NORTHERN KOSOVO SERB MAYORS NOT MASTERS OF THEIR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000598

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE
NSC FOR BRAUN
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/17/2016
TAGS: PREL KCRM PGOV PINR KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: NORTHERN KOSOVO SERB MAYORS NOT MASTERS OF THEIR
OWN DOMAINS

REF: (A) PRISTINA 484 (B) PRISTINA 575 (C) PRISTINA 587

Classified By: CDA T. KIRK MCBRIDE FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).


1. (C) SUMMARY. The mayor of the Serb-majority northern
Kosovo municipality of Zvecan insisted to USOP that his
decision to cut ties with the Kosovo Government was a
reasonable expression of frustration with the failure of the
Kosovo police to solve crimes against Serbs. The mayors of
the other two northern Serb-majority municipalities --
Leposavic and Zubin Potok -- claimed no up-tick of violence
in their communities and were hard-pressed to defend their
companion declarations cutting ties with Pristina. After
talking separately with each of the three mayors, we are left
with the impression that their declarations were not so much
coordinated among themselves as orchestrated by a third
party. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Marco Jaksic
and his Association of Serb Municipalities is more likely to
have served as conductor than Sanda Raskovic-Ivic and
Belgrade's Kosovo Coordination Center. International
community donors are actively coordinating assistance for the
north to maximize efficiency and engagement rather than
merely replacing Pristina funds now rejected by the
municipalities. END SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) After five weeks of deflecting USOP requests for
meetings, the mayors of Kosovo's three northern Serb-majority
municipalities agreed to discuss their June declarations
cutting ties with Kosovo's Provisional Institutions of
Self-Government (PISG). On July 13, A/DPO, PolOff and PolFSN
met separately with each of the three mayors -- Velimir
Bojovic of Leposavic, Dragisa Milovic of Zvecan, and Slavisa
Ristic of Zubin Potok. We suspect they agreed because we
made clear the USG is considering an increase in assistance
to the north and because we asked Marco Jaksic, the Executive
Order-listed president of the Association of Serb
Municipalities, to persuade them to talk to us.

ZVECAN MAYOR: SINCERELY ANGRY ABOUT CRIME
--------------


3. (SBU) Most of a recent wave of violent crimes against
ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo, culminating in the June 1
murder of 23 year-old Miljan Veskovic, has occurred in the
municipality of Zvecan (Ref A). Mayor Milovic said he fully
supported the June 2 declaration of the Zvecan Municipal
Assembly cutting ties with the PISG, calling it a reasonable
response to what he called wide spread panic among his
constituents after the Veskovic murder. In comments that
tracked almost verbatim those of his Leposavic and Zubin
Potok colleagues, Milovic said Kosovo Serbs in the north have
no issue with local Kosovo Police Service (KPS) officers
whose role in investigating crime, they said, is confined to
securing crime scenes for the regional KPS. Without being
asked, all three advocated an increase in local KPS
responsibilities and a strong local voice in selecting
municipal-level police chiefs. (NOTE. Local KPS officers in
the north are virtually all ethnic Serbs, many of whom by
several accounts also work as plainclothes officers for the
Serbian ministry of the interior police (MUP). Regional KPS
units are much more ethnically integrated. END NOTE.)


4. (SBU) Milovic agreed that noncooperation with regional KPS
seems counter-intuitive as a means of fighting crime. He
said Zvecan Serbs have nothing to lose, however, since the
crimes are not being solved anyway and even suggested that
members of KPS regional units might themselves be responsible
for crimes since Kosovo Albanians officers can drive freely
in and out of the north in their police vehicles. Milovic
evaded our repeated questions about clandestine MUP
activities in his jurisdiction and said he was putting his
hope for solving the crimes in UNMIK's international police.
(NOTE. Amcit Gary Smith, CIVPOL regional commander for
Mitrovica, told CDA on July 16 that Milovic is not at all
cooperative with CIVPOL's presence in Zvecan. END NOTE.)

PRISTINA 00000598 002 OF 003



LEPOSAVIC AND ZUBIN POTOK MAYORS: SINCERELY INTERESTED IN USG
MONEY
-------------- --------------


5. (SBU) Mayor Bojovic of Leposavic and Mayor Ristic of
Zubin Potok readily admitted that there has been no increase
in crime in their municipalities. He qualified language in
their June declarations regarding a deteriorating security
environment as intended to support the Zvecan declaration.
Bojovic said that in Leposavic's only recent security
incident, 99% of local Serbs "know" that a fellow Serb threw
a hand grenade (that fortunately did not detonate) into a
local coffee shop for "business reasons." He claimed that
MUP could solve this and any other crimes committed in
Leposavic "within 24 hours" but said they were not allowed
to. Ristic could not allege even a single recent breach of
the peace in Zubin Potok and rationalized his declaration as
an effort to force compromise in the final status process.


6. (SBU) Bojovic and Ristic agreed reluctantly to discuss
security and changed the subject to possible USG financial
assistance at every opportunity. Sports facilities, roads,
and tourism development topped both their wish lists.
Bojovic handed us a CD detailing possible Leposavic targets
for USG assistance.

BIRD FLU CIVIL PROTECTION COMMITTEES?
--------------


7. (SBU) With what seemed like coordinated talking points,
the mayors downplayed the call for "civilian protection
committees" in the declarations, saying the committees have
been widely misunderstood. Milovic and Ristic said
sheepishly that these committees were originally created in
response to requests from Belgrade and the PISG to plan for
bird flu outbreaks and said that their mandate has been
expanded to include civil emergencies such as floods,
earthquakes and fires. He added that the committees will
have a few employees to plan disaster response but for the
most part they will have a civilian structure based on
voluntary work.


8. (SBU) Ristic said that since there are no natural
disasters at present, the members of these committees will be
used to assist local police in crime prevention. Milovic
said citizens will observe possible troublespots and assist
the police by reporting suspicious activity. (NOTE. Nebojsa
Jovic, a leader of the hard-line Mitrovica Serbian National
Council (SNC) and close associate of E.O.-Listed SNC leader
Marko Jaksic made similar comments to PolOff on July 3 (Ref
B). Jaksic is also a member of Belgrade's final status
negotiating team and a member of the Zubin Potok assembly.
END NOTE.). Milovic insisted that these are not "defense"
organizations, and he called the Reuters report which quoted
him as saying that 385 former members of the Yugoslav army
will come to Kosovo from Serbia to defend Kosovo Serbs from
Albanians "nonsense." Ristic said that there has been
"false" information that these committees are a military or
security force.

DISSATISFIED WITH CCK CHIEF RASKOVIC-IVIC
--------------


9. (SBU) On July 13, the head of the Serbian government's
Kosovo Coordination Center (CCK) Sanda Raskovic-Ivic visited
Kosovo to attend the groundbreaking for a new sports complex
in Zubin Potok. Bojovic complained bitterly that the CCK was
building the complex in Zubin Potok and not Leposavic. He
said that Zubin Potok and Zvecan always get more funding,
because they have Ristic, Jaksic and Mitrovica regional CCK
head Momir Kasalovic.


10. (SBU) Zvecan's Milovic even more pointedly criticized
Raskovic-Ivic, complaining that she had that day taken him to

PRISTINA 00000598 003 OF 003


task over living conditions for Kosovo Serb internally
displaced persons (IDPs) from Svinjare living in Zvecan. He
said 35 of those families are living illegally in unfinished
apartment buildings without sewage, electricity or water,
creating a health hazard for themselves and the surrounding
community. He said the Zvecan assembly decided on July 12 to
close the buildings to prevent a health epidemic. (NOTE.
Acting SRSG Steven Schook told A/DPO on July 14 that
Raskovic-Ivic had that day told him one of her primary
missions is to prevent more IDPs from leaving Kosovo and
moving to Serbia. Schook was encouraged in this regard by a
Raskovic-Ivic statement to the press calling on Kosovo Serbs
to stay in Kosovo and wait out the status negotiations
process. END NOTE.)

DONORS COORDINATING INCREASED ASSISTANCE TO THE NORTH
-------------- --------------


11. (SBU) All three mayors readily admitted that the only
practical effect of their anti-Pristina declarations is that
PISG funds would no longer be accepted for municipal salaries
and projects. International Community representatives,
including USOP/USAID, will meet jointly with them on July 18
to discuss security and wade through competing lists of
proposals for quick impact projects in the north.


12. (SBU) COMMENT. Pressure is building in the north (ref
C),and these adaptive mayors are determined to parlay that
serious circumstance into short-term profit for their
municipalities. The challenge for the international
community is to coordinate assistance projects that stimulate
economic and social development rather than merely finance
the decision of these municipalities to reject Pristina's
outreach. The limited insight of the Leposavic and Zubin
Potok mayors into their own declarations against the PISG
suggest that a third party put them up to making them. The
open disdain for CCK's Raskovic-Ivic displayed by Bojovic and
Milovic suggests that CCK is not the primary actor in the
north. We believe that Executive Order-listed Marco Jaksic
-- president of the Association of Serb Municipalities and
the Serbian National Council, member of the Belgrade final
status negotiating team, and willing facilitator of our trip
to visit the mayors, -- is a more likely coordinator of
events in the north. END COMMENT.


13. (U) Post clears this message in its entirety for
release to Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari.
MCBRIDE