VZCZCXRO7360
OO RUEHAST
DE RUEHPS #0507/01 1641601
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 131601Z JUN 06
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6209
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0724
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 000507 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE, AND EUR/SSA, NSC FOR BRAUN, 
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF PGOV PREL UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: PROTOCOL ON RETURN WITH SERBIA SIGNED AND 
SEALED, BUT RETURNS REMAIN IN DOUBT 
 
 
PRISTINA 00000507  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Sensitive, But Unclassified; Please Protect Accordingly 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  After almost two years of negotiations, 
the Provisional Institutions of Self Government in Kosovo 
(PISG), the Government of Serbia and UNMIK signed a Protocol 
on Voluntary and Sustainable Return on June 6, 2006.  UNMIK 
pressed hard to get the protocol signed before SRSG Soren 
Jessen-Petersen's June 20 report to the U.N. Security 
Council.  Despite the relatively low official ranks of the 
signatories, the protocol is significant because it marks the 
first PISG agreement to facilitate resettlement in places 
other than place of origin.  The final document contains 
language safeguarding against the creation of new 
politically-motivated ethnic enclaves.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U) On June 6, SRSG Soren Jessen-Petersen joined Belgrade 
and Pristina representatives in signing a Protocol on 
Voluntary and Sustainable Return.  The protocol, negotiated 
over the past two years, was finally hammered out on the 
margins of the May 23 meeting in Vienna on cultural heritage 
and approved by the Kosovo government on May 31.  The two 
main sticking points had always been what kind of provision 
would be made for returns by Serbs to other than their place 
of origin in Kosovo and what entity would sign the agreement 
(UNMIK or the PISG) and at what level. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Kosovo chief negotiator Dardan Gashi, an advisor to 
Deputy Prime Minister Lutfi Haziri, told visiting RefCoord on 
June 5 that the protocol breaks new ground by committing the 
PISG to providing assistance for the return of Serbs and 
other minorities currently in Serbia to other than their 
place of origin in Kosovo.  Gashi signed the document on 
behalf of the PISG and Milorad Todorovic -- the former PISG 
returns advisor who is now deputy head of the Belgrade-based 
Coordination Center for Kosovo and Metohija (CCK) -- signed 
on behalf of the Government of Serbia.  Minister for 
Communities and Returns Slavisa Petkovic was critical of both 
Pristina and Belgrade officials for having the protocol's 
negotiators sign on behalf of the two governments.  He told 
RefCoord on June 1 that as the Kosovo government minister 
responsible for returns, he should sign the protocol or it 
would be a "worthless political document," and was reportedly 
annoyed Gashi and Todorovic eventually signed it. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The six-page agreement does include language on 
which Pristina insisted that could prevent large, organized 
returns to Serb enclaves that could otherwise be orchestrated 
by the CCK to concentrate Kosovo's Serb minority.  The 
protocol provides that internally displaced persons may 
settle or locally integrate in "freely chosen alternative 
places within Kosovo" but that the decision to pursue 
alternative solutions to return must be "taken truly 
voluntarily, on an individual basis and without any 
pressure."  It also contains a provision whereby the parties 
to the protocol (UNMIK and the governments of both Kosovo and 
Serbia) "will not impact negatively on efforts to create 
conditions for allowing those internally displaced who 
continue to wish to return voluntarily to their homes to do 
so."  While aimed primarily at the Kosovo government, this 
provision could also be construed as a restriction on CCK 
efforts to convince returnees to eschew return to their place 
of origin in favor of majority Serb areas. 
 
¶5. (SBU) COMMENT: The signing of the protocol, even by 
working-level officials, is a step forward in coordination 
between the two governments.  It occurred in the midst of 
difficult final status talks and is certainly a plus for SRSG 
Jessen-Petersen as he prepares to brief the UNSC on Kosovo 
June 20.  Jessen-Petersen noted in his June 12 press 
conference, at which he announced his resignation as SRSG 
effective June 30, that he regretted not having been able to 
do enough to return internally displaced Serbs to Kosovo, but 
hoped that the new protocol will result in progress. 
Although the protocol allows for return to other than place 
of origin, the Kosovo government has already included 
provisions in its proposed returns strategy that would limit 
 
PRISTINA 00000507  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
its assistance to returns to secondary residences or to land 
owned before January 1, 2006.  The Kosovo government is 
betting that Belgrade does not have the staying-power or the 
money to engineer the type of organized returns to contiguous 
Serb enclaves that Pristina fears.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶6. (U) U.S. Office Pristina clears this cable for release in 
its entirety to U.S. Special Envoy for Kosovo Martti 
Ahtisaari. 
GOLDBERG