Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07PRISTINA163
2007-03-02 16:58:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Pristina
Cable title:  

UPDATE ON KOSOVO PRIORITY STANDARDS

Tags:  PGOV PREL PREF EAID KDEM UNMIK YI 
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RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHPS #0163/01 0611658
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 021658Z MAR 07 ZDK
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7103
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1069
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHFMIUU/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
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000163 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

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

C O R R E C T E D C O P Y (SUBJECT CHANGE)


E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PREF EAID KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: UPDATE ON KOSOVO PRIORITY STANDARDS


PRISTINA 00000163 001.2 OF 003


SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000163

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

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

C O R R E C T E D C O P Y (SUBJECT CHANGE)


E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PREF EAID KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: UPDATE ON KOSOVO PRIORITY STANDARDS


PRISTINA 00000163 001.2 OF 003


SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Kosovo's Provisional Institutions of
Self-Government (PISG) are finding it difficult to close the
book on the remaining Contact Group (CG) Priorities for
Standards. We believe all CG offices here would agree that
at least nine of the 13 Priorities are complete and that the
only thing keeping us from ten is the failure of the PISG to
reconstruct or compensate owners for the estimated 24
commercial properties damaged during the March 2004 violence.
We at USOP also part ways with the Russian office here,
believing that PISG assistance to UNMIK on prosecutions from
the March 2004 violence has been completed, bringing our
tally to ten. More needs to be done on the two Priorities
relating to the property rental scheme and enforcement of
housing ownership decisions. PM Ceku's principal adviser has
promised to finish up on commercial property damaged in March
2004 by the end of March, at which time we also expect
completion of the appeals process for the 672 property claims
currently outstanding. END SUMMARY.

Dispute over which standards have been completed


2. (SBU) On January 26 PM Agim Ceku convened local Contact
Group representatives and announced that from the
government's point of view, the 13 priorities for Standards
implementation are complete. In its draft Technical
Assessment, UNMIK proposed defending the government's claim
"considering that points 3 (rental scheme) and 4
(implementation of Kosovo Property Agency decisions) fall
under the Kosovo Property Agency and police, neither of which
are under government control." It added that regarding
points 7 (investigations of and prosecutions for March 2004
violence),"it is difficult to envisage under what
circumstances the March 2004 investigations can ever be
declared complete, since the possibility of new evidence and

new prosecutions will always be present." We convinced UNMIK
to delete this language, none of which was contained in the
Technical Assessment delivered in New York.


3. (SBU) We believe that three of the 13 priorities are still
outstanding; the British office here in Pristina is of the
view that only two are outstanding, and the Russian office is
holding firm on four. The other Contact Group liaison
offices have never expressed opinions on the matter, but we
believe they too would agree that there are three
outstanding.

PISG finally agrees to deal with commercial properties


4. (SBU) After our January 19, 2007 trip to Svinjare, all of
the CG representatives agreed that reconstruction is finished
at Svinjare, a Kosovo Serb area heavily damaged during the
March 2004 violence. However, no one -- including Kosovo's
Provisional Institutions of Self Government (PISG) -- has
focused on the other half of that priority, repair of or
compensation for 24 commercial properties throughout Kosovo
also damaged in March 2004. UNMIK essentially has checked
off this standard in its Technical Assessment out of fear
that any reconstruction that is not occupied will be
vandalized, but PM Ceku's advisor Avni Arifi told us they
have simply run out of money because of cost overruns related
to the work in Svinjare. The British and Russian offices
share our view that this Priority is only partially completed
and the Kosovo government needs to do more on the commercial
property aspect. An international who performed an
assessment of the commercial properties in 2005 confirmed
that there are up to 24 properties, but that most of the
larger ones in Fushe Kosova/Kosovo Polje have already been
rebuilt. He said that an UNMIK estimate of 10,000 euros per
property is high. With prodding from us, PM adviser Arifi
told us recently that in the near future the PISG would set
up a Commission or some other vehicle to determine damages,
with the government then putting that amount of money in
escrow.

Priorities relating to property still a problem

PRISTINA 00000163 002.2 OF 003




5. (SBU) According to UNMIK's latest assessment, the Kosovo
Property Agency (KPA) has extended the rental scheme to all
of the 5,247 residential properties currently under its
administration. The head of KPA informed us that as of March
1, 2007 it has contacted 2,182 of the 3,500 known property
rights holders and 1,627 of them have consented to have their
property included into the scheme. Forty nine occupants are
paying rent and 26,001 euros have been collected, of which
19,000 have already been sent by KPA to the property owners.
The first 12 evictions of occupiers who declined to pay rent
were also carried out in January, after which the KPA
initiated an outreach campaign to identify tenants for these
properties. We do not believe that, with less than one
percent level of participation, this Priority can be
considered implemented. The Russian office agrees with us,
but the British office does give the PISG the nod for setting
up the rental scheme, although its representative notes this
could change if more people currently occupying properties
owned by others do not begin to pay rent.


6. (SBU) According to the KPA's latest figures, there are
still 672 decisions by its predecessor, the Housing Property
Directorate, that remain on appeal and must then be
implemented. KPA head Knut Rosandhaug stated at the March 1
meeting of the Property Rights Standards working group that
the Housing and Property Claims Commission (HPCC) will render
decisions on these appeals when it meets the third week in
March 2007. None of the liaison offices here count this
Priority as being completed despite the fact that it is the
HPCC -- not the PISG -- that is holding things up. The KPA
is generally satisfied with the cooperation it is receiving
from the Kosovo Police Service (KPS) in carrying out
evictions and preventing re-occupations. After we raised
with UNMIK officials in December 2006 the failure of UNMIK
CivPol to implement Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
developed in August 2006 for the KPS to use to deter and
remedy re-occupation after eviction, and subsequent to
UNMIK's Legal Advisor issuing an opinion that a prosecutor is
not required to carry out any subsequent removals of illegal
occupants or re-occupants of KPA-administered properties, the
UNMIK Police Commissioner finally approved the SOPs in
February 2007. Unfortunately, the UNMIK Police Commissioner
resigned after the February 10 demonstrations in Pristina,
before he could implement the new standard operating
procedures.

PISG has done what we asked on March 2004 prosecutions


7. (SBU) On January 16 PM Ceku convened a meeting with the
Minister of Justice, the President of the Supreme Court and
the Chief Prosecutor at which they issued a joint statement
calling for witnesses to cooperate with police investigating
the March 2004 violence and publicized various means
available to the public to give information to the police.
The British office agrees that this satisfies the letter of
the CG Priority, but the head of the Russian office here
takes a more principled view that they do not care about the
actual language of the CG Priority, but rather they and
Moscow are interested in results.


8. (SBU) Cases related to the March 2004 violence continue to
be brought. UNMIK announced February 28 that an
international prosecutor filed an indictment in the Pristina
District Court on February 20 against five Kosovo Albanians
for their role in allegedly burning down several buildings in
Fushe Kosova/Kosovo Polje during the March 2004 riots. These
additional suspects mean that a total of eleven persons are
currently under investigation for these crimes.


9. (SBU) COMMENT: All CG offices here agree that nine of the
13 Priorities are complete and that the only thing keeping us
from ten is the Kosovo government's reluctance to figure out
how much it will cost to reconstruct or compensate owners for
the estimated 24 commercial properties damaged during the
March 2004 violence. PM Ceku adviser Arifi has promised that
the government will set up a new Commission or other vehicle

PRISTINA 00000163 003.2 OF 003


to determine how much money is necessary and then will set
that amount aside in escrow. We will continue to press the
PM's office on completing this Priority. While we are
willing to consider the CG Priority concerning assistance to
UNMIK on prosecutions from the March 2004 violence complete,
the Russians will probably never agree, since they believe
the high-level people truly responsible for the violence will
never be charged.


10. (SBU) At this point, the two Priorities relating to the
property rental scheme and enforcement of KPA decisions
cannot be counted as accomplished. These two are also the
most important for Kosovo Serbs since the processes involved
will help secure their property and even put some money in
their pockets from rental payments to which they are
entitled. Our unrelenting pressure on the government and the
KPA have been the driving force on getting the rental scheme
up and running and promulgating the new SOPs for evictions
and re-occupancies through the UNMIK bureaucracy. The
property-related standards, however, cannot be considered
complete until the KPA has finalized its appeals process and
the police have enforced these remaining decisions. The
Kosovo government has finally realized the importance of
getting the KPA to finish its work and has recently proposed
a strong candidate to fill the job as deputy director of the
KPA, a job that had been unfilled for almost a year. END
COMMENT.


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