US embassy cable - 05VIENNA1439

UNCLAS VIENNA 001439 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR INL/PC (INGALLS) NEA/I, EUR/PGI, AND EUR/AGS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: KCRM, KJUS, MARR, MCAP, PGOV, PINR, PINS, PTER, SNAR, SOCI, AU 
SUBJECT: EXTENSION OF TRAINERS AT JORDAN INTERNATIONAL 
 
POLICE TRAINING CENTER: AUSTRIAN RESPONSE 
 
REF: STATE 72189 
 
This message is sensitive but unclassified. 
 
1.  (SBU) Political-Economic Counselor and Pol Unit Chief 
 
delivered reftel demarche on April 28 to the Bilateral 
 
Affairs Director at the Interior Ministry (MoI), Brigadier 
 
General Kurt Hager.  Hager noted that any foreign deployment, 
 
including to the Amman police academy, required a Council of 
 
Ministers (Cabinet) decision and a subsequent positive vote 
 
in Parliament's Standing Committee (Hauptausschuss).  The 
 
previous extension of Austria's commitment to the police 
 
academy (until the end of calendar year 2005) had occurred in 
 
November 2005.  The rotation principle is the same for police 
 
instructors at the academy in Amman as for other Austrian 
 
foreign deployments, Hager explained.  The head of the 
 
four-person Austrian team, for example, had rotated out after 
 
one year. 
 
2.  (SBU) Hager pointed out that there were EU initiatives 
 
underway to provide training in Europe and/or the UAE, 
 
including a program that Germany might organize for police 
 
managers.  Austria would feel an obligation, in the spirit of 
 
European solidarity, to contribute to these programs as well, 
 
he said.  This might pose a barrier to expanding Austria's 
 
contingent of four trainers, since qualified personnel were 
 
limited in number. 
 
3.  (SBU) When we asked whether it would help if we also 
 
presented our case to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hager 
 
reminded us that the impetus for this mission had come from 
 
MoI.  Further, he added, his Ministry controls both the human 
 
and the financial resources for these deployments.  In his 
 
opinion, opening a second channel to MFA would probably only 
 
complicate the issue, delaying an official Austrian response. 
 
Hager said he would refer the matter to the head of the 
 
International Affairs Section and the Office for Foreign 
 
Deployments in the operational section of the Ministry 
 
(Directorate General for Public Security).  Hager promised to 
 
keep us abreast of his progress in securing the extension. 
 
Minimize considered. 
 
Brown