CANADA: ENLISTING HELP IN TARGETING WAR CRIMINALS

S E C R E T OTTAWA 002451 SIPDIS FOR EUR(ROSSIN),EUR/SCI(GREGORIAN AND KOUMANS), S/WCI(PROSPER) E.O. 12958: DECL: 1.6 (X1, X4, X6) TAGS: PREL MOPS EFIN CLOK CVIS CA BK KWAC ICTY SUBJECT: CANADA: ENLISTING HELP IN TARGETING WAR CRIMINALS REF: STATE 245203 Classified By: POLMIN COUNSELOR BRIAN FLORA, REASONS 1.5 (a), (c) and (d) ¶1. (S) In response to reftel demarche, DFAIT Deputy Director for the Western Balkans Margaret Moores and Defense and Security Relations desk officer Kelly Anderson affirmed to poloff the GOC's commitment to seeing PIFWCs brought to justice. Moores noted that while Canadian law precludes adoption of a "black list" targeting war criminals and their supporters, the GOC employs a rigorous and detailed screening process for visa applicants, including name-checks with law enforcement/intelligence sources. ¶2. (S) Kelly Anderson, who follows Western Balkans issues in the NATO/NORAD Unit of her office, said that the GOC nonetheless does have the ability to blanket-designate members of a particular regime (which it has done in the case of Milosevic) for travel sanctions and restrictions. One difficulty with this approach, however, is that the designation is "in perpetuity" and covers very senior political officials down to functionaries at the level of first secretary of a diplomatic mission. Thus any bureaucrats surviving the fall of a regime to participate in a new government may require special waivers to subsequently travel to/through Canada. ¶3. (S) Regarding the Trillium Foundation, Moores acknowledged the existence of an entity by that name in Hamilton, Ontario, as well as the "Hamilton Chapter" of an organization called Serbian Chetniks Ravna Gora (same name as entity in E.O. 13304),ostensibly founded by Serbian immigrants who arrived in Canada post-WWII. Serbian Chetniks Ravna Gora lists a Serbian Orthodox Church as its headquarters and bills itself as a "cultural, political and social organization" founded by veterans that "fought under General Mihajlovic during World War II against the Nazi and Communists." The Trillium Foundation (named for the official flower of Ontario) appears to be a longstanding organization that operates as a regular recipient of Ontario provincial government funding for community-based activities. According to Moores, unless the Foundation and Serbian Chetniks Ravna Gora are registered as federal not-for-profit organizations, investigation of their activities would come under the purview of the province and not/not the federal government, an area for the "intergovernmental process." ¶4. (S) Moores said the Foundation came to the attention of DFAIT officials several weeks ago when an individual named Emir Ramic launched a letter-writing campaign with provincial and federal officials to discredit Trillium. Ramic claims the position of "Vice President, Canada" of the Congress of North American Bosniaks (www.bosniak.org) based in the U.S. (NOTE: Access to parts of the website from SBU-internet at post appears to have been blocked due to Department Policy. END NOTE). According to Moores, Ramic has yet to substantiate his allegations. The information in the Bosnian press article (reftel) tracks with what Ramic has claimed in his correspondence, although the fund transfer of USD 75,000 is actually a Canadian dollar amount. Moores (protect) indicated that her office recently prepared a briefing package for Foreign Minister Graham, with whom Ramic has solicited a meeting (NFI). She volunteered her personal view that Ramic seems to have a special agenda in trying to besmirch the reputation of the Trillium Foundation to cut off funding to the Serbian community group in Hamilton. Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa KELLY