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DE RUEHPS #0669/01 2491552
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FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7674
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1266
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000669 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR, EUR/SCE, DRL, INL, AND S/WCI, NSC FOR BRAUN, 
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER, OPDAT 
FOR ACKER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/31/2017 
TAGS: PGOV KCRM EAID KDEM UNMIK KV
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: DEMINING REPORT RECOMMENDS MORE CLEARANCE 
AND EDUCATION, HIGHLIGHTS RISK OF NEWLY-ABANDONED LANDMINES 
MINES AND UXOS 
 
REF: 2006 PRISTINA 923 
 
Classified By: COM TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  The Geneva International Center for 
Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) published a report in July 2007 
on landmine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination in 
Kosovo and the local capacity to address it.  The report, the 
result of a February GICHD mission to Kosovo to review 
progress on addressing the landmine and UXO threat and 
evaluate a HALO Trust report on suspected dangerous areas, 
concludes that contamination may be greater than earlier 
anticipated, but that it is not a constraint on development 
and sustainable livelihoods.  The report also calls for the 
continuation of clearance and mine risk education (MRE) 
efforts and highlights the need to reduce private stockpiles 
of munitions to prevent accidents from newly-abandoned 
landmines and UXOs, which Kosovars often leave in fields and 
parking lots throughout Kosovo.  END SUMMARY. 
 
GICHD's Mission to Kosovo 
 
¶2. (C) A Geneva International Center for Humanitarian 
Demining (GICHD) assessment team visited Kosovo in February 
2007 at the invitation of the Office of the Kosovo Protection 
Corps Coordinator (OKPCC) to: 1) follow-up on their July and 
August 2006 assessment mission, and 2) review HALO Trust's 
December 2006 report entitled "Failing the Kosovars."  The 
2006 assessment mission, which was largely the result of 
questions HALO raised about the extent of landmine and 
unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination in Kosovo and the 
capacity of the OKPCC EOD Management Section and Kosovo 
Protection Corps (KPC) EOD teams, revealed some information 
management problems, including missing and incomplete task 
dossiers.  (NOTE: There was an acrimonious dispute between 
HALO and the OKPCC during ex-KPC Coordinator General 
Christopher Steirn's tenure.  At the lowest point, HALO Trust 
Director Guy Willoughby sent a letter to General Steirn in 
November 2006 attacking his credibility.  Relations between 
the two organizations remain tense, and HALO has ignored 
OKPCC's order for them to leave Kosovo.  END NOTE.)  However, 
GICHD experts said they did not believe those problems had 
resulted in substantially underestimating contaminated areas. 
 Consequently, GICHD concluded that OKPCC EOD Management 
Section and the KPC EOD teams had sufficient capacity to 
handle the residual threat from landmines and UXO, but made 
some recommendations for improvement.  Most of the 
recommendations related to improvement of information 
management, additional research, re-survey of sites for which 
documentation was incomplete, and improvement of mechanisms 
for the public to report potential contamination problems. 
 
GICHD's follow-up mission uncovers no significant unknown 
problems 
 
¶3. (SBU) In February 2007, GICHD reviewed OKPCC Explosive 
Ordnance (EOD) Management Section's progress on the 
recommendations for improvement and looked at the task 
dossiers they had not examined in 2006.  They found that 
OKPCC EOD Management Section had promptly addressed all of 
the recommendations related to threats directly affecting the 
population and had completed or made significant progress on 
most of the other recommendations.  The task dossier review 
revealed more missing and incomplete information, and GICHD 
said some areas would require re-surveying as a result. 
Nevertheless, GICHD said it did not uncover evidence of 
significant unknown problems. 
 
¶4. (SBU)  During their assessment mission, GICHD also 
reviewed "Failing the Kosovars" and met with HALO 
representatives.  GICHD was not surprised that HALO's 
proactive survey had uncovered additional areas of concern, 
but was surprised by the scale of the problem HALO reported. 
HALO says it uncovered an additional 58 tasks; OKPCC EOD 
Management's 2006 year-end estimate was 36 remaining tasks. 
 
PRISTINA 00000669  002 OF 003 
 
 
While the GICHD assessment team was unable to determine the 
accuracy of HALO's estimate since the areas in question will 
require further investigation, they pointed out that general 
surveys sometimes result in estimates "that overstate the 
problem, often by enormous amounts."  They also noted that 
OKPCC and Mine Awareness Trust (MAT) surveyors that visited 
the majority of the sites in "Failing the Kosovars" found 
some sites that would require clearance, but also found some 
suspicious information and some reports that were the result 
of locals who were fearful due to ignorance about the 
clearance that had taken place. 
 
Landmines and UXOs abandoned after the war pose threats 
 
¶5. (SBU) GICHD listed a variety of reasons for the potential 
discovery of additional dangerous areas, the most disturbing 
of which is that numerous landmines and UXOs have been 
abandoned in Kosovo since the war.  According to GICHD, 
individuals and militias have stockpiled munitions -- 
including both unused mines and those "lifted" from implanted 
minefields -- because they believe the security situation is 
tenuous.  When they hear about KFOR collection efforts, some 
choose to abandon dangerous items rather than risk KFOR 
seizure and possible criminal charges.  GICHD's claims are 
consistent with OKPCC EOD Management Section reports of 
finding newly-abandoned munitions in fields and parking lots 
due to people who have grown nervous about keeping the 
munitions in their homes, but fear that reporting them to 
authorities might prompt seizure of other illegal weapons 
they want to keep for self-defense.  USOP sees evidence of 
this every day in UNMIK Police situation reports.  For 
example, on August 10, a Kosovo Serb reported an unexploded 
device on his property in the Suvi Do area of North 
Mitrovica.  Police responded and discovered it was a 60 mm 
projectile for a rocket launcher; upon closer inspection of 
the area, they found a total of 17 similar projectiles.  The 
next day, the UNMIK Police situation report mentioned that 
police found a rocket launcher in the same area.  KPS 
Spokesperson Veton Elshani told poloff off-the-record that 
the rocket launcher and projectiles did not pre-date the war. 
 
¶6. (SBU) GICHD also cited a number of less alarming reasons 
for not being surprised that the contaminated areas in Kosovo 
might be larger than previously anticipated.  They said some 
minefields were never recorded and are not discovered until 
someone sees a mine or an accident occurs.  They also 
reported that cluster bomb strike records are inaccurate and 
that actual sites may not be confirmed until local residents 
see cluster bombs.  Finally, Kosovo's terrain is rugged and 
some contaminated areas may be in isolated areas that have 
not yet been discovered.  GICHD predicts that as the road 
system improves and communities' "economic footprints" 
expand, people will find previously unknown areas 
contaminated with landmines and UXOs. 
 
GICHD's Recommendations 
 
¶7. (SBU) GICHD's report reaffirms that landmines and UXO are 
not a constraint on development and sustainable livelihoods 
in Kosovo and says KPC EOD teams can handle the residual 
threat by either extending the duration of their demining 
program or further expanding their capacity.  It also 
recommends continuing mine risk education (MRE) and clearance 
efforts, as well as reducing Kosovars' stockpiles of 
munitions to prevent accidents from newly-abandoned landmines 
and UXO. 
 
¶8. (C) Comment:  While GICHD's report focuses on the degree 
of contamination from landmines and UXOs and clearance 
efforts and capabilities, it highlights the very important 
issue of the threat from newly-abandoned landmines and UXOs 
and reminds us of the need for ongoing MRE.  Post will 
continue to search for ways to help the Kosovars address 
these problems.  Thanks to a PM/WRA grant, KPC EOD teams are 
currently benefiting from the help of dogs borrowed from the 
 
PRISTINA 00000669  003 OF 003 
 
 
Mine Detection Dog Center (MDDC) in Bosnia that can reach 
remote areas that deminers have difficulty surveying.  The 
dogs recently worked on a site near Kacanik that HALO Trust 
had identified as potentially contaminated; they discovered 
that it was mine-free.  USOP and PM/WRA are also working with 
a local NGO and the International Trust Fund (ITF) in 
Slovenia on a possible MRE program to reach schoolchildren in 
affected areas in western Kosovo.  End Comment. 
KAIDANOW