SLOVENE PRESIDENT PROPOSES KOSOVO CONFIDENCE

UNCLAS LJUBLJANA 000737

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL SI YI
SUBJECT: SLOVENE PRESIDENT PROPOSES KOSOVO CONFIDENCE
BUILDING MEETING



1. (SBU) Summary. On October 19, Slovene President Janez
Drnovsek invited Contact Group (CG) Ambassadors in Ljubljana
to lunch to lay out his idea of an "informal meeting" to be
held in Slovenia to launch status negotiations on Kosovo. The
invited would include Presidents, Prime Ministers and
President of Parliament of all the parties (Belgrade, Kosovo
Albanians and Kosovo Serbs) involved in discussing the final
status of Kosovo. Drnovsek said he had discussed this with
former Finnish President Marti Ahtissari whom he expected
would be appointed as Special Envoy on Kosovo on Friday, and
who would be invited together with other representatives from
the CG. Drnovsek took pains to stress that this was to be an
informal meeting with "no expectations" as to results, but
for purposes of the players getting to know each other better
without pressure "to perform:" as a confidence building
measure. He said Slovenia was motivated to make this offer
out of a strong sense of its close historical ties as a
former member of the Yugoslav Republic and as the only EU and
NATO member among the successor states. He made clear that
PM Jansa and FM Rupel were on board with the proposal.
Drnovsek said he would be traveling to Belgrade on November 2
and would propose the idea to all parties at tat time. End
Summary


2. (SBU) On October 19, Slovene President Drnovsek met with
the resident Ambassadors of the U.S., U.K.(also representing
the EU),Germany, France, Russia and Italy. The purpose of
the meeting was to discuss an idea Slovenia had to gather all
the relevant parties to the Kosovo status/standards talks in
a neutral location (Slovenia) for an informal, confidence
building meeting. (Note. FM Rupel has mentioned previously
the GOS' readiness to play such a roll End Note.) Slovenes
have been keeping a close eye on developments in Serbia and
Kosovo and have pushed hard for status talks to get underway
in parallel with on going standards work.

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Beyond the Meeting: Ideas for Final Status
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3. (SBU) In addition to proposing this informal meeting,
President Drnovsek shared his thoughts on points that an
ultimate outcome should include. Most importantly, the
security for the Serb minority must be assured. Serbs in
Kosovo should have significant autonomy for their communities
as well as a permanent representative in government and
parliament. He noted the strong emotional attachment have to
their churches and historical sites in Kosovo and proposed
that some of the most important Serbian cultural sites within
Kosovo be given a sort of extraterritorial status. These
could be the types of concessions the Kosovars should be
willing to make to Serbia in order to gain sovereignty.
Asked about the need for NATO or EU forces after status talks
concluded, Drnovsek said they would still be required,
especially around Serbian settlements, but that once the
Kosovars had their independence, they would be less
interested in threatening the Serb minority.


4. (SBU) Saying that Kosovo independence was inevitable, and
that everyone including the Serbs know it, Drnovsek thought
that it needed to be accomplished sooner rather than later,
months, not years. He specifically mentioned 18 months as
the outside limit. A gradual approach was not the way to go.
He added that Kosovo needed to start to take over UNMIK
responsibilities now. Drnovsek said that with the
concessions from Kosovo and prospects for eventually joining
Europe and the EU, Serbia would be able to move forward and
to make necessary political and economic reforms. Kosovo
would have to do the same.


5. (SBU) Comment. Drnovsek has strong political credentials
both pre and post Yugoslavia. He was the penultimate
president of the rotating presidency of Yugoslavia, and he
has held the position of Prime Minister and now President
almost continually since independence. He is well known in
the region, highly regarded within Slovenia by all political
factions, and his calm and even manner make him a natural


mediator. In this meeting, he clearly represented Slovenia's
interest in helping its former compatriots to reach a
settlement on sovereignty for Kosovo which would also ensure
continuing peace and stability in the region. There is no
ambition to interfere in the ongoing Contact Group process,
however, there is a strong belief that the time is right for
Slovenia to offer its good offices in the area of confidence
building. As Drnovsek said, he, FM Rupel and PM Jansa "all
speak their language."
ROBERTSON


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2005LJUBLJ00737 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED



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