CZECH PM ANNOUNCES HIS OWN KOSOVO POLICY

C O N F I D E N T I A L PRAGUE 001680

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/03/2015
TAGS: PREL YI EZ
SUBJECT: CZECH PM ANNOUNCES HIS OWN KOSOVO POLICY

Classified By: Pol-Econ Chief Mike Dodman for reasons 1.4 b+d


1. (U) Following a November visit to the Balkans, Czech PM
Jiri Paroubek made the surprise announcement that the best
solution to Kosovo's status would be a separation along
ethnic lines. Paroubek floated the idea in a press interview
on his return from the November 18-21 visit to the region.
He then restated the call during a parliamentary debate on
December 1 in response to criticism from opposition leaders.
This statement came one day after the government formally
"took note" of an MFA policy paper on Kosovo that declared
support for policy guidelines adopted by the EU and Contract
Group opposing any partition of Kosovo.


2. (C) MFA officials are now having to walk a fine line,
insisting that the MFA remains firmly in support of the
international consensus on Kosovo's borders, but no longer
able to claim that their position represents government
policy. We have discussed the issue with officials at the
MFA (most recently December 1 with Director of East and
Southeast European Affairs Tomas Szunyog) and in the PM's
office (on November 23 with Paroubek's Foreign Policy Advisor
Ivan Busniak). Both agree that Paroubek did not raise the
question of borders during his meetings in either Pristina or
Belgrade. But both independently noted that Paroubek was
deeply moved by a meeting in Belgrade with a group of Kosovo
Serbs, and that this may have been the source of his call for
a division along ethnic lines. Busniak, as he has been
reliably in the past, was very pessimistic about Kosovo and
claimed that Paroubek left the region with his own deep sense
of pessimism about prospects for the upcoming status
negotiations.


3. (C) Some Czech observers accuse Busniak, a former Czech
Ambassador to Belgrade and strong Serb supporter, of being
behind Paroubek's new proposal. However Szunyog told us this
was probably not fully accurate, noting that many of
Paroubek's advisors are sympathetic to the Serbs (as, indeed,
are the Czechs generally).


4. (C) Szunyog confirmed press reports that many European
government have formally complained about Paroubek's
unhelpful initiative, including during meetings he had
recently conducted in both Paris and Vienna. In our
discussions we have stressed that any change in Kosovo's
borders would be a dangerous precedent for Bosnia and
elsewhere, and urged that the Czech position remain
consistent with that of the Contract Group.
CABANISS