VZCZCXRO0034
PP RUEHAST RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHLA RUEHMRE RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSL
RUEHSR
DE RUEHVEN #0214/01 2751133
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 021133Z OCT 09
FM USMISSION USOSCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6620
INFO RUCNOSC/ORG FOR SECURITY CO OP IN EUR COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDRUSAREUR HEIDELBERG GE PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUESDT/DTRA-OSES DARMSTADT GE PRIORITY
RUEASWA/DTRA ALEX WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0830
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA PRIORITY 1387
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 1328

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 USOSCE 000214 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR VCI/CCA, VCI/NRRC, EUR/RPM, EUR/PRA, EUR/CARC, 
SCA/CEN, SCA/RA, PM/WRA, ISN/CPI 
NSC FOR SHERWOOD-RANDALL, HAYDEN, MCFAUL, HOVENIER, 
NILSSON, FRIEDT 
OSD FOR ISA (WALLENDER, KEHL) 
JCS, EUCOM, USAREUR AND CENTCOM: FOR J-5 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCFE OSCE PARM PREL RS XG
SUBJECT: FSC: 1540 BEST PRACTICE GUIDE DECISION AGREED 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary and Action Request:  The 1540 Best Practice 
Guide (1540 BPG) cleared without incident the OSCE's Forum 
for Security Cooperation (FSC) on September 30.  The FSC 
received a sobering update on the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and 
Herzegovina's political-military program from retired 
Brigadier General Ulrich Heider, Director of Security 
Cooperation; weak political will in BiH is delaying progress 
on several issues including the management of Small Arms and 
Lights Weapons (SA/LW) and munitions issues including 
security concerns for managing surplus weapons.  In contrast, 
OSCE Tajikistan Project Manager Alexander Anoshkin briefed on 
excellent multi-national and interagency cooperation in the 
successful completion of the "Comprehensive Programme on 
Small Arms and Light Weapons and Conventional Ammunition." 
He noted that there was still an urgent need for assistance 
on Landmine removal and destruction.  The U.S. drew the FSC's 
attention to the passage of UNSCR 1887.  Russia raised 
discrepancies in the U.S. and Georgia's 2008 SA/LW 
information submissions.  The UK seeks co-sponsors for its 
SA/LW Food for Thought paper (RFG: see para. 12). End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) The 589th Meeting of the Forum for Security 
Cooperation agreed to the Decision on a Best Practice Guide 
(BPG) on UNSCR 1540 Export Controls and Transhipment 
(FSC.DEC/7/09) without incident.  The UK Chair (Gare) 
specially arranged an early session of Working Group A 15 
minutes prior to the FSC plenary to ensure the 1540 BPG and 
the Decision on the dates and venue of the 20th Annual 
Implementation Assessment Meeting (FSC.DEC/6/09)--AIAM to be 
held March 2-3, 2010 in Vienna--were cleared for easy 
passage.  The U.S. (Ellis) welcomed the FSC decision on 1540 
BPG and encouraged other delegations to author remaining 
chapters of the BPG.  Russia (Uliyanov) supported the U.S. 
comment and applauded the BPG decision to help pS make 1540 
effective. 
 
Security Dialogue 
 
¶3. (SBU) The FSC received two presentations under Agenda Item 
I: Security Dialogue from representatives of the OSCE Mission 
to Bosnia and the OSCE Office in Tajikistan respectively. 
The first by the Director of Security Cooperation for the 
OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, retired Brigadier 
General Ulrich Heider, noted an intensification of focus by 
his office over the past year on addressing BiH military 
surplus weapons and ammunition.  Heider expressed concern 
with the dearth of qualified candidates for his field staff, 
underscoring the need for pS to continue to support strong 
secondments.  He also expressed frustration with political 
machinations that were steering the BiH away from the OSCE's 
preferred manner for managing surplus weapons (i.e., 
destruction) as opposed to those who want to export BiH's 
useable SA/LW. Heider underscored the importance of building 
capacity in BiH so that it was capable of fulfilling its 
international and national commitments without external 
assistance.  He noted that BiH compliance under Article IV, 
Annex 1-B of the Dayton Peace Accords was where assistance to 
BiH was the easiest, and predicted that the BiH commitment 
would be self-sustaining in this area in 2010.  In response 
to a U.S. question Haider expressed concern that Bosnian 
authorities, particularly those local police that are 
warehousing small arms collected or confiscated over the 
years, do not have adequate security measures in place to 
deter or defeat illegal access.  He furthermore noted that 
larger storage facilities lacked surveillance devices or 
effective barriers to prevent unauthorized access to weapons. 
 
¶4. (SBU)  In contrast, the following presentation by OSCE 
Tajikistan Project Manager Alexander Anoshkin on the 
Comprehensive Programme on Small Arms and Light Weapons and 
 
USOSCE 00000214  002 OF 003 
 
 
Conventional Armaments described a clear success of 
multi-national cooperation, interagency support, and 
political will.  Anoshkin noted the success of the program 
resulted from excellent chief technical advisors (all 
Norwegians, two of whom were lost in a tragic vehicle 
accident), the consistent support of the CPC and the Group of 
Friends, the flexibility of donors, and the timeliness of the 
planning and execution cycle which was not held up by 
financial concerns.  Several delegations remarked on the 
excellent performance of the program, including Russia 
(Uliyanov) noting it was "an important success and a clear 
demonstration of practical achievement" by a CPC-sponsored 
program.  Nonetheless Anoshkin appealed for additional 
technical and financial assistance for a subsequent operation 
to remove anti-personnel landmines present in Tajikistan. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Under Agenda Items 2 and 3: the 1540 BPG and dates 
for the 20th AIAM were agreed respectively without comment. 
Under Agenda Item 4: General Statements, the U.S. (Ellis) 
drew attention to the passage of UNSCR 1887 as further 
progress and political will behind the nuclear 
non-proliferation agenda, including strengthening 
implementation of UNSCR 1540. 
 
Working Group A: Russia on Georgia Data Discrepancies 
 
¶6. (SBU)  Working Group A was reconvened following the 
plenary.  Russia (Uliyanov) alleged that some pS submissions 
on SA/LW for 2008 contained discrepancies with data submitted 
by Georgia.  Russia said it had contacted the pS in question 
bilaterally and expected that 2-3 weeks would be sufficient 
for consultations with capitals.  Uliyanov said Russia 
expects these discrepancies to be corrected with appropriate 
amendments to pS submissions.  In response, Georgia 
(Giorgadze) said a preliminary review of Georgian data may 
appear to indicate a discrepancy, but that if true, these 
were merely technical issues related to submission timing. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Comment:  Just prior to Working Group A, Uliyanov 
informed the U.S. delegation his intent to note, without 
naming names, discrepancies between Georgian and U.S. SA/LW 
data.  Uliyanov passed USDel a copy of the two submissions 
highlighting apparent discrepancies for rifles (U.S. export 
to Georgia--14,400, Georgia import from the U.S. 18,400); 
light machineguns (Georgia import from the U.S.--400, U.S. 
export not shown; and heavy machine guns (Georgia import from 
the U.S.--40, U.S. export not shown).  The Georgian Rep 
(Giorgadze) also prior to the session separately alerted the 
USDel that the discrepancies described by Russia were likely 
related to when the U.S. and Georgia recorded the transfers. 
For example, he said the machineguns were transferred to 
Georgian troops in Iraq in 2007, but not imported to Georgia 
until 2008.  Thus the U.S. reported the transfer in 2007 
while Georgia did not report the transfer until 2008. End 
comment. 
 
¶8. (SBU) The Chair (Gare) reported on a significant increase 
in delinquent submissions for exchanges of military 
information.  Gare noted the number of delinquent submissions 
since May 2009, when reminder notes where sent, and the 
number of pS that have yet either to submit information or 
reply to the Chair's reminder.  Inter alia, Gare said that 
for Conventional Arms Transfers submissions due on June 13, 
15 pS failed to submit data.  The Chair sent 14 letters out 
in accordance with the decision on a reminding mechanism, and 
to date 12 have yet to respond to the reminder (Note.  Gare's 
report indicated that for several submissions the number of 
delinquent submissions had more than doubled since last year. 
End Note.). 
 
 
USOSCE 00000214  003 OF 003 
 
 
¶9. (SBU) Comment:  Afterwards, the Secretariat confirmed that 
although the U.S. had not yet submitted its CAT data, it had 
provided the required explanatory note on June 28.  Gare also 
noted that the Chair's report was prompted by Russia, which 
indicated it would note the delinquencies and the failure of 
the Chair to fulfill its obligation under the reminding 
mechanism if the Chair did not address the issue directly. 
End Comment. 
 
AOB 
 
¶10. (SBU) Greece and Norway announced that they would 
contribute 30,000 Euros and 215,000 Euros respectively to 
Phase II of the Belarusian SA/LW destruction project. 
 
¶11. (SBU) The FSC Coordinator for SA/LW (Hartnell, UK) 
highlighted a Food for Thought (FFT) paper distributed on 7 
September 2009 as FSC.DEL/151/09, which is intended to update 
FSC.DEC/15/02 on Implementation of Section V of the SALW 
Document.  Hartnell encouraged pS to volunteer to sponsor and 
cosponsor the FFT.  France, Sweden, Cyprus and Spain 
intervened in support of the update. 
 
¶12. (SBU) RFG:  The FFT (FSC.DEL/151/09) proposes improving 
the existing SA/LW implementation mechanism to bring SA/LW 
procedures into greater conformity with the SCA procedures. 
Mission believes the UK FFT adds results-oriented value to 
the SA/LW procedures.  Mission recommends U.S. co-sponsorship 
and requests Washington's concurrence.  End RFG. 
 
¶13. (SBU) There was no action for Working Group B.  The next 
FSC plenary will be October 7. 
CHRISTENSEN