Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07PRISTINA669
2007-09-06 15:52:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Pristina
Cable title:  

KOSOVO: DEMINING REPORT RECOMMENDS MORE CLEARANCE

Tags:  PGOV KCRM EAID KDEM UNMIK KV 
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TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7674
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RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1266
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000669 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

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

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/31/2017
TAGS: PGOV KCRM EAID KDEM UNMIK KV
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: DEMINING REPORT RECOMMENDS MORE CLEARANCE
AND EDUCATION, HIGHLIGHTS RISK OF NEWLY-ABANDONED LANDMINES
MINES AND UXOS

REF: 2006 PRISTINA 923

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

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000669

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

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

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/31/2017
TAGS: PGOV KCRM EAID KDEM UNMIK KV
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: DEMINING REPORT RECOMMENDS MORE CLEARANCE
AND EDUCATION, HIGHLIGHTS RISK OF NEWLY-ABANDONED LANDMINES
MINES AND UXOS

REF: 2006 PRISTINA 923

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


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The Geneva International Center for
Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) published a report in July 2007
on landmine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination in
Kosovo and the local capacity to address it. The report, the
result of a February GICHD mission to Kosovo to review
progress on addressing the landmine and UXO threat and
evaluate a HALO Trust report on suspected dangerous areas,
concludes that contamination may be greater than earlier
anticipated, but that it is not a constraint on development
and sustainable livelihoods. The report also calls for the
continuation of clearance and mine risk education (MRE)
efforts and highlights the need to reduce private stockpiles
of munitions to prevent accidents from newly-abandoned
landmines and UXOs, which Kosovars often leave in fields and
parking lots throughout Kosovo. END SUMMARY.

GICHD's Mission to Kosovo


2. (C) A Geneva International Center for Humanitarian
Demining (GICHD) assessment team visited Kosovo in February
2007 at the invitation of the Office of the Kosovo Protection
Corps Coordinator (OKPCC) to: 1) follow-up on their July and
August 2006 assessment mission, and 2) review HALO Trust's
December 2006 report entitled "Failing the Kosovars." The
2006 assessment mission, which was largely the result of
questions HALO raised about the extent of landmine and
unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination in Kosovo and the
capacity of the OKPCC EOD Management Section and Kosovo
Protection Corps (KPC) EOD teams, revealed some information
management problems, including missing and incomplete task
dossiers. (NOTE: There was an acrimonious dispute between
HALO and the OKPCC during ex-KPC Coordinator General
Christopher Steirn's tenure. At the lowest point, HALO Trust

Director Guy Willoughby sent a letter to General Steirn in
November 2006 attacking his credibility. Relations between
the two organizations remain tense, and HALO has ignored
OKPCC's order for them to leave Kosovo. END NOTE.) However,
GICHD experts said they did not believe those problems had
resulted in substantially underestimating contaminated areas.
Consequently, GICHD concluded that OKPCC EOD Management
Section and the KPC EOD teams had sufficient capacity to
handle the residual threat from landmines and UXO, but made
some recommendations for improvement. Most of the
recommendations related to improvement of information
management, additional research, re-survey of sites for which
documentation was incomplete, and improvement of mechanisms
for the public to report potential contamination problems.

GICHD's follow-up mission uncovers no significant unknown
problems


3. (SBU) In February 2007, GICHD reviewed OKPCC Explosive
Ordnance (EOD) Management Section's progress on the
recommendations for improvement and looked at the task
dossiers they had not examined in 2006. They found that
OKPCC EOD Management Section had promptly addressed all of
the recommendations related to threats directly affecting the
population and had completed or made significant progress on
most of the other recommendations. The task dossier review
revealed more missing and incomplete information, and GICHD
said some areas would require re-surveying as a result.
Nevertheless, GICHD said it did not uncover evidence of
significant unknown problems.


4. (SBU) During their assessment mission, GICHD also
reviewed "Failing the Kosovars" and met with HALO
representatives. GICHD was not surprised that HALO's
proactive survey had uncovered additional areas of concern,
but was surprised by the scale of the problem HALO reported.
HALO says it uncovered an additional 58 tasks; OKPCC EOD
Management's 2006 year-end estimate was 36 remaining tasks.

PRISTINA 00000669 002 OF 003


While the GICHD assessment team was unable to determine the
accuracy of HALO's estimate since the areas in question will
require further investigation, they pointed out that general
surveys sometimes result in estimates "that overstate the
problem, often by enormous amounts." They also noted that
OKPCC and Mine Awareness Trust (MAT) surveyors that visited
the majority of the sites in "Failing the Kosovars" found
some sites that would require clearance, but also found some
suspicious information and some reports that were the result
of locals who were fearful due to ignorance about the
clearance that had taken place.

Landmines and UXOs abandoned after the war pose threats


5. (SBU) GICHD listed a variety of reasons for the potential
discovery of additional dangerous areas, the most disturbing
of which is that numerous landmines and UXOs have been
abandoned in Kosovo since the war. According to GICHD,
individuals and militias have stockpiled munitions --
including both unused mines and those "lifted" from implanted
minefields -- because they believe the security situation is
tenuous. When they hear about KFOR collection efforts, some
choose to abandon dangerous items rather than risk KFOR
seizure and possible criminal charges. GICHD's claims are
consistent with OKPCC EOD Management Section reports of
finding newly-abandoned munitions in fields and parking lots
due to people who have grown nervous about keeping the
munitions in their homes, but fear that reporting them to
authorities might prompt seizure of other illegal weapons
they want to keep for self-defense. USOP sees evidence of
this every day in UNMIK Police situation reports. For
example, on August 10, a Kosovo Serb reported an unexploded
device on his property in the Suvi Do area of North
Mitrovica. Police responded and discovered it was a 60 mm
projectile for a rocket launcher; upon closer inspection of
the area, they found a total of 17 similar projectiles. The
next day, the UNMIK Police situation report mentioned that
police found a rocket launcher in the same area. KPS
Spokesperson Veton Elshani told poloff off-the-record that
the rocket launcher and projectiles did not pre-date the war.


6. (SBU) GICHD also cited a number of less alarming reasons
for not being surprised that the contaminated areas in Kosovo
might be larger than previously anticipated. They said some
minefields were never recorded and are not discovered until
someone sees a mine or an accident occurs. They also
reported that cluster bomb strike records are inaccurate and
that actual sites may not be confirmed until local residents
see cluster bombs. Finally, Kosovo's terrain is rugged and
some contaminated areas may be in isolated areas that have
not yet been discovered. GICHD predicts that as the road
system improves and communities' "economic footprints"
expand, people will find previously unknown areas
contaminated with landmines and UXOs.

GICHD's Recommendations


7. (SBU) GICHD's report reaffirms that landmines and UXO are
not a constraint on development and sustainable livelihoods
in Kosovo and says KPC EOD teams can handle the residual
threat by either extending the duration of their demining
program or further expanding their capacity. It also
recommends continuing mine risk education (MRE) and clearance
efforts, as well as reducing Kosovars' stockpiles of
munitions to prevent accidents from newly-abandoned landmines
and UXO.


8. (C) Comment: While GICHD's report focuses on the degree
of contamination from landmines and UXOs and clearance
efforts and capabilities, it highlights the very important
issue of the threat from newly-abandoned landmines and UXOs
and reminds us of the need for ongoing MRE. Post will
continue to search for ways to help the Kosovars address
these problems. Thanks to a PM/WRA grant, KPC EOD teams are
currently benefiting from the help of dogs borrowed from the

PRISTINA 00000669 003 OF 003


Mine Detection Dog Center (MDDC) in Bosnia that can reach
remote areas that deminers have difficulty surveying. The
dogs recently worked on a site near Kacanik that HALO Trust
had identified as potentially contaminated; they discovered
that it was mine-free. USOP and PM/WRA are also working with
a local NGO and the International Trust Fund (ITF) in
Slovenia on a possible MRE program to reach schoolchildren in
affected areas in western Kosovo. End Comment.
KAIDANOW