KOSOVO PRESIDENT SEJDIU CONTINUES MINORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 PRISTINA 000352

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KDEM PGOV PINR PREL SOCI YI UNMIK
SUBJECT: KOSOVO PRESIDENT SEJDIU CONTINUES MINORITY
OUTREACH AT DECANI MONASTERY

REF: PRISTINA 285

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, PROTECT ACCORDINGLY


1. (SBU) SUMMARY. On the first ever visit by a Kosovo
President to Decani Monastery, President Fatmir Sejdiu toured
the grounds and church on Orthodox Easter Sunday, and then
discussed the protection of Kosovo's Serbian Orthodox
heritage sites with Bishop Teodosije in Serbian. Other
visitors included the SRSG, COMKFOR, Charg and other Serb,
Albanian and international representatives. END SUMMARY.

SEJDIU AND TEODOSIJE DISCUSS CULTURAL HERITAGE
-------------- -


2. (SBU) On April 23 Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu visited
Visoki Decani Monastery in western Kosovo to participate in
Serbian Orthodox Easter celebrations. The 14th century
monastery was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004,
and remains the only UNESCO site in Kosovo. The legal status
and protection of Orthodox sacred sites will be addressed as
part of the ongoing Kosovo status negotiations. (NOTE.
During his mid-April visit to Kosovo, Ambassador Frank
Wisner, the Secretary's Special Representative for Kosovo
Final Status Talks, specifically suggested to Teodosije that
he invite President Sejdiu to Decani for Orthodox Easter.
END NOTE.).


3. (SBU) After touring the monastery's church, Sejdiu
participated in a reception hosted by Bishop Teodosije
Sibalic of Lipljan and Father Sava Janjic. Other
participants included SRSG Soren Jessen-Petersen, COMKFOR
Giuseppe Vallotto, Sejdiu's advisor Skender Hyseni, mayor of
Decan municipality Nazmi Selmanaj, Serb List for Kosovo and
Metohija (SLKM) leaders Oliver Ivanovic and Randjel Nojkic,
representatives from the German, Russian and Italian liaison
offices, as well as Charg, PolOff and PolFSN. During the
meeting President Sejdiu and Bishop Teodosije discussed (in
Serbian) the importance of protecting Kosovo's cultural
heritage, and agreed that the monastery is an important part
of that heritage. Teodosije thanked KFOR and Selmanaj for
their assistance in protecting the monastery.


4. (SBU) Teodosije praised the preliminary work of the
Reconstruction Implementation Commission (RIC) for Orthodox
Religious Sites, and urged faster action on further
reconstruction of sacred sites damaged in March 2004 riots.
He presented Sejdiu with a Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC)
report entitled "Crucified Kosovo," detailing church
destruction in Kosovo since the arrival of NATO troops in

1999. The report includes pictures showing churches before
and after they were damaged. (NOTE. According to the RIC,
the first phase of debris clearing from 30 Orthodox sites
damaged in March 2004 was completed in December 2005. The
RIC was established per a memorandum of understanding signed
between the PISG and the Serbian Orthodox Church in March

2005. END NOTE.) Teodosije also gave Sejdiu a book of
photographs chronicling monastic life at Decani, entitled
"Keepers of the Shrine."

VISITORS TOAST TO PEACE, GOODWILL AND RECONCILIATION
-------------- --------------


5. (SBU) After delivering messages of peace, goodwill and
reconciliation over toasts of rakija (plum brandy)
home-brewed by the Decani monks, Sejdiu and the others signed
the monastery's guest book. Afterwards the monks distributed
red-dyed, hard-boiled traditional Serbian Orthodox Easter
eggs to the guests, who, in accordance with Serbian
tradition, proceeded to crack them against one anothers eggs
to see whose was the "strongest." The reception was followed
by a banquet attended by Returns Minister Slavisa Petkovic,
along with other international and local guests, including
KFOR soldiers.


PRISTINA 00000352 002 OF 004



6. (SBU) During the reception, Ivanovic told PolOff that the
SLKM intends to return to the Provisional Institutions of
Self Government (PISG). He has been saying the same thing
publicly and privately for months, but this time added that
their current strategy is to return immediately prior to the
SRSG's report to the UN on standards implementation, due on
May 30. He said he didn't want to return too soon, thereby
giving the SRSG "too much credit" for their return. In a
press statement after the event, Ivanovic praised Sejdiu's
visit to the monastery, saying that "actions speak more than
words."


7. (SBU) On the road to the monastery, both tri-lingual
(Albanian, Serbian and English) road signs for the monastery
were in place on Easter Sunday. Bishop Teodosije and Father
Sava have complained for months that the signs are often
vandalized and removed. Teodosije also complained to the COM
in early April about a large red banner for the Albanian
nationalist party Balli Kombetar, which remained clearly
visible on the road to the monastery on Easter.

SEJDIU'S ONGOING EFFORT TO REACH OUT TO MINORITIES
-------------- --------------


8. (SBU) Sejdiu's visit to Decani Monastery is part of his
ongoing campaign to reach out to Kosovo's Serbs and other
minority communities, which has met with a mixed response
from Kosovo Serbs. In March he had productive meetings with
minorities in Dragas/Dragash and Orahovac/Rahovec
municipalities (reftel). However, local residents and
members of the municipal assembly boycotted his April 20 town
hall meeting in the Serb-majority municipality of Strpce in
southern Kosovo. Strpce mayor Stanko Jakovljevic attended
the beginning of the meeting, but then left after announcing
he was going to try to convince members of the municipal
assembly to participate. He never returned. Sejdiu has made
several press statements saying he will continue to visit
minority communities.


9. (SBU) In recent days, billboards have gone up around
Kosovo sponsored by the ministry of culture urging citizens
in Albanian, Serbian and English to protect Kosovo's cultural
heritage, saying "Protect it - It's Yours!" The billboards
show photographs of Kosovo's main cultural heritage sites and
objects, including Gracanica and Decani monasteries,
alongside the mosques and bridges of Prizren, and the 16th
century bridge in Vushtri/Vucitern.

CEKU'S OVERTURE REBUFFED BY BISHOP ARTEMIJE
--------------


10. (SBU) While Sejdiu's request to visit Decani was
embraced by the moderate Teodosije, Prime Minister Ceku's
request to visit Gracanica monastery on Orthodox Easter was
denied by hard-line Bishop Artemije, Head of the Raska and
Prizren diocese. Artemije led Easter services at Gracanica,
and there was a constant trickle of visitors to the monastery
throughout the day. In an April 19 letter to the office of
prime minister, Artemije said he was not in a position to
accept such a request until he and other internally displaced
Serbs can return to their residences. Artemije has lived in
Gracanica since 1999 due to security concerns-- his official
Episcopal residence in Prizren municipality was burned during
the March 2004 riots. (NOTE. Kosovo media reported that
Ceku instead participated in ceremonies to donate two
tractors to two Serb villages in Peja/Pec municipality. END
NOTE.)

TEODISJE PLANS FURTHER OUTREACH
--------------


11. (SBU) Bishop Teodosije and Father Sava have long talked
of a need for greater interaction and confidence-building
between Serb and Albanian communities in Kosovo. On several
occasions Teodosije has expressed a hope to the COM that the

PRISTINA 00000352 003 OF 004


new Kosovo government will do more to reach out to Kosovo
Serbs and show them there is a place for them in Kosovo. He
and the COM also discussed the possibility of organizing an
outreach event at a public school in the town of Decan with
the local mayor and citizens, as a way of starting to rebuild
the positive relationship the monastery had with the local
Albanian community before the war. The COM agreed to
participate in the event, to be held sometime after Easter.


12. (SBU) Decani Monastery representatives are also
organizing an interfaith conference, to be held at the Pec
Patriarchate on May 2-3. Father Sava told PolFSN on April 25
that invitees will include religious and international
representatives, Kosovo and Serbian ministry representatives
who work on the protection of cultural heritage, and the
mayors of Pec/Peja and Decan municipalities.

MONASTERY PROTECTION ZONE RENEWED
--------------


13. (SBU) UNMIK announced on April 26 that the SRSG has
signed an executive order extending the Special Zoning Area
(SZA) around Decani Monastery for an unspecified period. The
SZA was established by executive order on April 25, 2005.
The original order banned construction, commercial activity,
and natural resource exploitation on 800 hectares of public
and private lands in the Bistrica River Canyon near the
monastery for a six-month renewable period; and was renewed
in October 2005. In an April 26, 2006 press release the SRSG
underlined that the SZA "does not affect private ownership
rights but makes clear to potential investors, owners and
users of all land in the area must follow Kosovo laws and
UNESCO and other international standards for the preservation
of cultural and natural heritage."


14. (SBU) On April 24 the media reported that Vetevendosja
("Self determination") activists dumped a wagon-load of hay
in front of the UNMIK headquarters in Pristina, claiming
that, due to the restrictions in the special zoning area,
property owners there cannot make full commercial use of
their lands, and are only allowed to mow grass. In the
preceding weeks there were several small demonstrations in
the town of Decan against the renewal of the zone. However,
Luis Perez-Segnini, UNMIK,s representative in Decan
municipality, told PolFSN that leaders of the demonstrators,
including Vetevendosja founder Albin Kurti, had each
expressly called for demonstrators to take special care to
avoid confrontation with the monastery's monks and to instead
focus energies on UNMIK. (NOTE. Reacting to USOP concerns
about the planned demonstrations, Kurti had promised E/P
Chief during an April 10 meeting to make clear the monastery
was not the target of their protest actions. END NOTE.).


LOCAL SERBS CELEBRATE DESPITE ONGOING UNCERTAINTY
-------------- --------------


15. (SBU) PolOff also participated in a private family
gathering at the home of a Serb elementary school teacher in
an enclave outside Gracanica. Relatives who were displaced
to Serbia during the conflict, including a grandmother
suffering from cancer now living in Vojvodina and cousins
living in Smederevo in central Serbia, had returned to
celebrate Orthodox Easter with their family. The teacher
told PolOff she was especially concerned about recent reports
in the media that UNHCR is developing contingency plans in
case large numbers of Kosovo Serbs (up to 40,000 according to
press reports) decide to leave Kosovo in the case of
independence.


16. (SBU) She said she does not want to leave Kosovo, because
she and her husband (a professor at the university in north
Mitrovica) have good jobs here. (NOTE. She was not affected
by the recent directive from the Kosovo Coordination Center
forcing Kosovo Serb teachers to choose between Pristina and

PRISTINA 00000352 004 OF 004


Belgrade salaries, because, as a part-time teacher, she only
receives a salary from Belgrade. END NOTE). However, she
said they waiting to see what will happen. She said Kosovo
Serbs are unwilling to make any investments or improvements,
even something so simple as "painting a wall," for fear that
it will be a lost effort if they leave Kosovo in the coming
months. She herself has an empty apartment standing ready in
Belgrade, purchased with assistance from relatives living in
western Europe.


17. (SBU) COMMENT. President Sejdiu's visit to Decani
Monastery on Orthodox Easter was a success, and very well
received. It is exactly the type of concrete, high-level
outreach that builds confidence and sets an example for
Kosovo citizens that interactions with minority communities
can be positive and constructive. The billboards are further
evidence the Kosovo government is taking its obligation to
protect Kosovo's cultural heritage seriously. Now the
challenge is to convince the citizens of Kosovo to do the
same, and to incorporate functional mechanisms for lasting
legal protections into the final status agreements, with
special provisions for Orthodox sites. END COMMENT.


18. (U) Post clears this message in its entirety for
release to Special Envoy Ahtisaari.
GOLDBERG