GERMANY SKEPTICAL ON COORDINATION OF PRT CIVILIAN

UNCLAS BERLIN 000061 SENSITIVE SIPDIS PRAGUE FOR ACTING DCM JOHN LAW STATE FOR S/SRAP SENIOR ADVISOR DERECK HOGAN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL NATO GM AF SUBJECT: GERMANY SKEPTICAL ON COORDINATION OF PRT CIVILIAN ASSISTANCE REF: STATE 3595 ¶1. (SBU) Post delivered reftel points to MFA AF/PAK Task Force Director Ruediger Koenig on January 15, strongly encouraging Germany to send a senior official to participate in a January 25 meeting with D/SRAP Jones and other Deputy SRAPs before the start of Prague PRT Conference. Koenig noted that Germany did not have a D/SRAP per se, but that he, working directly under German SRAP Muetzelburg, effectively filled that role. He indicated that because of the press of work in advance of the January 28 London Conference, he would unfortunately not be able to go to Prague. However, he noted that he would have one of the German MFA officials attending the conference, PRT Kunduz Civilian Leader Burkhard Ducoffre, represent Germany at the D/SRAP meeting. ¶2. (SBU) Koenig expressed some misgivings about trying to coordinate PRT development and other civilian assistance. He noted that in German PRTs, the civilian component was distinct from the military component and did not fall under the ISAF military chain of command. In identifying potential development projects, the PRT itself played only a "transmission" and "monitoring" role with regard to development projects. All the decisions about what projects to pursue and the funding for those projects came from either the MFA or the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. German diplomats and aid workers already did all the necessary coordination at the local and national level to ensure that proposed projects were sustainable, had local buy-in, and were carried out in accordance with the Afghan National Development Strategy. ¶3. (SBU) Koenig therefore saw little need for further "coordination" of the civilian work of PRTs -- especially by NATO/ISAF. He wondered whether the U.S. itself really supported the idea of having the NATO Senior Civilian Representative (SCR),for example, tell U.S. PRT commanders what projects they should or should not do with their national CERP funds. Koenig thought a more useful role for a strengthened NATO SCR would be to improve coordination with UNAMA, the EU and other international organizations on what assistance the ISAF HQ staff was providing to Afghan authorities on anticorruption, governance, and other civilian activities. MURPHY