it to the Kosovo
Assembly on July 13 and on the following day a version
approved by the OSCE passed unopposed and without amendment
through the Assembly committee on public administration. The
Assembly secretariat has scheduled review by the budget and
communities committees (on which sits Mahir Yagcilar, the
current Assembly presidency member from the minority party
"Six Plus" coalition and the major proponent of the naming of

Turkish as one of Kosovo's official languages) for the week
of July 17 in the hopes of including it on the agenda for the
July 27 plenary, the last before the Assembly's August
recess. (NOTE: Yagcilar told PolOff July 11 that he is not
entirely happy with the population percentage requirements
defining official languages and languages in use and would
rather the law simply designate Turkish as an official
language in four municipalities. The government's compromise
was to require the municipality of Prizren to adopt Turkish
as an official language. END NOTE).


4. (SBU) Arifi noted that the Assembly would take up the law
on religious freedom on July 13. Despite a walkout by
members from opposition parties July 13 to protest the
limiting of discussion on the performance of the Ceku
government in its first 100 days in office, the remaining
quorum of Assembly members approved the law by a vote of 57
in favor and 5 against. The plenary rifled through the 28
amendments to the draft law quickly, adopting them without
debate and without even publicly reading them. The Assembly
rejected an amendment offered by the Justice Party's
representative, Ferid Agani, on religious education with
little opposition, but approved by a 15 vote margin his
amendment requiring a reference to Kosovo in the name of
every religious community.


5. (SBU) Arifi told the CG representatives that the law on
cultural heritage has been harmonized with European
legislation and sent the previous week to the Assembly for
review by the appropriate committee. He added the government
expects the Assembly to adopt the law at its final summer
session July 27. (NOTE: The legislation would then be
delivered to A/SRSG Steve Schook for promulgation. END
NOTE). Discussion then ensued about the failure of the
current draft to include language suggested by UN Kosovo

PRISTINA 00000600 002.2 OF 004


Envoy Martti Ahtisaari's team in Vienna allowing for changes
to the law based on final status negotiations. (NOTE: There
is some confusion about where the law stands; or more
correctly, with whom it sits. At the July 11 Standards
Working Group meeting on Cultural Heritage, Deputy Minister
for Culture, Youth and Sports Angelina Krasniqi also stated
that the draft law on cultural heritage is with the Assembly.
On July 14, opposition Assembly member Enver Hoxhaj,
chairman of the Kosovo Assembly's Committee on Education,
Culture and Youth, stated in an e-mail sent to PolOff and
other participants in the meeting that the draft law is not
currently at the Assembly or with his committee and that the
Assembly has been waiting for Ceku's office to send over the
revised draft law since it was finished in April. Arifi
quickly countered with his own e-mail response which
contained a scanned copy of the transmittal memorandum used
to send the draft law over to the Assembly on July 5. END
NOTE). An EU lawyer assisting the Assembly on legislation
told PolOff July 17 that the law will not likely be read in
plenary before the August recess.

--------------
Funds Transferred to KPC for Svinjare Repairs
--------------


6. (SBU) Arifi confirmed that 967,000 euros had already been
transferred to the Kosovo Protection Corps to complete
reconstruction and repair work and assist in resolving other
pending claims concerning homes in Svinjare damaged during
the March 2004 riots. He added that an additional 1.1
million euros had been transferred July 12, bringing the
total amount available to over 2.0 million euros. Arifi
added that although a board established to discuss
implementation of Svinjare
reconstruction/repairs/compensation has been established and
had its first meeting on July 11, the PISG has not yet
established a similar board for compensation and
reconstruction claims outside Svinjare, nor does the
government have data on the extent of commercial property
damaged in March 2004.

-------------- --------------
Pilot Project Rental Scheme for Residential Properties
-------------- --------------


7. (SBU) Arifi informed Contact Group representatives that
the Ministry for Environmental and Spatial Planning has
prepared a proposed rental scheme for residential properties
abandoned by internally-displaced persons formerly under the
administration of the Housing and Property Directorate (HPD)
which it presented at the Property Rights Working Group on
July 6. He noted general agreement between the PISG and the
Kosovo Property Agency (KPA),the successor to the HPD, that
housing rentals will not be paid out of public funds.
(COMMENT: "Agreement" may be an overstatement -- the PISG has
made clear it cannot offer to pay the rents and the KPA has
scarcely considered the matter. END COMMENT.). Arifi told
CG representatives that the PISG preferred that private real
estate agents handle the rental scheme, but gave way to the
insistence of KPA Head Knut Rosandhaug that the KPA retain
ultimate responsibility for it. He added that although
UNMIK, the PISG and the KPA have not yet agreed on the scope
of the rental scheme, a pilot project involving residences in
northern Mitrovica and Pristina and Peja/Pec and the nearby
ethnic Serb enclave of Gorazhedevac may begin in August. He
told the CG representatives that the rental scheme will
involve only 3,500 of the 5,300 HPD administered properties
because there are 1,800 properties for which ownership has
not been established conclusively or for which owners have
not replied to HPD's notices.


8. (SBU) Concerning the 2,804 HPD claims pending
implementation, Arifi informed CG representatives that 800
have already been implemented and of the remaining 2,044
cases occupants in 1,800 of those residences have appealed
the HPD's decisions. He added that in 200 cases the owners
had not requested the eviction of the current occupants,
preferring instead to have the premises occupied. He noted

PRISTINA 00000600 003.2 OF 004


that representatives from the Ministry of Internal Affairs
had met with the Kosovo Police Commissioner and Deputy
Commissioner to discuss a joint monitoring system to improve
effectiveness in deterring and reversing re-occupations.


9. (SBU) Arifi said that the Ministry of Transport and
Communication (MTC) has identified 13 bus lines for
minorities in consultation with the Ministry of Communities
and Returns (MCR),but implementation has not begun because
UNMIK's Office for Communities, Returns and Minorities (OCRM)
has questioned how they were determined. Arifi said PM Ceku
has asked the MTC to identify the criteria used to determine
the proposed routes. PolOff reminded Arifi that PM Ceku
promised to ensure that minority communities who will
actually use the lines are fully consulted before the
government completes the transportation strategy.


10. (SBU) Arifi stated that Minister for Communities and
Returns Slavisa Petkovic and OCM head Sandra Mitchell had
reached agreement on June 30 on the allocation of the
remaining 2006 PISG funding for returns (reftel). He added
that of the 4.7 million euro budget allocation, the
government had already transferred all but the 1.4 million
euros destined for organized returns projects in
Abdullah-Presevo (ethnic Roma returning to Gjilan) and Kucici
(ethnic Serbs returning to Skenderaj/Srbica).


11. (SBU) Arifi had little progress to report on completing
investigations and pending prosecutions from the March 2004
riots. He repeated PM Ceku's statement from two weeks before
that work in seven high profile cases is continuing as a
priority. Arifi added that the Ministry of Justice is
working closely with UNMIK on these and other cases and that
a draft regulation on witness protection is being prepared
and should be adopted soon.


12. (SBU) According to Arifi, the Kosovo government decided
July 12 to hire an additional translator for each ministry
and the office of the prime minister. He added that the
Ministry of Public Services will organize training sessions
for current as well as new translators.


13. (SBU) Arifi was able to confirm that on July 11 all
eleven recipients of the PISG minority media fund had
received their 4,545 euro grants. Recipients include four
Kosovo Serb, two Bosniak, one Turkish, 2 multi-ethnic and two
media outlets representing vulnerable groups. This
allocation occurred well before the CG's July 31 deadline.


14. (SBU) Arifi noted an increase in the number of court
liaison offices and sub-municipal police stations. As of
July 12, the government has established eleven court liaison
offices which are currently operating. Minister of Justice
Jonuz Salihaj participated in the opening ceremonies for
offices in the Serb villages of Osojan/Osojane (Istog
municipality) and Bablak/Babljak (Ferizaj municipality) on
July 7. According to Arifi's report, the PISG has opened a
total of 15 sub-municipal police stations and two more are
planned in Gusterica (Lipjan municipality) and Vrbovac (Viti
municipality).


15. (SBU) The CG had asked the PISG to appoint a director for
the anti-corruption agency by July 1. The council of the
anti-corruption agency met on June 7 to select candidates
from the 30 who applied, but found that none were suitable
for the position of director. The government re-advertised
the vacancy and June 30 was the closing date for
applications. According to Arifi, 50 people applied and the
government sent the names of the two top candidates to the
Kosovo Assembly for it to decide. A protracted discussion of
the first 100 days of the Ceku government kept the Assembly
from deciding between these two candidates until its July 17
plenary, at which it selected Hasan Preteni, a former colonel
in the Kosovo Protection Corps and former member of the
Kosovo Liberation Army, as director of the anti-corruption
agency.


16. (SBU) There was less to report on the selection of the

PRISTINA 00000600 004.2 OF 004


government's member of the Independent Media Commission
(IMC). Arifi stated that the procedures for selection of the
candidate are on the agenda for the current session of the
Assembly. Once adopted, candidates will be proposed and
chosen during the Assembly's last session before its summer
recess on July 27. He noted that the IMC has been
established and is currently working, albeit without a member
representing the government.


17. (SBU) Arifi informed CG representatives that the Kosovo
Assembly returned the revised draft law on public procurement
to the office of the prime minister on June 29 and requested
that it resubmit it as amendments to the existing law rather
than as a new law. Arifi reported that the Ministry of
Finance and Economy confirmed July 7 that it would comply
with this request within a week. To date the amendments have
not yet been submitted.


18. (SBU) COMMENT: These bi-weekly updates from the PISG are
helpful in keeping it focused on implementation of the CG's
13 priorities for standards implementation. They are also
informative on the relationship between PM Ceku's office and
the Kosovo Assembly. Although the PISG has now completed
three of the 13 priorities -- and one of those ahead of
schedule -- we are concerned that the confusion over the
draft law on cultural heritage suggests to us that progress
will be harder to come by from here on out. END COMMENT.



19. (U) U.S. Office Pristina clears this cable for release in
its entirety to U.N. Special Envoy for Kosovo Martti
Ahtisaari.
MCBRIDE