AUSTRIA EXTENDS PARTICIPATION IN EU'S IRAQ TRAINING

UNCLAS VIENNA 001898 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/AGS AND INR/EU E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV EUN MARR KPAO IZ AU SUBJECT: AUSTRIA EXTENDS PARTICIPATION IN EU'S IRAQ TRAINING MISSION "EUJUST LEX" ¶1. (SBU) On June 22, Parliament's Steering committee unanimously voted to extend Austrian participation in the EU's integrated mission to support rule of law in Iraq (EUJUST LEX) to December 2007. Parliament authorized the government to deploy up to three Justice Ministry trainers and up to two Interior Ministry trainers. Reporting to the committee, Foreign Minister Plassnik stressed that Austria was able to detail "highly qualified female experts from the Justice and Interior ministries" to this mission - a fact which "made her particularly proud." At the same time Plassnik acknowledged to legislators that full details of this mission still had to be worked out. ¶2. (SBU) According to Plassnik, the EU's rule of law mission seeks to train up to 770 senior Iraqi officials in the area of crime investigation (particularly criminal judges, police officials, and prison guards). The training will take place either in EU countries or "in the region," but not inside Iraq, the Foreign Minister said. Through June 30, 495 Iraqi officials had received training in 14 different courses. ¶3. (SBU) In a related development, Parliament approved dispatching "up to two" Austrian Justice Ministry officials to the Kosovo planning team. The EU has tasked this team with preparing the ground for a rule-of-law mission in Kosovo. The team should to be operational in the first half of 2007. This initiative is a result of an UN request to the EU to take over police and justice tasks from the UN's UNMIK mission. Austria currently has up to 24 officials participating in UNMIK. Kilner, CDA