KOSOVO: COM WARNS AAK AND PDK ON INTERFERENCE IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L PRISTINA 000439 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: DECL: 05/19/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM UNMIK YI SUBJECT: KOSOVO: COM WARNS AAK AND PDK ON INTERFERENCE IN UPCOMING MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS REF: A. STATE 78992 (NOTAL) ¶B. SKOPJE 451 (NOTAL) Classified By: COM PHILIP S. GOLDBERG FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). ¶1. (C) Chief of Mission passed the messages contained in reftels separately to Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) president Ramush Haradinaj and Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) president Hashim Thaci on May 18. Haradinaj said that he had not heard of the presence of any Kosovo Albanian political party activists in Macedonia. He stated that during Ali Ahmeti's (the head of Macedonia's Democratic Union for Integration party) recent visit to Pristina, he had offered Ahmeti fraternal support, but that Ahmeti had never responded. He added that commercial public relations firms from Pristina might be working on the elections in Macedonia. Haradinaj understood USG concerns and said that neither the AAK nor its members would intervene in the upcoming elections there. AAK's Secretary General, Ahmet Isufi, told poloff May 17 that the AAK is focusing its attention on its May 20 party convention and has not had any recent direct contact with Ahmeti's party. ¶2. (C) PDK president Hashim Thaci also told COM that his party would not intervene in Macedonia's parliamentary electoral campaigns and that he has long favored "free and fair elections" there whose results would be "acceptable to all." Like Haradinaj, Thaci also suggested that public relations firms from Kosovo might be working on the Macedonian election. He added that he could not discount that Kosovars could have other private and family interests in Macedonia. COM countered that even if Thaci could not control independent actions of his party members, he should know that their actions will be seen as having been condoned by the party and as interference in the internal affairs of Macedonia. Thaci understood the message. GOLDBERG