VZCZCXRO8268
OO RUEHAG RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN RUEHLZ
RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHPS #0259/01 0811622
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 221622Z MAR 06
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5937
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0620
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHFMIUU/AFSOUTH NAPLES IT
RHMFIUU/CDR TF FALCON
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEPGEA/CDR650THMIGP SHAPE BE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUFOANA/USNIC PRISTINA SR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000259 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR PB/WRA, INL, EUR/SCE, AND EUR/SSA, NSC FOR BRAUN, 
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: MASS MARR PREL EAID PGOV UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO PROTECTION CORPS TO TAKE ON GREATER 
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR DEMINING AND ORDNANCE DISPOSAL IN 2006 
 
REF: 05 PRISTINA 1115 (C) 
 
Sensitive But Unclassified, Please Protect Accordingly 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  During their March 12-15 visit to Kosovo, 
Department representatives agreed to provide up to USD 
110,000 in funding through the Slovene International Trust 
Fund for Demining and Mine Victim's Assistance (ITF) for 
badly-needed replacement equipment for the Kosovo Protection 
Corps (KPC) demining  teams.  Without this additional 
equipment the KPC will be hard-pressed to continue responding 
to calls for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and to assume 
greater responsibility for demining as NGO-funded 
humanitarian deminers wind up their work in 2006.  UNMIK's 
Office of the Coordinator for KPC (OKPCC) wants to double the 
number of demining teams and KPC commander General Sylejman 
Selimi reiterated the KPC's hope that in the future some of 
its deminers will be deployed outside of Kosovo.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) PM/WRA representatives Murphey McCloy and Ed 
Trimakas visited Kosovo March 12-15 to discuss USG 
humanitarian demining assistance in Kosovo.  During their 
meeting with incoming KPC commander General Sylejman Selimi, 
they agreed to fund up to USD 110,000 in replacement 
equipment requested by the KPC for its demining teams.  They 
were clear in meetings with both General Selimi and UNMIK EOD 
Management Section chief Steve Saunders that PM/WRA is not 
interested in funding KPC and OKPCC's desired doubling of the 
number of KPC demining teams (to 14) and that all current USG 
assistance funneled through the ITF is only for use by KPC 
demining teams in Kosovo.  During their visit they also 
discussed new avenues for possible future cooperation between 
the Kosovo Ministry of Health and University of Pristina 
Hospital with the ITF on mine victim's assistance. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Since it assumed primary responsibility for EOD 
response pursuant to a June 21, 2005 memorandum of 
understanding between the KPC, OKPCC and KFOR, the KPC has 
been unable to keep up with its demining responsibilities. 
According to OKPCC figures, in 2005 the KPC demined 1.7 
million square meters of territory (or 40 percent of the 
total 4.3 million square meters demined by humanitarian and 
commercial demining organizations that year).  In 2004 the 
KPC demined 2.2 million square meters of territory. 
According to the OKPCC's Steve Saunders and KFOR EOD 
specialists, this reduction is due to the requirement since 
June 2005 for the KPC to keep two of its seven demining teams 
on call for EOD response.  Saunders, KFOR EOD specialists and 
representatives of the US EOD team at Camp Bondsteel noted 
that the KPC teams only respond during daylight hours 
(purportedly because they only work from 0800 to 1600), and 
that primary EOD response the rest of the time is still 
handled by individual KFOR contingents. 
 
¶4. (SBU) According to OKPCC, Kosovo still has 15 areas known 
to contain a threat from mines or unexploded ordnance (UXO) 
-- down from 44 at the start of 2005.  Three of these involve 
mines and the remaining 12 contain cluster munitions.  Our 
interlocutors said that new areas could also be discovered in 
2006 in heavily wooded areas.  Saunders said that 
humanitarian demining organizations (Handicap International, 
HALO Trust and Mine Awareness Trust) that cleared an 
additional 2.4 million square meters in 2005 will be winding 
up their activities in 2006 as their funding ends.  This will 
leave the KPC to pick up an even greater share of actual 
demining work in the coming year.  (NOTE:  The Dutch Liaison 
Office told USOP DATT that HALO Trust has a three-year grant 
from the Dutch government to support demining activities 
worldwide and confirmed that they are trying to convince HALO 
to focus its efforts outside Kosovo, but to donate their 
equipment here to the KPC.  END NOTE.). 
 
¶5. (SBU) COMMENT:  The USG has already spent USD 7.9 million 
on demining in Kosovo since 1998, but the fact remains that 
diminishing international resources devoted to Kosovo 
demining will translate to a smaller amount of territory 
 
PRISTINA 00000259  002 OF 002 
 
 
being demined during the upcoming April-November 2006 season. 
 END COMMENT. 
 
¶6. (U) This cable is cleared in its entirety for release to 
Special Envoy Ahtisaari. 
GOLDBERG