BEST OF TIMES, WORST OF TIMES: KOSOVO PAST AND

UNCLAS PRISTINA 000410

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/SCE
NSC FOR BRAUN
USOSCE FOR STEGER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM PINR UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: BEST OF TIMES, WORST OF TIMES: KOSOVO PAST AND
PRESENT ASSEMBLY HEADS TO VISIT US

Ref: A) Pristina 0204 B) 04 Pristina 0406

Sensitive but unclassified; please protect accordingly.


1. (SBU) SUMMARY. The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK)
removed Nexhat Daci as Kosovo Assembly president on March 10,
2006, and replaced him with Kole Berisha. Both will visit the
United States in the coming week. Their diametrically-opposed
leadership styles engender continued criticism for Daci and
inter-party praise for Berisha. END SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) Nexhat Daci and Kole Berisha, former and current
Kosovo Assembly presidents, both intend to travel to the
United States in the coming week. Berisha comes armed with
his reputation as a serious and honest politician (ref A) and
an exceptional track record of creating a new democratic,
consensual atmosphere in the Assembly. Daci's legacy as
president of the Assembly, on the other hand, was
characterized by a heavy-handed, dictatorial manner and
continued flaunting of rules of procedure and sometimes
decorum (ref B). In his inaugural speech to the Assembly,
Berisha stressed his position as the "first among equals" in
the Assembly; a direct contrast to Daci's habit of turning off
microphones while members were speaking, a complaint often
cited by Serb representatives for their boycott. Berisha's
visit, his first to Washington, has been set up by a former
National Albanian American Council (NAAC) member, relying on
U.S. government assistance in arranging meetings, while Daci's
is sponsored by high-powered Albanian-American lobbying
organizations. Both need high-level meetings and photo-ops
while there to enhance their stature with Kosovo's public -
and in Daci's case, show that he is not at odds with the U.S.


3. (SBU) Daci is reportedly traveling to the United States to
meet with LDK constituencies, as he fights for his political
life in the LDK and in Kosovo politics. Following the January
21 death of LDK's founder former President Ibrahim Rugova,
Daci, a steadfast Rugova loyalist who Rugova handpicked as
Assembly president in December 2001, fashioned himself as
presidential successor, creating and welcoming foreign
dignitaries as the head of a largely symbolic and
controversial funeral committee. These actions earned him
more critics within the party, which replaced him as Assembly
President on March 10. Since receiving a March endorsement
for party president from head of the influential LDK Youth
Forum, Daci has canvassed Kosovo in stump speeches, often
busing in his own supporters from outside locales.


4. (SBU) Although consistently polling high among Kosovars,
Daci's egocentric and often heavy-handed style has caused
resentment within his party as he campaigns to become the
president of LDK. Eqrem Kreyziu, a vice-president of the LDK
and mayor of Prizren, is traveling with Berisha to the United
States, not Daci. Local press is enjoying the LDK's internal
squabbles, painting it as a battle between "Rugovists" led by
Daci and "Institutionalists" (described as Berisha, Kryeziu,
and Kosovo President Famtir Sejdiu). Not surprisingly, those
opposed to Daci such as Melihate Termkolli, Minister for
Public Services, take umbrage at Daci's co-opting of Rugova's
legacy, about whom Daci had little good to say while alive.
While in office, he has also, in private, criticized
compromises by the Kosovo Negotiating Team for final status
discussions, of which he is no longer a member, for "turning
Kosovo into Cyprus." Because of the status discussions, the
actual election could be postponed until next year, although
OSCE rules state that they should occur sometime this summer.


5. (SBU) Stakes are high for Kosovo as the battle for control
of its largest party continues. The LDK holds the majority of
ministerial seats, Assembly seats and municipal presidency
positions, and an influential place on the Negotiating Team.
Daci's brief tenure on the team was marred by conflict.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
--------------


6. (SBU) Daci's image as a calm and wise, if firm and

relentless, person among his supporters is balanced by his
detractors' view of him as narcissistic and power-hungry.
Born in the village of Trnovac in Serbia's Presevo Valley, he
is 62 years old. A tenured chemistry professor at the
University of Pristina since 1984, he engendered a strong
following among his students. Daci is believed to be among
the wealthiest politicians and academicians in Kosovo. He is
married to Zineta Daci, an economist and deputy chairman of
the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce, and has three children. He
speaks English.


7. (SBU) A steadfast, methodical and professionally humble
politician effusive in his respect for the United States, Kole
Berisha at first owed his party position to an unwritten LDK
internal rule that a member of the party's vice-presidency be
an Albanian Catholic. A prolific poet and prose writer, he
graduated from the University of Pristina's law faculty. In
March 1989, he was arrested and spent three months in prison
in Belgrade and then Peja/Pec. He is married and a father of
two. He does not speak English.

GOLDBERG