UN WANTS USG GREEN LIGHT ON ITS KOSOVO PLAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 000465 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/23/2018 TAGS: UNMIK UNSC KV YI PREL SUBJECT: UN WANTS USG GREEN LIGHT ON ITS KOSOVO PLAN REF: USUN 450 Classified By: Ambassador Alejandro Wolff, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: In the past two days, DPKO's David Harland has indicated to USUN that DPKO is recommending to SYG Ban Ki-Moon that he reconfigure UNMIK to allow deployment of EULEX even if this must be done in the face of strong Russian and Serbian opposition. Harland and UNMIK's Belgrade Office Director Richard Wilcox see Ban's willingness to hold the line on reconfiguration as a much more serious concern for the international community in Kosovo that the terms of any UN-Belgrade agreement on the six "Samardzic points." Harland strongly urges the USG to push Ban to persevere on reconfiguration as the price of gaining a Quint "green light" to launch his reconfiguration/Samardzic points package in the Security Council. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) This is an action request. See paragraph 7. ¶3. (SBU) DPKO's package for reconfiguring UNMIK (comprising letters to presidents Tadic and Sejdiu, a report to the UNSC, and cables to UNMIK authorizing release of assets to EULEX) was raised with Ambassador Wolff by Ban Deputy Chief of Staff Kim Won-soo and the UN's Belgrade Office Director Richard Wilcox, and separately in a briefing by Harland to the CDG-1 plus Slovenia attended by Deputy Polcounselor on May 22. Deputy Polcounselor and Poloff also met with Harland and DPKO's officer Dennis Besedic on May 23. ¶4. (C) Harland has indicated clearly on several recent occasions that DPKO is advising Ban to go ahead with reconfiguration of UNMIK on the ground even if RUSSIA or Serbia objects to this or to the UNMIK proposal on the Samardzic six points (on police, courts, customs, transport, boundary control, and cultural heritage). To DPKO, dialogue with Belgrade should be an effort to take an Ahtisaari-consistent path with which all interested parties agree or at least acquiesce, but if that effort fails, the UNMIK/DPKO/Ban reconfiguration plan would move forward anyway. The agreement referenced in the letter to go to Tadic would become something of a codicil to the reconfiguration plan to be implemented only if all parties, including Pristina, approved of it. Pressed about whether Ban would take DPKO's advice and implement his own reconfiguration plan should RUSSIA or Serbia object, Harland replied, "That's the $64 million question. I don't know the answer to it. I suggest that ... the USG encourage him to do so." ¶5. (C) Wilcox believes that Ban is not certain to hold the line on the reconfiguration plan in the face of strong objections from Serbia or RUSSIA to either the plan or to UNMIK's response to the Samardzic points. He thought Ban would then have to "regroup" and might decide he had no option but to withdraw the mission entirely rather than have the UN become "the occupier of Kosovo." ¶6. (C) Harland, outside Wilcox's presence, agreed that Ban might favor withdrawing UNMIK as the ultimate reconfiguration if Serbia and RUSSIA strongly objected to the reconfiguration plan or the UN offer on the Samardzic points. He said some Secretariat staff support that option, arguing that the presence of a functional SRSG on June 16 in Kosovo would be an affront to the new Kosovo Constitution and the international civilian representative. Those in this camp, he said, believe Ban could base the drawdown on fundamental considerations of safety. ¶7. (C) ACTION REQUEST. We understand that Ban will chair an internal meeting on Kosovo the afternoon of May 27, prior to his travel abroad the following day. D/COS Kim urged that we provide our views privately to him before that meeting as Ban is awaiting a U.S. "green light" to proceed. USUN requests Department's guidance on SYG Ban's plan to reconfigure UNMIK and related points by opening of business May 27. Wolff