KOSOVO: NON-SERB MINORITIES AMBIVALENT ABOUT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000427

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE, AND EUR/SSA, NSC FOR BRAUN,
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: NON-SERB MINORITIES AMBIVALENT ABOUT
DECENTRALIZATION, WARY OF MANIPULATIONS IN STATUS TALKS

PRISTINA 00000427 001.2 OF 003


Summary
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1. (SBU) Kosovo's non-Serb minority leaders are glad to be
involved in the status negotiations in Vienna and generally
pleased with the work of the Communities Consultative
Council, but are concerned about what they see as Belgrade's
efforts to manipulate non-Serb minority issues for its own
advantage in status talks. Most non-Serb minority leaders
were emphatic in recent meetings about wanting to decide on
the creation of predominantly minority municipalities through
discussions with Kosovar leaders in Pristina rather than
through negotiations with Belgrade, but were concerned about
the impact of redistricting on the minorities left behind in
even-more-predominantly Albanian areas. END SUMMARY.

Minority Government Members Blast Belgrade's "Manipulations"
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2. (SBU) In meetings with poloff during May 11-12,
representatives of the Turkish and Bosniak "Six Plus"
coalition, consisting of the Kosovo Democratic Turkish Party
(KDTP) and the Bosniak coalition Vakat, were concerned about
what they regard as Belgrade's attempts to "manipulate"
non-Serb minority issues. Prizren deputy mayors Ercan Spat
(KDTP) and Cemailj Kurtisi (Vakat),KDTP President and Kosovo
Assembly Presidency member Mahir Yagcilar, and Health
Minister Sadik Idrizi--who also has represented non-Serb
minorities at the decentralization talks in Vienna--stressed
that the Belgrade team's recent forays into non-Serb minority
issues, and especially its inclusion of a Gorani
representative on its delegation to the last meeting in
Vienna, put minorities in Kosovo in an awkward position by
implying that non-Serb minorities look to Belgrade to defend
them and by usurping the authority of Kosovo's elected
non-Serb minority representatives to represent their own
constituents. The Six Plus leaders told poloff they have
their own legitimate representatives, and can best represent
themselves without manipulations from outside. Xhevdet
Neziraj, a Kosovo Assembly member and President of Kosovo's
ethnic Egyptian party, the New Initiative for a Democratic
Kosovo (IRDK),which is part of Kosovo's governing coalition
by virtue of its membership in the Alliance for the Future of
Kosovo's (AAK) parliamentary group, made similar points to
poloff in a May 17 meeting.


3. (SBU) Idrizi noted that Belgrade's opening of the
non-Serb minority municipality issue at the May 4-5
negotiation session had put him in an awkward position, since
the agreement among Kosovo's non-Serb minorities to settle
decentralization issues in Pristina without involving
Belgrade had left him without a mandate to negotiate the
issue with Belgrade. He also emphasized that his own party
won the largest number of Gorani/Bosniak votes in Dragas
municipality, the population center of the Gorani community
and the territory of Belgrade's proposed Gorani municipality,
and so contended that he is the legitimate representative of
Gorani interests. Denouncing what he characterized as
Belgrade's attempt to establish an entity structure, Idrizi
argued that the Belgrade proposal to make his home region of
Gora into a separate municipality would be detrimental to the
interests of his fellow Gorani, since the re-creation of the
Gora municipality--created in the Milosevic era and abolished
in 1999--would alienate ethnic Albanians. He argued instead
for the creation of two municipal subunits, one predominantly
ethnic Albanian and the other predominantly Gorani, that
would both have Dragas town as their municipal center.
Neziraj similarly noted that the Belgrade proposal for a Roma
municipality in Mitrovica had never been raised by the Kosovo
Assembly Roma representative, either in Kosovo institutions
or in the deliberations of the Communities Consultative
Council, and criticized the move by Belgrade as an attempt to
"manipulate" vulnerable communities.

Gorani Community Divided, Concerned
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4. (SBU) The Gorani community is divided over how best to
represent its interests in the Vienna talks more broadly.
Some Gorani, like Idrizi, consider the Gorani to be a subset
of (or at least related to) the broader Bosniak community,
and tend to see the community's interests as best served by
closer relations with Kosovo's Bosniaks and ethnic Albanians.
The Citizens' Initiative of Gora (GIG),led by Rustem Ibisi,
tends to be somewhat closer to Belgrade but is internally
divided on its approach to the negotiations; Ibisi has long
voiced concern that the Gorani are ignored by Pristina and
their interests poorly served by its institutions, but also
is worried that the party should not cooperate too closely
with Serbian authorities for fear of further eroding the
Goranis' already rocky relations with ethnic Albanians. A
member of the GIG executive board told polfsn that Ibisi did
not endorse the participation in negotiations of Jasim Isaki,
the Gorani representative on the Belgrade team (though he
does support a Gorani municipality),but that the executive
board had done so in order to prevent the appointment of a
more controversial figure such as Ibro Vait, who has lived in
Belgrade since his participation on the Serbian delegation to
the Rambouillet negotiations in 1999. The executive board
chairman said that the GIG was keeping Isaki on a short
leash, requiring him to report back to the executive board
and not sign any documents without its approval.

Minorities Ambivalent on Decentralization
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5. (SBU) Kosovo's non-Serb minorities have voiced mixed
views of decentralization. All strongly favor some means of
increasing the local role in self-government and their own
communities' influence over local issues, but they are
divided and uncertain over the best means of doing so due to
demographic concerns and party politics. Yagcilar, Idrizi,
and the KDTP and Vakat leaders in Prizren noted that the
predominantly Turkish municipality pilot project of Mamusa
has been a mixed blessing; the residents of Mamusa are
pleased at their increased self-government, but Turks in
Prizren town now are more isolated as a smaller minority in a
more predominantly Albanian municipality. The Turks' long
history in Prizren and good relations with their neighbors
have insulated them from any particularly negative
consequences of this isolation, but their leaders worry that
the reduced percentage of Turks may jeopardize their ability
to use the Turkish language for official interactions and
their ability to achieve critical mass for purposes such as
Turkish-language education. Vakat leaders voiced similar
concerns, noting that Bosniak leaders had proposed the
creation of a municipality in Prizren's Zupa valley, centered
in the town of Recane, that would include 13-15,000 people
with an ethnic composition of 80 percent Bosniaks, 15 percent
Albanians, four percent Serbs, and one percent Turks. They
are concerned, however, that the inclusion of 70 percent of
Prizren's Bosniaks in such a municipality would leave the
other 30 percent isolated and vulnerable to emigration or
assimilation with Albanians.


6. (SBU) Idrizi and Neziraj also pointed out that
demographics, particularly the wide but shallow distribution
of some minority communities, make the creation of
predominantly minority municipalities difficult. Idrizi
pointed out that Vitomirica--the hometown of rival Bosniak
politician Numan Balic, who wants it to become a
municipality--is only 46 percent Bosniak, according to UNHCR.
A majority-minority municipality could be created by
including nearby Serb villages of Siga and Brestovik, but the
municipality's long-term non-Albanian majority would still be
in doubt. Neziraj noted that the same pattern applies to the
Egyptian community, which is geographically dispersed and
would not be certain to form a majority even in the proposed
"Egyptian" municipality of Rugova e Hasit in
Gjakova/Djakovica municipality. Neziraj, an economist,
further doubted that majority-Egyptian municipalities would
be in the Egyptian community's interest (or in the interest
of other communities with similar economic difficulties and
geographic dispersement, such as the Roma and Ashkali),since

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the communities tend to live in poor areas of predominantly
Albanian towns and would face both districting and economic
challenges to the viability of municipalities.


7. (SBU) For these reasons, the Six Plus and IRDK leaders
unanimously favored the creation of a system of
decentralization that would create multiple submunicipal
units in existing municipalities to bring some governing
functions closer to citizens while avoiding splitting off
minorities from existing municipalities. "What we need is
full integration, not separation," stressed Neziraj. The Six
Plus leaders noted that such a system would allow the sharing
of some functions--for instance, high schools--among minority
members in different submunicipal units while allowing
greater local-level governance.

Next Steps at Vienna Talks: Representation by Expertise
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8. (SBU) The community leaders told poloff that Idrizi's
tenure on the Vienna team was specific to the issue of
decentralization and that they intended to choose different
representatives to represent them on different issues. They
noted that some minority representatives, such as Democratic
Ashkali Party of Kosovo (PDAK) leader Sabit Rrahmani and
Party of Democratic Action (SDA) leader Numan Balic, had
argued that the non-Serb minority government and opposition
parties should alternate in sending representatives, but most
of the non-Serb minority leaders preferred to choose
representatives for each issue based on their expertise.
They noted that Yagcilar would be the representative at
upcoming discussions of minority protections and
constitutional issues, and Neziraj, an economist, would
represent them at any future economic discussions.


Mostly Content with Communities Consultative Council, Though
Some Criticisms Remain
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9. (SBU) The minority leaders unanimously characterized the
Communities Consultative Council chaired by Veton Surroi and
its April meeting in Durres, Albania as positive steps,
though some criticized the lack of greater feedback to the
Council from the Unity Team. Leaders from each of the
communities also noted that Balic had been a divisive force
on the Council in that he tended to hijack discussions of
important issues to try to score points against rivals on the
fractious Kosovar Bosniak political scene. That said, all
intended to continue to participate and respected Surroi's
willingness to take on the issue, though they hoped the
Council would function more smoothly in the future.


10. (SBU) COMMENT. Kosovo minority leaders are glad to be
involved in the negotiations process, especially to have a
representative in the Vienna negotiations, and are anxious to
ensure that their communities' unique interests do not get
lost in the shuffle or, worse, exploited for the political
purposes of others as the Kosovar and Serbian delegations
stake out their opposing positions. They strongly favor
decentralization but would prefer a system of municipal
subunits that would not sever small populations of their
communities from larger community population centers. Most
prefer to decide decentralization issues within Kosovo and to
avoid addressing their communities' particular interests in
discussions with Belgrade, though some vulnerable
communities--the Gorani in particular--feel marginalized and
are divided over what strategy to adopt to improve their
situation. END COMMENT.


11. (U) Post clears this cable in its entirety for passage
to UN Special Representative Ahtisaari.
GOLDBERG