Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06PRISTINA645
2006-08-04 13:44:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Pristina
Cable title:  

KOSOVO: CONTACT GROUP MESSAGE TO PRISTINA WELL

Tags:  PGOV PREL KDEM UNMIK YI 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO0722
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DE RUEHPS #0645 2161344
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 041344Z AUG 06
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6357
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0789
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHFMISS/AFSOUTH NAPLES IT
RHMFISS/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
C O N F I D E N T I A L PRISTINA 000645 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

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

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/04/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: CONTACT GROUP MESSAGE TO PRISTINA WELL
RECEIVED


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

C O N F I D E N T I A L PRISTINA 000645

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

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

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/04/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: CONTACT GROUP MESSAGE TO PRISTINA WELL
RECEIVED


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


1. (C) SUMMARY: Keeping to the language worked out in
Contact Group capitals, COM led other CG representatives
(along with the heads of the local EU and European Commission
missions) in a demarche on the Kosovo negotiating team (the
"Unity Team") on the results of the July 24 high-level
meeting in Vienna, the situation in northern Kosovo and the
need for greater flexibility by the Kosovo negotiating team
at this stage of talks. COM privately passed additional USG
points to Unity Team coordinator Blerim Shala on what is
expected from the Kosovo negotiating team in the next stage
of technical talks scheduled for August 7-8 in Vienna. END
SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) The Kosovo negotiating team (all present except
Hashim Thaci, who was replaced by Fatmir Limaj) convened the
morning of August 4 on short notice at our request to receive
the joint Contact Group (CG) demarche. Afterwards USOP, on
behalf of the Contact Group, issued the joint CG "Statement
on the Situation in Northern Kosovo."


3. (SBU) The message was received well and with no dissent.
President Fatmir Sejdiu, speaking on behalf of the entire
Unity Team, noted that the issues in the CG message were
exactly those the team would be discussing when it met later
in the day. He said that the Kosovo negotiating team wants
stability in Kosovo and respect for its territorial
integrity, and he pledged to be constructive because it was
in the interests of all the people of Kosovo. He added that
the proposal on minorities rights, which the negotiating team
would approve August 4 for use in the Vienna meetings August
7 and 8, provides a good framework for addressing the issues
the Contact Group raised.


4. (C) Prior to the CG demarche, COM passed more detailed
points on the upcoming technical talks on decentralization
and cultural heritage to Unity Team coordinator Blerim Shala.
On decentralization, Shala acknowledged that the Unity Team
will have to enlarge some of the proposed municipalities. On
northern Mitrovica, Shala also said that the Unity Team knows
that it will need to accept the reality of the city's
division, and that there would be Serbian administration of
the hospital and university there (as well as asymmetrical
decentralization elsewhere),but that they needed some sort
of fig leaf such as the proposed joint Mitrovica board to
sell the plan. Shala also said that the Unity Team will give
in on the size of buffer zones around Serbian Orthodox
monasteries and patriarchal sites. He claimed that Decani
remains the most controversial, but that if the monks there
want the zone to remain at its current 800 hectare size, then
the team would cede on that point, as well.


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