UNCLASSIFIED UNESCOPAR 07220990 
VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHFR #0990/01 2031506
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 221506Z JUL 09
FM UNESCO PARIS FR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC
INFO RUEHBW/AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA
RUEHPS/AMEMBASSY PRISTINA
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK

UNCLAS PARIS FR 000990 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PREL UNESCO KV FR
SUBJECT:  DEMARCHE RE UNESCO ACTIVITIES IN KOSOVO 
 
REF:  STATE 075014 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY.  The French Ambassador joined us July 21 in 
pressing UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Culture Francoise 
Riviere for a status-neutral approach and greater cooperation with 
the authorities on the ground in Kosovo.  The U.S. Charge d'Affaires 
(CDA) also complained of UNESCO's slow progress toward repair of 
cultural sites using money the U.S. donated in 2005.  Riviere 
essentially acknowledged our points on a status-neutral policy but 
argued that much of the problem lies with UNESCO's Venice Office 
which reports directly to the Director-General and not to her.  In 
response to our warning, Riviere's assistants claimed they had not 
heard of a plan to put signs on monuments restored with U.S. funds 
that would identify them as being located in Serbia and undertook to 
check this report out.  They also claimed that work on repair of 
sites funded by the U.S.G. is moving much more quickly now and 
should be completed by November 2009.  Riviere asked whether we 
could put our demarche in written form so she could pass it directly 
to the Director-General.  The French Ambassador responded that we 
would see what we could do, but she urged Riviere to let the 
Director-General know immediately about our concerns.  Speaking 
after the meeting, the French Ambassador remarked that she found 
Riviere's excuse that all problems are the fault of the Venice 
Office to be an exaggeration.  Riviere could exert more influence if 
she tried.  The French Ambassador agreed we should put our points in 
writing and send them to the Director-General in a short letter.  We 
will explore this idea with the German, Italian, and UK delegations 
in the coming days.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) French Ambassador Catherine Colonna and U.S. Charge' 
d'Affaires (CDA) called on UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for 
Culture Francoise Riviere on July 21 to urge UNESCO in the name of 
the Quint countries (U.S., France, Germany, Italy, and the UK) to 
adopt a status-neutral approach to Kosovo and to complain that 
UNESCO's Venice Office does not coordinate properly with the 
authorities on the ground in Kosovo, including Western embassies in 
Pristina and officials of the Government of Kosovo.  CDA stressed 
that UNESCO representatives often miss meetings on religious and 
cultural preservation issues that UNMIK officials attend.  We cannot 
understand why UNESCO avoids meetings that other UN officials 
attend.  CDA also complained of UNESCO's slow progress in 
implementing rehabilitation projects in Kosovo and warned strongly 
against having any sort of sign put up on the monuments the U.S. is 
paying to restore that would indicate that the monuments are located 
in Serbia.  This would be unacceptable to us. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Riviere, who was joined by the World Heritage Center's 
Europe/North America section chief Mechtild Rossler and by Anna 
Bonetti of the UNESCO office that handles extra-budgetary donations, 
acknowledged that "status-neutral" is UN policy (N.B. the first time 
we have heard a UNESCO official say so) and claimed that she 
supported it.  She also acknowledged that representatives of the 
European Commission had demarched UNESCO this past spring with many 
of the same complaints.  Riviere claimed to share our views and 
conceded that UNESCO had not always appeared to be implementing a 
status-neutral approach.  She said, however, that she did not 
supervise the employee in the Venice office (Marie-Paul Roudil) who 
oversees restoration projects in Kosovo (reftel).  Roudil, she 
maintained, reports directly to Director-General Matsuura.  Riviere 
said she would report our demarche to the Director-General but asked 
whether we had something in writing that she could show the 
Director-General to explain directly to him our point of view. 
Ambassador Colonna replied that we would try to find a way to put 
our thoughts in writing, but urged Riviere not to wait and to 
express our concerns to the Director-General immediately. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Rossler and Bonetti responded to our questions about the 
progress of the restoration projects at cultural sites in Kosovo. 
Bonetti admitted that it had taken UNESCO from 2005 to 2007 to get 
the necessary permits to begin work on the Serbian Orthodox sites in 
Kosovo but argued that work had been proceeding apace since 2007. 
She acknowledged that U.S. officials in Pristina had been 
sufficiently concerned about progress on these projects in May to 
question whether contracts on them should be extended.  (CDA warned 
that the possibility of not extending them had been seriously 
considered.)  According to Bonetti, work on five of the contracts 
will be completed in August, and all the work will be done by 
November.  Regarding the placement of a sign on these sites 
indicating that they are located in Serbia, Rossler said she had 
never heard of such a possibility and would have to check.  We 
insisted that this report has been circulating for some time and 
that we very much would like assurances it is untrue.  Riviere 
interjected that she did not see a need for a sign to indicate the 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PREL UNESCO KV FR
SUBJECT:  DEMARCHE RE UNESCO ACTIVITIES IN KOSOVO 
 
country in which these monuments were located. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) As the meeting moved to conclusion, Riviere said that 
Anthony Krause, an American citizen who works on the 
Director-General's personal staff, will make the next UNESCO visit 
to Kosovo at the end of August.  Ambassador Colonna said this was 
all well and good, but that it did not solve the systemic problem. 
Why is the Venice office responsible for the Balkans?  This 
arrangement has been in place for more than a decade while the 
situation on the ground in the Balkans has changed dramatically. 
CDA asked if there was any thought to opening an office in Pristina. 
 Riviere replied that these were good questions.  UNESCO might be 
able to open a small office in Pristina, but this will depend on 
decisions by the new Director-General who will chosen at UNESCO's 
General Conference in October of this year. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Comment:  Riviere appeared reluctant to have this meeting. 
 It was called on only a few hours notice on Riviere's last day 
before summer holidays.  This made it difficult to include the 
German, UK, and Italian delegations.   We decided to proceed, 
however, when the French said they could join at the time proposed. 
Riviere is a French national and likely to be impressed by official 
French positions.  Joint U.S.-French demarches are rare enough here 
to attract notice. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Comment Continued:  Useful though the July 21 meeting was, 
it will obviously take continued pressure up and down the UNESCO 
hierarchy to bring about meaningful change in UNESCO's handling of 
Kosovo issues.  Our French colleague did not find entirely credible 
Riviere's claim that the actions of the Venice Office were beyond 
her control.  She felt Riviere could do more than she has been doing 
to make its behavior status-neutral.  Ambassador Colonna and CDA 
agreed we should pursue Riviere's suggestion of sending something to 
the Director-General in writing.  We will talk to our German, 
Italian, and British colleagues about joining us in sending the 
Director-General a short letter making the points in reftel. 
ENGELKEN