VZCZCXRO8161
OO RUEHAST
DE RUEHPS #0480/01 1561645
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 051645Z JUN 06
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6179
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0707
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 04 PRISTINA 000480 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE 
NSC FOR BRAUN 
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI 
EUR/ACE FOR DROGERS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KCRM PGOV PINR KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: FUNDING FOR MISSING PERSONS AND FORENSICS IN KOSOVO 
 
REF: A. PRISTINA 461 
 
     ¶B. 04 PRISTINA 965 
     ¶C. PRISTINA 265 
 
PRISTINA 00000480  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, PROTECT ACCORDINGLY 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY.  As the recent confrontation between police 
and families of the missing in Krushe e Vogel/Mala Krusa 
demonstrates, missing persons remains a volatile issue in 
Kosovo (Ref A).  The USG has helped fund both UNMIK's Office 
of Missing Persons and Forensics (OMPF) and the Kosovo 
operations of the International Commission on Missing Persons 
(ICMP), and 1490 sets of human remains have been found, 
identified and returned to families.  However, known 
gravesites are nearly exhausted and leads on new sites hard 
to come by.  We have clearly hit a point of diminishing 
returns regarding recovery of remains, although results could 
yet improve should OMPF and ICMP manage to overcome past 
difficulties and work in concert.  END SUMMARY. 
 
MISSING PERSONS: STILL A MAJOR PROBLEM IN KOSOVO 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶2. (SBU) According to witness accounts, the May 25 
confrontation between residents and police in Krushe e 
Vogel/Mala Krusa started because the Kosovo Albanian 
villagers thought they saw former Kosovo Serb neighbors in an 
UNMIK convoy, and wanted to ask them about the whereabouts of 
their missing relatives (Ref A).  Uncertainty about the fate 
of missing persons remains a source of anguish to their 
families. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  UNMIK's Office of Missing Persons and Forensics 
(OMPF) and the International Commission on Missing Persons 
(ICMP) agree that there are significant numbers of people 
still missing from the Kosovo conflict.  According to OMPF 
statistics, the number of unresolved missing persons cases 
has fallen from 5288 in 2002, when OMPF was created, to 2406 
as of May 2006.  Of those still missing, OMPF estimates that 
1719 are Kosovo Albanians, 503 Kosovo Serbs and 182 are other 
minorities. 
 
BACKGROUND 
---------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) OMPF, under UNMIK's Department of Justice (DOJ), 
has jurisdiction over missing persons cases as well as all 
criminal forensic investigations.  OMPF gathers leads and 
investigates possible gravesites, conducts exhumations and 
autopsies, transfers bone samples to ICMP for DNA extraction 
and identification, repatriates bodies to families once they 
are identified and keeps family members informed about the 
process (Ref B).  Under ICMP's 2003 Memorandum of 
Understanding (MOU) with OMPF, ICMP collects blood samples 
from family members of the missing, and conducts DNA analysis 
of bone samples to make identification matches. 
 
RUNNING OUT OF KNOWN GRAVESITES 
------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Acting OMPF director Valerie Brasey told E/P Chief, 
PolOff and PolFSN on May 24 that apart from one site in 
Gjilan/Gniljane that is almost ready for exhumation (pending 
final witness site identification and a court order), OMPF 
has exhausted all known sites in Kosovo.  OMPF field 
operations (including all exhumations and assessments) are on 
the decline, from 174 in 2002 to 61 in 2005.  Similarly, the 
number of sets of human remains recovered annually from 
within Kosovo has fallen from 443 in 2002 to 118 in 2005. 
 
CONTINUED SLOW PROGRESS ON IDENTIFICATIONS 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Brasey said that so far in 2006 OMPF has received 
238 identification matches back from ICMP, including 100 
 
PRISTINA 00000480  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
matches for remains stored in the OMPF's morgue in 
Rahovec/Orahovac.  (NOTE.  OMPF recently opened a new 
facility in Pristina, and is in the process of transferring 
its staff, operations and mortal remains.  END NOTE.)  She 
said OMPF has custody of approximately 700 sets of 
unidentified remains.  ICMP has extracted DNA from 500 of 
them, but has not found matches in its existing blood 
database.  The remaining 200 are either burned or 
deteriorated to the extent that ICMP cannot extract DNA. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) If a DNA sample does not come up with a match in 
the database, it means that the family members did not donate 
blood.  OMPF and ICMP agree this could be because the entire 
family was killed, or they fled Kosovo and not been found, or 
because they received a body which they think is their loved 
one, but may have been mis-identified in the chaos 
immediately after the conflict.  Every such mix-up means 
there is one body that cannot be identified in the morgue, 
and another family cannot find their loved one, who is buried 
under another name. 
 
TRANSFERS FROM SERBIA WILL FINISH THIS MONTH 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) As of December 2005, the Serbian government had 
returned 679 sets of remains from mass graves in Serbia. 
Brasey said Serbia agreed to transfer the remaining sets of 
remains (approximately 70) by the end of June, which OMPF 
will then need to sort, autopsy and identify.  She said it is 
impossible to predict the exact number, due to the condition 
of some of the remains.  For example, Brasey said the femur 
of the son-in-law of Nesrete Kumnova, head of the Provisional 
Institutions of Self Government's commission on the missing, 
was identified among bodies Serbia recently returned, but the 
rest of his body is still missing. 
 
OMPF WANTS 200,000 EUROS FOR OPERATIONS AND TRAINING 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) On May 24 OMPF presented USOP with a proposal 
requesting 200,000 euros, half for exhumation and mortuary 
operations, and half to train local staff.  (NOTE.  USOP has 
faxed the proposal to EUR/ACE.  END NOTE.)  The USG gave OMPF 
300,000 USD in 2005 to fund exhumations, and the money 
resulted in some major breakthroughs.  OMPF has used the 
funds frugally, maintaining a roster of qualified 
international doctors and specialists to bring to Kosovo as 
needed.  No USG funding is expressly earmarked for OMPF for 
2006 or 2007, although post would like to consider meeting 
OMPF's request out of available discretionary funds. 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  Brasey said OMPF recently downsized its 
international staff from 15 to 10, and is transferring 
competencies to local staff.  She said OMPF is training some 
of the staff from Kosovo's pre-existing Forensic Institute 
(under the Department of Health); and is considering a 
possible merger with the institute if technical standards 
there can be brought up to acceptable levels.  She said OMPF 
hired two of the institute's doctors and put them through a 
one-year post-graduate diploma program in forensic medicine, 
but then had to fire one of them (along with a local 
UNMIK-trained forensics practitioner) over slander 
allegations against OMPF that the UN determined to be 
unfounded.  Brasey said six more doctors are currently in the 
post-grad program, and OMPF will hire three of them after 
they graduate in September. 
 
ICMP: FINISHING ITS MANDATE, WANTS TO DO MORE 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶11.  (SBU) ICMP has requested USD 650,000 in FY 2006 to fund 
ongoing expenses, including local salaries, transportation, 
heavy equipment rental, international forensic expertise, 
blood collection and civil society outreach.  In a March 15 
email, Kathryne Bomberger, ICMP chief of staff, told PolOff 
 
PRISTINA 00000480  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
that ICMP will complete blood collection this year, and has 
already analyzed over 96% of the bone samples it has received 
from OMPF.  She said ICMP has proposed amendments to the MOU 
to allow it to play a greater role in locating and exhuming 
gravesites and in local political capacity building (Ref C). 
 
¶12.  (SBU) In a May 25 meeting with RLA, E/P Chief and 
PolOff, UNMIK/DOJ Chief Al Moskowitz said he understood that 
OMPF and ICMP have not worked well together in the past, but 
said all that occurred long before his arrival in Kosovo.  He 
said he works closely with OMPF, has never heard from ICMP, 
and is open to considering any joint efforts the 
organizations develop. 
 
ICMP PROPOSALS FOR NEXT STEPS 
----------------------------- 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Bomberger told PolOff that during a June 1 meeting 
she and Moskowitz discussed practical solutions to resolving 
cases and determining areas where ICMP and OMPF can work 
together.  In response to his concern about whether ICMP data 
can be used as evidence in war crimes prosecutions, she said 
DNA match reports can be used in court, but ICMP can only 
reveal the identity of blood donors if the donor signs a 
waiver  (which ICMP can help obtain).  She said Moskowitz 
proposed further discussions directly between ICMP and OMPF, 
and he agreed to visit the ICMP headquarters and facilities 
in Bosnia. 
 
¶14.  (SBU) Bomberger said ICMP, OMPF and the International 
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which chairs the Kosovo 
working group on missing persons, should develop a joint 
approach to resolving missing persons cases.  She suggested 
other activities might include obtaining and reviewing war 
crimes investigation files from the ICTY, civil police and 
national KFOR contingents; establishing an anonymous hotline 
to gather leads accompanied by a public information campaign 
to publicize the hotline; and creating a high-level 
multiethnic commission that would report directly to the 
prime minister.  She said the commission, like the new 
Missing Persons Institute in Bosnia, must be able to credibly 
represent victims families of all ethnicities, and serve as a 
long-term archive of information related to cases.  She said 
pre-existing satellite imagery taken by NATO immediately 
after the war could be analyzed in conjunction with reliable 
witness information to detect land disturbances, but said 
this would not be as useful as it was in Bosnia since the 
gravesites are smaller. 
 
¶15.  (SBU) Bomberger said ICMP, OMPF and ICRC all have 
slightly different lists of missing persons, and these should 
be compiled into one definitive list.  She said ICMP, OMPF 
and ICRC should decide jointly about the extremely sensitive 
issue of whether to approach families who might have buried 
mis-identified victims. 
 
ICMP AND OMPF AGREE INFORMATION IS NEEDED TO FIND NEW SITES 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
 
¶16.  Despite past disagreements and personal animosities, 
ICMP and OMPF have the same objective: to resolve outstanding 
cases and thereby bring much needed closure to the families. 
Bomberger and OMPF head Jose Pablo Baraybar both have said 
the best way to find more bodies is to obtain information 
from the parties to the conflict and from the ICTY, KFOR, 
individual NATO military contingents, and the OSCE - who ICMP 
and OMPF believe have information in their files about the 
location of bodies that were buried or exhumed during the 
collection of evidence for war crimes in the immediate 
post-war period. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶17. (SBU) OMPF's request for an additional 200,000 euros is a 
 
PRISTINA 00000480  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
reasonable one, and the funding could again be earmarked to 
focus specifically on exhumations.  ICMP's latest proposals 
for activities such as political capacity building, working 
with family members and gathering leads complements rather 
than obstructs OMPF's more technical work of exhumations, and 
could be carried out without amending the MOU.  However, ICMP 
would be hard-pressed to spend all of its money on such 
activities.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶18.  (U)  Post clears this message in its entirety for 
release to Special Envoy Ahtisaari. 
GOLDBERG