KOSOVO: TRANSITION WORKING GROUPS MOVE FORWARD,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 06 PRISTINA 000273 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR DRL, INL, AND EUR/SCE, NSC FOR BRAUN, USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/06/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL EAID KDEM UNMIK YI SUBJECT: KOSOVO: TRANSITION WORKING GROUPS MOVE FORWARD, SHOW PROGRESS Classified By: COM TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The nine transition working groups set up by UNMIK, the core team for the post-UNMIK International Civilian Office, USOP, and the Kosovo government have focused attention on necessary actions required to be taken by the Kosovo government in time for UNMIK's departure. The first of these groups, established in the fall of 2006 (civil administration; governance; legal issues; rule of law; and economy and property),have mostly finished their work except for preparing cost estimates for a planned donors' conference after a UNSC resolution on Kosovo's final status. After early success in reaching consensus on non-controversial issues, the working group on elections has slowed somewhat, but still expects to finish work by its self-imposed deadline of April 17. The pre-constitution working group quickly overstepped its limited mandate and came up with a draft constitution so unacceptable that even its Kosovar co-chair requested that it not see the light of day. The public outreach transition group has successfully shifted its attention from billboards and television spots to public outreach throughout all of Kosovo. The last transition working group -- created to discuss security issues -- is just getting started, but already plans to put off as long as it can the thorny issue of what happens to the the Kosovo Protection Corps after status. END SUMMARY. UNMIK/OLA hand-off to PISG ¶2. (SBU) The transition group on legal affairs has finished its review of UNMIK regulations since 1999, and its "going away" gift is a series of proposed changes to ensure those regulations comport with the new post-UNMIK governing arrangements in Kosovo. Essentially, UNMIK's Office of Legal Affairs (UNMIK/OLA) suggests removing all references to the SRSG as an authority who appoints, promulgates and takes other executive decisions, and replacing those references with the person/entity within the existing Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) that UNMIK/OLA believes is most appropriate. (NOTE: UNMIK/OLA regards these as merely "technical" changes in the regulations, but we feel that this vastly underestimates the importance of the authorities it has flagged and recommended to be changed. END NOTE.) ¶3. (SBU) UNMIK/OLA has provided four volumes of indices which name the regulation and the section in which the proposed changes have been made. Each volume corresponds to another of the transition working groups formed back in November ¶2006. UNMIK/OLA has also made available a CD ROM with the regulations and proposed changes (in English only). This working group last met in late February and will not meet again until these other working groups have finished their review of the proposed changes. ¶4. (SBU) A Latvian legal advisor from the EU Planning Team (EU/PT) who participated in the review assured us the authorities recommended for transition to the PISG do not include any destined for the post-UNMIK International Civilian Office (ICO),pursuant to UNOSEK's final status proposal. She also clarified the process agreed to by the working group for getting these changes to the SRSG for for promulgation. After the other working groups (and the PISG) have commented on those regulations dealing with their subject matter, any exceptions identified will be discussed at a meeting of the legal transition working group and resolved, after which the entire package of proposals will be sent to the Technical Group on Transition, then on to the Strategic Group on Transition, and then finally to the SRSG for promulgation. The long-standing rationale for SRSG promulgation is that the Kosovo Assembly is not competent to review any of these laws, since they are UNMIK regulations that are being prepared to be handed over to the new post-status Kosovo government. On the last day of the transition period, the revised UNMIK regulations will be passed to the Kosovo government, and will remain the law of the land until such time as the Kosovo government and the PRISTINA 00000273 002 OF 006 Kosovo Assembly see fit to amend them. In the interim, however, the Kosovo government will have inherited all the necessary executive authorities to keep the place running. Rule of law in the hands of EU/PT ¶5. (SBU) The transition working group on rule of law, chaired by the head of the planning team for the follow-on EU-led rule of law mission (EU/PT),has met 15 times. It has similarly completed most of its work and subgroups will soon finalize separate transition documents dealing with police and customs, courts and prisons, and will then submit them to the Technical Group on Transition. There has been good participation by the Kosovo Police Service in preparing some of these documents. Civil administration working group nearly finished with its work ¶6. (C) The transition working group covering civil administration has finished the relatively easy tasks of transferring to the PISG competencies on voluntary returns, humanitarian transport, the civil registry, the official gazette, and the census. The transition of several of these had already started before the working group was created. The stickiest of the competencies has been which ministry -- the Ministry of Public Services (MPS) or the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) -- will be responsible for issuing identity cards and travel documents after UNMIK departs. Permanent secretaries from these two ministries -- both controlled by influential members of the dominant ethnic Albanian political party, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) -- bickered openly in transition group meetings in January and February to the delight of opposition party representatives in attendance. After a protracted stalemate between the combative MPS Minister, Melihate Termkolli, and the MIA, USOP intervened to make certain this responsibility, as in most countries, rests with the MIA. On April 4, Termkolli and MIA Minister Blerim Kuqi signed an MoU transferring the department at MPS responsible for the civil registry over to the MIA. ¶7. (C) A subgroup of this working group co-chaired by the MIA has been working for several months at the request of P/DSRSG Steve Schook to develop alternatives for issuing identification cards and travel documents after UNMIK leaves. Schook has made it plain to Kosovo representatives that the UN will not extend the validity of existing documentation past the 120-day transition period, making imperative quick work on an interim system for issuance by the Kosovo Government of identity cards and travel documents immediately after final status. The sub-group has produced a project (forwarded to EUR/SCE) containing two options for producing passports, identity cards and drivers' licenses with existing technology and with upgraded electronic chips and additional security features. The cost of producing 1,000,000 new passports, 1,800,000 new identity cards and 400,000 drivers' licenses using existing technologies will be 8.55 million euros. The subgroup estimates the cost of producing the same magnitude of documents but with higher levels of protection is 15.75 million euros. We have already heard rumors of a request from the Kosovo government for international assistance, including from the USG, to fund this, though we believe they have the budgetary resources to accomplish their goals. ¶8. (SBU) Representatives from the ICO core team have informed the working group that the ICO will not have a role in Kosovo's next census, other than to remind the Kosovo government that it needs to perform one. (NOTE: UNMIK featured too prominently in the census process, which may be one reason why one was never conducted during the past eight years of its tenure. END NOTE.) In a related issue, the PISG has tentatively decided that monitoring of "fair share financing," the amount of a municipality's budget spent on minorities, will be monitored by the Ministry of Local Government Administration (MLGA) rather that the Ministry for PRISTINA 00000273 003 OF 006 Communities and Returns (MCR),because the latter is not ready to take on this responsibility. Governance working group still has a few loose ends to tie up ¶9. (C) The ICO co-chair of the transition working group on governance stated at the group's February 15 meeting that he anticipated it would be the last dealing with issues of actual transition. UNMIK has agreed that PISG representatives could physically review UNMIK's archives to see what types of UNMIK documents will need to be retained post-status. Representatives of Kosovo's archives will visit the facility in the near future to begin reviewing the documents. The governance working group has already developed a plan on Kosovo's future ministry of foreign affairs, although the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and the Ministry of Economy and Finance differ greatly in their estimates of what the ministry will cost. (NOTE: The government has also created a 140-page proposal to create a future ministry of foreign affairs outside the framework of the working group on governance, with the help of a British consultant. This reportedly has outraged opposition leader Veton Surroi, who views himself the first minister of foreign affairs of an independent Kosovo. END NOTE). ¶10. (C) The OPM estimates start-up costs at 2.03 million euros in 2007 and running costs of 4.068 million euros each year from 2007 through 2009. The MEF estimates the net budget increase (taking into account savings from possible transfers of existing staff and contributions from money left over from the Unity Team budget) at 1.3 million euros in 2007, 5.5 million euros in 2008, 9.6 million euros in 2009 and 13.75 million euros in 2010. The MEF representative at the February 15 meeting took issue with the OPM estimates, considering it interference in their work, after which the group compromised by agreeing to submit both sets of figures for consideration at the donors' conference expected during the 120-day transition period after UNSC adoption of a new resolution on Kosovo. According to the OPM representative at this working group, the government has received many offers from organizations and foreign governments to train the personnel of the future ministry. ¶11. (C) A subgroup on security (classified materials) vetting continues its work. The group met in Slovenia on March 26-27 with representatives from the Center for Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF),an internationally-recognized organization that deals with vetting personnel and security for documents. New subgroups on decentralization and cultural heritage will begin their work in April. The subgroup on decentralization had its organizational meeting April 3 and discussed the need to coordinate assistance to the planned, new Serb-majority municipalities. Like the pre-constitution transition working group (see para. 14 below),these subgroups are also faced with the difficulty of convincing Serbs to participate in their work prior to a new UNSC resolution on Kosovo's status. Representatives from the ICO and the PISG asked Father Sava, the well-respected moderate Serb leader from Decani Monastery, a UNESCO-listed site that will benefit greatly from the exclusion zones in the final status proposal, to become a member of the subgroup on cultural heritage, but he declined, offering instead to give advice through less formal channels. Economics and property group discussing the difficult issue of POEs ¶12. (SBU) The transition working group on the economy and property has created sub-working groups on economic regulators, the auditor general, the Central Banking Authority of Kosovo (CBAK),fiscal matters, external economic relations, the Kosovo Property Agency, and the Kosovo Trust Agency. By mid-April, these sub-groups will submit reports with proposed policy recommendations, legislative changes and cost estimates to the full working group, which will discuss and modify if needed, and send them on to the Technical Group on Transition. At a March 21 meeting, the OPM presented its PRISTINA 00000273 004 OF 006 draft "Law on Public Enterprises," which provides for light government involvement with publicly-owned enterprises (POEs). The proposed law does not put the POEs under a ministry, but under an independent board, one of whose members is from the relevant ministry. While this draft law is just a proposal, the representative from the OPM told the group that putting the POEs under a ministry vice an independent entity is non-negotiable. Pre-constitution working group rushes out of the gate ¶13. (SBU) The pre-constitution transition working group has met religiously since its formation in January. Despite the Ahtisaari proposal giving constitution drafting responsibility to a Constitutional Commission formed by President Sejdiu after a new UNSC resolution, this working group soon began calling itself the "Constitutional Group of Kosova." Co-chair Hajredin Kuci from the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) confidently announced in February that Kosovo's draft constitution would be ready for review by the Kosovo Assembly one month after a new UNSC resolution defining Kosovo's status is adopted. In January, the group prepared a skeleton of a draft constitution and in February modified it to include relevant portions of the Ahtisaari proposal. Several of the members then set out to write actual sections of a draft constitution based on nebulous guidance from the group's co-chairs. On March 13 Kuci presented the full group with the rough compilation of this collective effort. This document included a preamble that reportedly contained references to Serbian genocide against Albanians, the valor of the Kosovo Liberation Army and favorable mention of Ibrahim Rugova, Kosovo's first president, who died of cancer in February 2006. The group's representative from Veton Surroi's Ora Reform Party, as well as the ICO planning head Torbjorn Sohlstrom, took issue with the document and ultimately Kuci was forced to call it back so it could be "revised." ¶14. (SBU) Since this rather inauspicious start, three USG-funded constitution drafting experts arranged by USAID visited Kosovo April 18-25 and consulted with each of the members of the working group. The group has now been convinced to take a go-slow approach and is returning to their primary objective of paving the way for the actual Constitutional Commission envisioned in the Ahtisaari proposal. The U.S. experts tasked them to come up with a development plan which should be ready by mid to late April beginning with a timeline and ending in ratification of the constitution by the Kosovo Assembly. A key point raised by the U.S. experts is the problem of Serb participation in the deliberations of the working group and the follow-on Constitutional Commission. The Serb legal expert invited to participate in the working groups has refused to attend meetings, and even moderate Serbs with whom the experts spoke during their visit said if Belgrade instructs them so, they may not join in discussions of Kosovo's new constitution even after any UNSC resolution. Early consensus on elections evaporates ¶15. (SBU) The transition group on elections co-chaired by OSCE head Amb. Werner Wnendt and Deputy PM (and Minister for Local Government Administration) Lutfi Haziri made great headway early on regarding the subject of Kosovo's next elections. It was apparent in these discussions that the OSCE has agreed to give the planning and running of elections in Kosovo over to the government. Early consensus was reached on proportional voting with Kosovo as one electoral district (obviating any need to try to district Kosovo) and using open lists, in line with clear instructions in favor of such a system from Kosovo's Unity Team, made up of Kosovo's top government and opposition leaders. Full consensus continued through the discussion requiring 30 percent of the new Assembly members to be women, but the representative from the tiny ORA party balked when Haziri tried to present the direct election of mayors as also having been ordered by the Unity Team. Although ORA agrees that direct election would PRISTINA 00000273 005 OF 006 make the mayor more accountable to the electorate, its representative said he wanted to get something from the group in another area in exchange for his acquiescence. All of the participants also thought it was a good idea to increase, at least provisionally, the size of the central election commission as proposed in the Ahtisaari package. ¶16. (SBU) The issue of thresholds is another for which consensus has so far eluded the group. Despite the suggestion by co-chair Wnendt for a 2.5 percent threshold for Albanian parties, the largest Albanian parties want a three percent threshold, although they would grudgingly accept a one percent threshold for those parties who declare themselves to represent a minority community. The ORA representative wants to set the threshold at the 2.5 percent figure for which it believes there was earlier consensus. Representatives from the LDK party, the largest in Kosovo, suggested that minority parties also compete for their earned (non set-aside seats) using the higher three percent threshold. (NOTE: A three percent threshold is common in the region and we believe the group will eventually either agree to it for the Albanian parties or send it through the Strategic Political Group to the Unity Team for a decision. It would affect smaller fringe parties like the Islamic Party, the Justice Party and several small Catholic parties who would have to join forces with the larger parties or risk losing their current seats in the Assembly. We believe there is enough support to have a lower threshold for minority parties. END NOTE). The most recent issue raised for which there is not yet a decision is who should write the new election laws. Haziri favored a government-led commission with input from all major parties and civil society, while ORA and civil society prefer a commission at which they would have an equal voice with the government and the main political parties. Public outreach working group assesses next steps ¶17. (SBU) The public outreach working Group is now planning the third phase of its campaign. The second phase -- Sigurt! Sigorno! -- and the community roundtables established to explain the final statuas package ended on March 30. The proposed next steps include an information brochure, public town halls, updating the website and the possibility of a third media campaign. A subgroup drafted a brochure of frequently asked questions generated in the community roundtables and a description of the UNSC process. UNMIK will print them for distribution in the regional town halls, which start April 13. The six regional public town halls organized by a USAID implementing partner will take place in Mitrovica, Peja, Ferizaj, Prizren, Gjilan and Pristina. Panelists will include one Unity Team member, one NGO analyst and one international representative. They will be larger than the community roundtables but use information gathered at the community roundtables to address issues specific to the particular region. The subgroup reported March 29 that the campaign website had received 30,000 hits on the Albanian site and 4,000 on the Serbian language site. Security working group coming along slowly ¶18. (SBU) USOP representatives attended the second meeting of the transition working group on security on March 28. The group decided that subgroups on the creation of the Kosovo Security Force and the demobilization of the current Kosovo Protection Corps as envisioned in the Ahtisaari document will be delayed. The group did, however, decide to establish separate working groups on the Kosovo Security Council and democratic oversight of security issues and agreed to discuss the creation of two sub-groups covering Kosovo's intelligence service and border control at the next meeting in two week's time. Kosovars Rame Arifaj from the OPM and Ylber Hysa representing the Unity team also attend meetings of the transition working group on security on behalf of the Kosovo government. ¶19. (C) COMMENT: Despite the several instances of impasse PRISTINA 00000273 006 OF 006 (mostly between Kosovars) in several of these meetings, these subgroups have succeeded in keeping the government and opposition representatives alike focused on the massive job ahead. Real progress has been made, and even if not every contingency has been dealt with, the Kosovars will be better able to take over the reins of governance than they were six months ago when this process started in earnest. There has been real cooperation by and unity among the members of the groups -- something desperately needed throughout the 120-day transition period envisioned in the Ahtisaari plan between the date of any UNSC resolution and the actual date Kosovo's final status. END COMMENT. ¶20. (SBU) U.S. Office Pristina clears this cable in its entirety for release to U.N. Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari. KAIDANOW