EUPOL DEPLOYMENT TO U.S. PRTS -- LETTERS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 BRUSSELS 001505 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR L/EUR, EUR/RPM, EUR/ERA, S/SRAP STAFF E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/09/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS MARR EUN NATO AF SUBJECT: EUPOL DEPLOYMENT TO U.S. PRTS -- LETTERS REQUESTING A TECHNICAL AGREEMENT REF: KABUL 3557 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Christopher Murray for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Embassy Kabul, in Reftel, raises the importance of the issue of whether the U.S. should sign letters of agreement with the European Union Police Mission in Afghanistan (EUPOL). In order to ensure that discussions on this issue in Washington and elsewhere focus on precisely what the European Union is asking of us, we transmit below the text of three EU letters to us on the subject of EUPOL and U.S.-led PRTs. The most recent letter follows immediately in para 2 below and was transmitted two months ago. Consistent letters had been transmitted to the USEU Ambassador in April and in June of 2007. Replies have not been provided to these three letters. The attachment to the most recent letter, referred to in that letter's first paragraph, will be forwarded by classified email to the Department of State, EUR/ERA. ¶2. (SBU) Begin text of first letter: Brussels, 4 September 2009 Christopher Murray Charge d'Affaires United States Mission to the European Union Rue Zinner 13 B-1000 Brussels, Belgium Subject: Plan for Securing EUPOL AFGHANISTAN Logistical Capacities outside Kabul ("PT/RT Logistics Plan") Dear Sir, As agreed by EU Member States, the EU police mission in Afghanistan, EUPOL AFGHANISTAN, will implement its consolidated strategy with six priorities (Anti-Corruption, Human Rights and Gender Policy, Cooperation Police/Judiciary, Intelligence Led Policing, CID and PC 3). Referring to the CIVCOM advice on the EUPOL AFGHANISTAN Six-Monthly Report (January-June 2009) the Head of Mission, together with GSC, has now made an initial thorough assessment of the logistical and security needs for EUPOL staff in the PRTs/RCs. The assessment has been made on the basis of a draft revised deployment (attached),considered to best match with the implementation of the above mentioned priorities. The results of this assessment will be presented to the PSC and to the CoC for discussion by the end of September 2009, together with recommendatins on how to solve these logistical and security shortfalls identified. Based on this discussion, PSC decision, and CivCom discussion on modified �00A;OPLAN, the Financial Statement for the next budget will be processed in RELEX. However, in order to provide EU Member States and Third States with the most accurate assessment, we need to receive from PRT/RC lead nations some information, that will enable the Mission and the CPCC to fine tune its draft revised deployment plan and to proceed to a detailed definition of logistical and security needs and their related financial implications. Security aspects might also need to be considered, when current deployment of EUPOL staff are not fully compliant with the security standards indicated in the OPLAN. I would like to bring to your attention the findings of the specific needs in your PRT/RC. Please find attached the table providing an overview of the foreseen distribution of the 400 personnel to the HQ Kabul and to the regions/provinces taking into account the six priorities (this draft deployment plan is provided as a planning document and will be revised according to the information provided by you in particular in terms of absorption capacities). In order to fully implement EUPOL's mandate your continued support is essential for the success of the Mission and in particular the timely achievement of agreed level of staffing. As you know, EUPOL AFGHANISTAN relies heavily on PRT/RC lead nations to provide support for its personnel BRUSSELS 00001505 002 OF 004 deployed outside of Kabul. Therefore, we would appreciate if your authorities could indicate, as precisely as possible, whether or not (or partially) their PRT/RC can support the Mission in the following areas: 1) Logistic support -- RCE Jalalabad: Office Accommodation: Provision of long term rented facilities or allocation of land to construct 7 office containers and 1 double container conference room is needed; Eupol's requirement for full deployment contains 14 working spaces and one conference room; Sleeping Accommodation: Provision of long term rented facilities or allocation of land to construct 7 accommodation containers (double occupancy) and 4 accommodation containers (double occupancy) for CPT is needed; Eupol's requirement for full deployment contains 13 beds (double occupancy) and 8 beds (double occupancy) for CPT; -- PRT Mihtarlam (Laghman): Office Accommodation: Provision of long term rented facilities or allocation of land to construct 4 office containers and 1 double container conference room is needed; Eupol's requirement for full deployment contains 9 working spaces and one conference room; Sleeping Accommodation: Provision of long term rented facilities or allocation of land to construct 4 accommodation containers (double occupancy) and 2 accommodation containers (double occupancy) for CPT is needed; Eupol's requirement for full deployment contains 8 beds (double occupancy) and 4 beds (double occupancy) for CPT; In order to prepare for the new budget of the mission, I would also appreciate if your authorities could indicate whether these additional facilities would be made available to EUPOL: -- free of charge, as in kind contribution; -- for a rental fee/per person/per day (expected amount of the fee); -- following a request of settlement of the costs for construction. 2) Security Your authorities should also indicate whether the recommended increase of personnel in your PRT/RC can be supported by the provision of the necessary security measures (force protection/extraction) for EUPOL personnel by your PRT/RC (according to the agreed Technical arrangement) to enable EUPOL personnel to perform their duties; if not, could you inform us whether your authorities would allow the deployment of Private Security Companies Close Protection Teams (CPTs) in your PRT/RC (to be contracted by EUPOL AFG) and whether required space could be provided (see above). The response to these questions will enable the Mission and the CPCC to better define EUPOL's revised deployment plan, as well as the profile of the personnel required to fill the positions (police officers or civilian experts). In addition, your authorities should indicate whether if deemed necessary they would accept that EUPOL upgrades some elements of the security apparatus (e.g. deployment of armored containers) for its own staff deployed in Jalalabad and Mihtarlam. In order to keep with the tight schedule for the planning and start of the redeployment of the mission, I would very much appreciate that the required information be transmitted, no later than 11 September 2009, to Ms Sophie Bondesson (sophie.bondesson@consilium.europa.eu),and to Mr Uwe Wientzek (uwe.wientzek@consilium.europa.eu),CPCC, EUPOL AFGHANISTAN team. BRUSSELS 00001505 003 OF 004 I would once more like to express my appreciation for your continued support to EUPOL AFGHANISTAN. With best regards. Yours sincerely, (signed) Kees Klompenhouwer Civilian Operations Commander End text of first letter. ¶3. (SBU) Begin text of second letter: Brussels, 18 April 2007 H.E. Ambassador C. Boyden Gray United States Mission to the European Union Rue Zinner 13 1000 Bruxelles Subject: ESDP police mission to Afghanistan Dear Ambassador, The EU is currently planning to launch a civilian ESDP mission to Afghanistan will aim at supporting police reform and the establishment of sustainable and effective civilian policing arrangements. The mission would focus inter alia on training, criminal investigations and borders. It will also promote overall administrative and legislative reform in the field of police as required. Since the start of the planning, we have maintained regular contacts with our US counterparts in order to exchange information on the concept of our mission. We very much appreciated your support in this regard and welcomed the interest you indicated in EU's intention to launch a police mission, part of EU's long term commitment in Afghanistan. We currently foresee that, besides deployment in the capital, the mission will include the deployment of police officers to provinces and regions. To this effect we are considering deployment of personnel within some Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) and regional commands (RC) operated by EU Member States and/or Third States. We intend to start the deployment of our experts by mid June 2007. Our strategic approach, which we had opportunity to present in various meetings with our US counterparts in Kabul and Washington DC, envisages, if possible, a presence in all of the police regional commands. We are therefore considering to deploy a limited number of police experts (7 police experts) in the Regional Command East in Gardez, which is under US lead. We would be grateful if you agreed to such a deployment. Our experts are ready to discuss with the appropriate people on the US side all necessary details. These personnel would be under an EU chain of command. However, for logistic aspects (which may include those of the following nature: inter alia the provision of accommodation, food, MEDEVAC, CIS),we plan to potentially rely on PRTs lead nation/RC support. Therefore, in case of a positive answer from your side for hosting some police experts, we would be grateful if you also could consider supporting them on the logistics aspects. In this regard, a technical arrangement signed on our side by the Head of Mission of our police mission would have to be agreed with you to define the legal and financial modalities of such a support. We look forward to discussing these aspects with your experts during the technical mission support workshop organized by the EU Council Secretariat on 23 April. I also would like to use this opportunity to inform you on the EU's intention to participate to the manning of the Secretariat of the International Police Coordination Board (IPCB) with approximately 20 persons. As you know, the IPCB should play a major role in coordinating and streamlining the efforts of the international community in the police sector in Afghanistan. As the US represent a major actor in police reform and training in Afghanistan, we look forward to BRUSSELS 00001505 004 OF 004 continuing close cooperation with you. We very much appreciate the informal positive indications about a number of approximately 10 personnel we have received regarding the US participation in the IPCB Secretariat Let me take this occasion to thank you in advance for the continued cooperation between the EU and the US in our common efforts working towards a stable and prosperous Afghanistan. Yours sincerely, (signed) Pedro Serrano End text of second letter. ¶4. (SBU) Begin text of third letter: Brussels (stamped) 29-06-2007 H.E. Mr C. Boyden Gray Ambassador, Head of Mission of the United States to the EU Rue Zinner 13 1000 Brussels Dear Ambassador, As you know the European Union Police Mission in Afghanistan -- EUPOL AFGHANISTAN -- started on 15 June 2007. The Operation Plan of our mission foresees a deployment of our police experts not only to Kabul, where our Head Quarters will be located, but also at the provincial and regional levels, in some Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) and Regional Commands (RCs). As it is already the case for the civilian experts currently working in the PRTs and RCs under national command, we expect that EUPOL AFGHANISTAN staff deployed in these PRTs/RCs will also receive the appropriate support from the PRT/RC lead nations concerned. The EU Council Secretariat has already contacted your competent authorities on these issues with a view to agreeing on Technical Arrangements between EUPOL AFGHANISTAN Head of Mission and the PRTs/RCs lead nations concerned. These Technical Arrangements should define the PRTs/RCs lead nations support to our Mission. I have tasked EUPOL AFGHANISTAN Head of Mission to finalise these support modalities with the PRTs/RCs lead nations concerned as a matter of priority. Our deployment plan foresees the deployment of EUPOL AFGHANISTAN staff to PRTs/RCs from 30 June onwards. Without the necessary Technical Arrangements in place, we will not be able to deploy to the PRTs/RCs as planned. I would therefore kindly request that your authorities take the necessary measures to rapidly finalise these Technical Arrangements. I would like to use this opportunity to thank you in advance for your support to our Police Mission EUPOL AFGHANISTAN. Yours faithfully, (signed) Javier Solana End text of third letter. MURRAY