VZCZCXRO4618
RR RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHPS #0211/01 0690954
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 100954Z MAR 06
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5889
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 0908
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RHMFISS/USNMR SHAPE BE//INTAF//
RUFNPKD/USDOCO SOUTH NAPLES IT//INTAF//
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000211 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/SCE, EUR/ACE, IO, NSC FOR BBRAUN, USUN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/10/2016 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: AHTISAARI'S KOSOVO VISIT: PROGRESS ON 
DECENTRALIZATION BEFORE STATUS 
 
 
Classified By: Philip S. Goldberg for Reasons 1.4 (B) AND (D) 
 
¶1. (C)  SUMMARY.  The second visit to Kosovo of Martti 
Ahtisaari, UN Special Envoy for Kosovo Final Status Talks, 
focused on creating an improved political situation for 
Kosovo's minority populations.  He demanded progress on 
property rights, prosecution of crimes against Kosovo Serbs, 
and concrete implementation of elements of decentralization. 
He publicly stated he believed the February 20-21 
decentralization meeting in Vienna had been a "good start," 
and urged Kosovo's leaders to be continuously engaged on both 
central and local levels and in future Vienna meetings on 
cultural and religious heritage, minority rights and the 
economy.  The Kosovo government's public reaction to 
Ahtisaari's visit was positive.  Ahtisaari's messages to 
Pristina-based representatives of the Contact Group focused 
on accelerating on-the-ground progress from a technical 
standpoint.  END SUMMARY. 
 
MESSAGE TO PISG:  PROGRESS ON "STATUS-NEUTRAL" ISSUES 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶2. (C) Martti Ahtisaari's message to Kosovo Albanian leaders 
during his March 1-3 visit to Kosovo called for immediate 
action and further concessions by Pristina on 
decentralization before status is discussed.  On March 1, the 
first day of his visit, Ahtisaari met with the members of the 
Kosovo Albanian final status negotiating team and held a 
private meeting with newly-elected Kosovo President Fatmir 
Sejdiu.  Ahtisaari later told Contact Group heads of office 
that he had urged team members to speed up the process of 
creating a better political situation for Kosovo's minority 
populations on concrete issues such as property rights, 
crimes against Serbs (he said he asked UNMIK to investigate a 
case brought to his attention during a meeting with Kosovo 
Serb municipal presidents), and implementation of technical 
aspects of decentralization realizable in the short-term, 
such as the drafting of legislation on local elections, local 
self-government and local finance.  Cultural heritage and 
church property can also be addressed before status is 
determined, he said.  In a local television interview aired 
on March 4, he said that if the PISG does not have the 
capacity to address these issues, "the international 
community is here to assist" and to find areas of common 
ground for compromise.  "Negotiation is compromise," he 
added. 
 
¶3. (C) Ahtisaari told Contact Group reps on March 3 that he 
viewed positively recent changes in the Kosovo government: 
the election of President Fatmir Sejdiu following President 
Ibrahim Rugova's death on January 21, and the replacement of 
Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi with Kosovo Protection Corps 
commander General Agim Ceku.  He said the new government must 
move quickly if it is to "finish the (final status) process 
in 2006." 
 
"BOTTOM UP" APPROACH ON DECENTRALIZATION 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (C) Ahtisaari's second day in Kosovo focused on gathering 
opinions on technical aspects of decentralization in meetings 
with political and municipal representatives from Kosovo's 
majority-Serb communities, members of Kosovo's non-Serb 
minority communities, a Kosovo women's group, and 
representatives of the ethnic Albanian Association of Kosovo 
Municipalities.  He told the Contact Group reps that, during 
a meeting in Lipljan with the mayors of Kosovo's five 
Serb-majority municipalities, he had pushed minority 
participation in status efforts and in Kosovo political 
structures.  He said he was was encouraged by efforts being 
made to improve relations among minority communities, but 
told the press that "a lot more needs to be done" and that 
leaders of all communities to be generous in recogniction 
that "changing people's attitudes doesn't cost a penny." 
This should be done, he said, not because the international 
community is asking for it, but because it is in the interest 
of all people in Kosovo.  Zubin Potok (Serb majority) Mayor 
Slavisa Ristic told the press that granting of a Serb request 
for local autonomy in the justice and policing sectors would 
"solve the problem of (Serb) existence" and lack of freedom 
of movement. 
 
PRISTINA 00000211  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
FUTURE REDUCED INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (C)  Ahtisaari told the Contact Group reps that he 
favored a lighter international presence in Kosovo than has 
been proposed in European capitals.  Likening Kosovo to a 
30-year-old bachelor still living with his mother, he said, 
"It's time to live with more responsibility."  He added that 
he found it difficult to conceptualize how Kosovo could be 
left without some sort of post-status armed force, be it 
called a gendarmerie, a national guard or an army.  "How will 
they secure a society without an organized force?" he asked, 
and "how will they enter Euro-Atlantic structures?"  To 
Kosovars, he said in a half-hour March 4 televised local 
interview that he hoped that in five years there will be a 
Balkan "class" joining Euro-Atlantic structures such as the 
Partnership for Peace.  In his departing March 3 press 
conference, Ahtisaari confirmed that the second meeting on 
decentralization will be held in Vienna on March 17, and he 
encouraged leaders to look to the future, instead of 
"dwelling" on the past. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) This message is cleared in its entirety for release 
to UN Special Envoy Ahtisaari. 
GOLDBERG