DEMILITARIZATION: GRADUAL PROGRESS BUT REMAINING

C O N F I D E N T I A L TIRANA 000146

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/28/2019
TAGS: PARM PGOV MASS PREL AL
SUBJECT: DEMILITARIZATION: GRADUAL PROGRESS BUT REMAINING
ISSUES

REF: A) 2008 TIRANA 775 B) 2008 TIRANA 814

Classified By: DCM Stephen Cristina for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary. On February 26-27, PM/WRA Senior Advisor Mark
Adams visited Tirana to review progress on Albania's
demilitarization efforts and to meet with Defense Minister
Oketa. There has been recent positive progress, although
several issues remain. To date, the Defense Minister has not
signed the National Demilitarization Plan developed last
summer, and some within the MoD are using this as an excuse
to drag their feet on execution. Of the two major industrial
demil facilities, one (Mjekes) is finally running
(dismantling around 800 rounds per day),and Oketa stated
that the second (Polican) should start soon. Oketa again
requested U.S. assistance in upgrading Polican. Although the
MoD is determined to start open detonation at eight
designated sites on April 1, MoD staff may not be ready by
then. EUCOM is offering training to that end. But there is
concern of bribery in the MoD's selection of officers for
that training. Cleanup of Gerdec is gradually progressing and
Oketa has decided to destroy munitions from Gerdec by open
detonation once they are released by the Prosecutor General.
Lastly, Adams shared with Oketa his vision of long-term demil
assistance through the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency
(NAMSA). End summary.

NATIONAL DEMIL PLAN
--------------


2. (C) In June 2008, U.S. contractor Cubic helped Defense
Minister Oketa to prepare a National Demil Plan, which Oketa
then presented to international donors (ref a). However,
near the end of 2008, when criticized for foot-dragging on
the National Demil Plan, General Staff J4 staff responded
that there is no National Demil Plan because the DefMin had
never signed it. Since then, J4 staff has written their own
National Demil Plan which generally follows Cubic's previous
plan. However, when asked on Feb 27 by Adams, Oketa
responded that it still has not been signed because officers
had requested time to make some minor changes in figures in
the plan. Obviously frustrated, Oketa turned to his
assistant and in Albanian told him to tell the staff to
provide Oketa with a finalized plan to sign and to stop
dithering over numbers.


3. (C) Comment. The lack of a signed plan continues to be an
excuse which J4 staff use to drag their feet on
implementation. To be resolved, it will probably need
continued external pressure. Post will follow up until it is
resolved. End comment.

MJEKES AND POLICAN
--------------


4. (C) During the week of February 11, the MoD finally began
industrial demil. Mjekes began working its 160mm line at
near-to-full capacity (around 800 rounds per day). A planned
second line at Mjekes is contingent on the Danish donation of
two more band-saws, which the Danish have not yet been able
to procure. Concerning Polican, Oketa reported to Adams that
it should start as soon as possible, but that the MoD must
first remove excess fuses left over from previous demil
efforts. The U.S. contractor also told Poloff that local
residents have complained about the noise of the furnace that
will be used to destroy fuses, so the Polican management has
agreed to build a casing for the furnace to reduce noise
before demil starts. U.S. contractor remains worried that
MoD staff continue to find reasons to stall in beginning the
82mm line at Polican. Post will continue to monitor.


5. (C) Oketa again raised concerns over the poor quality of
the Polican facility and his inability to use MoD funds to
upgrade Polican. Oketa suggested that as part of the
contract between U.S. contractor Armor Group and the Polican
facility, Armor Group could agree to advance pay Polican
enough money to purchase equipment upgrades and that money
could then be subtracted from future payments to Polican.
Adams agreed to consider this option.

OPEN-AIR DETONATION
--------------


6. (C) Along with the two demil sites, MoD intends to begin
open-air detonation of the most dangerous category of
munitions at eight designated sites by April 1. To this end,
EUCOM will offer brief munitions disposal training beginning
March 11. Yet EUCOM EOD Advisor LTC Buckley has expressed

concern about the Albanian Armed Forces' (AAF) ability to be
ready to conduct open-air detonation by then. It is also
unclear if the sites will be ready and approved by the given
date.


7. (C) Although attendance rosters were submitted weeks ago
for the EUCOM training, last week, General Staff J4 submitted
a revised list of attendees. Not only was this of concern
because of the lack of time for vetting, even more worrisome
was the fact that only four of the approximately 30
participants on the new list had received the AAF EOD
preparatory training offered last month. It is allegedly
common practice for AAF officers to "buy" their attendance in
training that they will then use for their personal benefit.
Post reported this corruption phenomenon in regards to Iraq
deployments in ref b. Given the time constraints, the CHOD
has sent an official request for a waiver of the vetting
process.

GERDEC
--------------


8. (C) Cleanup of Gerdec continues. Armor Group and AAF have
removed approximately 1,600 tons of munitions from the site.
Of the reported 9,000 tons delivered to Gerdec before the
explosion, Armor Group experts guess that 3,000 tons were
probably completely destroyed, and 6,000 tons must be
cleared. It is still unclear if the Prosecutor General has
released the munitions for destruction. In any case, Oketa
reported to Adams that his intention is to hold off on
destruction of Gerdec munitions until the entire site has
been cleared. He stated that NAMSA experts have advised him
that open-air detonation of these munitions would be much
safer than industrial demil. (Note. NAMSA expert Graham
Goodrum has told Post that if the GOA requests NAMSA destroy
the Gerdec munitions by industrial demil, he will refuse
because of the danger. However, U.S. contractor Armor Group
experts disagree and say that the greater danger is in
transporting the munitions as there are no close detonation
sites. End Note.)


9. (C) Oketa requested that Adams not change the agreement on
Gerdec demil for now and left open the possibility of
requesting Armor Group's assistance in the future. For the
time being, though, he stated that the GOA takes full
responsibility for munitions recovered from Gerdec.

FUTURE NAMSA ASSISTANCE
--------------


10. (C) Adams also shared his vision for long-term demil
assistance to Albania. NAMSA is currently preparing a
proposal for demil assistance. Goodrum shared a preview of
his thoughts with Ambassador. His hope is to establish two
additional lines at Mjekes to handle up to 50,000 tons of
demil. NAMSA could also run the incinerator it previously
built at Mjekes to destroy SALW and fuses. Such a project
would not likely start before the beginning of 2010.


11. (C) Goodrum noted that a big obstacle at Mjekes is the
continued presence of 180 tons of RDX explosives and 80 tons
of propellant at Area C at Mjekes, both in an unstable state.
Were one of these to explode, it would wipe out the entire
Mjekes facility. When Adams raised this issue with Oketa,
Oketa noted that there is still debate in the MoD about
selling the RDX. Oketa stated that he has verbally given his
staff one week to find a buyer for the RDX after which he
will issue the order for the RDX to be destroyed. When
pushed, Oketa did not confirm that he had put this ultimatum
in writing.


12. (C) Adams explained to Oketa his vision that over the
next several years, US assistance would gradually shift away
from bilateral (through Armor Group) and toward a NAMSA
project that would oversee long-term demil assistance. In a
previous conversation between Adams and Goodrum, Goodrum
seemed open to expanding a NAMSA project to eventually
include Polican. But Oketa did not see a need for two demil
sites in the long-term and does not plan to continue to use
Polican after the bulk of the National Plan is accomplished.
WITHERS