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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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(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