KOSOVO: DPKO RECONFIGURATION PLAN FOR UNMIK

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 USUN NEW YORK 000894 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/01/2018 TAGS: PREL UNSC UNMIK SR KV SUBJECT: KOSOVO: DPKO RECONFIGURATION PLAN FOR UNMIK REF: USUN 706 Classified By: Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo for reasons 1.4(b) and (d) 1.(C) SUMMARY. The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) shared with USUN its internal plans for the reconfiguration of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK),which had been ordered by the Secretary-General (SYG) in June 2008. The plan calls for the reduction of approximately two-thirds of UNMIK personnel, beginning in September 2008, to approximately 980 UN staff on the ground by early 2009. UNMIK plans to focus its resources in areas within Kosovo where the Serb minority continues to live, particularly in northern Kosovo. The reconfiguration plan does not address issues of coordination between UNMIK and other international organizations, nor does it address the issue of privileges and immunities. End Summary. ¶2. (C) This cable reports information obtained during a series of meetings between USUN political staff and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) about plans for reconfiguring the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). UN staff declined to leave copies of the reconfiguration documents with USUN but offered to listen to any USG concerns as the plan is implemented. With DPKO Europe Division Chief David Harland serving TDY in Pristina as PDSRSG, UN participants in these meetings included Assistant Secretary-General Edmond Mulet (first meeting only, with Ambassador DiCarlo),acting division chief Marco Bianchini, Senior Police Liaison Gerard Beekman, and political officers Ignacio Saez-Benito and Andriani Mortoglou. ¶3. (C) The UN's primary UNMIK reconfiguration document is the eleven-page "Proposal From UNMIK Task Force On Reconfiguration." The task force, chaired in Pristina by British national Bryan Hopkinson, was constituted in reaction to two June 24 UN code cables by which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ordered that UNMIK be reconfigured in light of Kosovo's declaration of independence and in the absence of guidance from the Security Council. A Phased Approach -------------- 4.(C) According to the UNMIK reconfiguration plan endorsed by DPKO on September 15, the number of UNMIK personnel on the ground would be reduced by about two-thirds by the end of ¶2008. The reconfiguration is planned to take place in three phases. The first phase began in early September, and will last approximately 60 days; the second phase will be triggered by internal UNMIK events such as the completion of phase one staff reductions, and the third phase involves triggers which are beyond UNMIK's control, such as the pace of deployment of the European Union's Rule of Law Mission (EULEX). A fourth phase, involving withdrawal of UNMIK CIVPOL from the Northern three municipalities and Northern Mitrovice/Mitrovica, has not been scheduled, and will depend on political factors as well as the successful deployment of the EULEX European police mission in those areas. At the end of the third phase, DPKO estimates 980 UNMIK staff will remain on the ground in addition to 599 UNMIK police. DPKO staff have emphasized in their conversations with us that the speed and character of UNMIK reconfiguration will be governed by policy and the needs of UNMIK, rather than by arbitrary schedules and numbers. Phase One -------------- 5.(C) Phase One began in early September and is expected to take approximately 60 days. Phase One involves staff reductions or consolidations for UNMIK offices which are ready for immediate downsizing and not dependent on any other triggering events: The new offices and the number of staff that will remain are as follows (office names may not be exact): Front Office 14 Office of the Chief of Staff 29 Office of Political Affairs 37 UNMIK Office in Northern Mitrovica 44 Office of Legal Affairs 12 Economics 4 Department of Public Information (DPI) 22 Military Liaison Office 5 Joint Military Assistance Cell 6 -------------- Total Phase One 173 6.(C) The Office of Political Affairs (OPA) will grow in size as it takes on the additional responsibilities of the UNMIK USUN NEW Y 00000894 002 OF 003 Office of Communities, which will be eliminated. OPA's focus will be on Security Council mandated reporting, with a concentration on events in ethnic Serb populated areas. OPA will also include under its umbrella field offices in Gracanica/Grancanice, Pec/Peja, and Strpce/Shterpce, which will focus on the needs of the Serb minority in those areas. An existing office in Skopje, Macedonia will continue to be staffed to maintain a staging area in case of an evacuation. ¶7. (C) The four person Economics office will handle the remaining tasks of the former Pillar Four competencies that were largely transferred to the Kosovars. UNMIK will continue to maintain the frozen Kosovo Trust Agency accounts, pending the outcome of lawsuits over Kosovo privatizations. Phase Two -------------- 8.(C) The Phase Two reconfiguration mainly involves offices engaged with mission support and logistics. These staff members will need to remain at UNMIK while the drawdown is taking place. Mission Support and Security will need to remain in place to facilitate the Phase One departure of staff, and to dispose of UNMIK property. The Conduct and Discipline Office is a UN mandated office. 9,(C) At the end of Phase Two, the following offices will remain with the following approximate staff numbers: Mission Support 348 Security 147 Conduct and Discipline 5 -------------- Total Phase Two 500 Phase Three -------------- 10.(C) Phase Three reconfiguration will be triggered by external events. Phase Three offices include an UNMIK police office (Note. This is not the CIVPOL unit, but is an administrative unit consisting mostly of language services staff.),the Mitrovica Court, and the UN Office in Belgrade (funded within the UNMIK budget). At the end of Phase Three, DPKO plans for approximate staffing numbers as follows: Rule of Law 11 UN Police (administrative) 155 Mitrovica Court 98 UN Office Belgrade 17 Kosovo Protection Corps Coordinator 0 -------------- Total Phase Three 281 11.(C) EULEX deployment will trigger reduction of the UNMIK Rule of Law mission and of the UN Police administrative office. UNMIK also plans to reopen the Mitrovica Court, which has been closed since violence broke out in March 2008. The time frame for opening the Court will depend on the outcome of discussions between UNMIK and Serbia. 12.(C) At the end of Phase Three, there would be approximately 980 UNMIK staff on the ground. (Note: This number is slightly higher than the sum of the three phases given to us by DPKO, which add up to 954.) Originally for 2008-2009, UNMIK had budgeted for a total of 2846 UNMIK staff. The resulting reconfiguration will result in a mission approximately one-third the size of the budgeted mission. CIVPOL -------------- 13.(C) The number of UNMIK Civilian Police Mission (CIVPOL) to remain in Kosovo is not included in the above totals. The CIVPOL contingent, which currently stands at approximately 2065 officers, will decrease incrementally as the EU ESDP mission ramps up. 599 UNMIK CIVPOL will remain in Kosovo at the end of the EULEX deployment, and will operate mainly in Serb-populated areas. At the end of the transition from CIVPOL to EULEX (target date 11/23),approximately 300 UNMIK CIVPOL officers and about 300 KFOR personnel will be rehatted as EULEX officers. There were approximately 88 EULEX officers on the ground in early September, in addition to some 300 non-police EULEX staff that have already deployed or were rehatted from UNMIK in an administrative capacity. DPKO expects about 80 EULEX personnel to be deployed each week, starting the week of September 21. The deployment should be complete by the end of the year, at which time there would be about 1700 EULEX officers on the ground. DPKO told us that there has been an inordinately high dropout rate (40 percent) of the EULEX personnel committed to deploy, which is partly attributable to the delays in deployment. USUN NEW Y 00000894 003 OF 003 COMMENT -------------- 14.(C) The UN appears to view the primary responsibility of the reconfigured UNMIK as addressing the needs and protections of Kosovo's Serb population. In planning its footprint in the Serb areas, the UN has turned first to Serbia-- not the Kosovo government-- to negotiate the modalities of its presence. Once reconfiguration is complete, a parallel UNMIK administration would grant implicit legitimacy to Serbia's parallel structures in Kosovo by interactacting with the ethnic Serb population of Kosovo under different rules than the EULEX and ICO interacts with the ethnic Kosovar population. This parallel international structure will only serve to reinforce the perception of Kosovo's partition. We will continue to urge DPKO to approach its UNMIK reconfiguration with the whole population of Kosovo in mind. Khalilzad