KOSOVO: SERB RELUCTANCE TO RETURN TO SVINJARE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000653 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR DRL, INL, AND EUR/SCE, NSC FOR BRAUN, USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREF PGOV PREL UNMIK YI SUBJECT: KOSOVO: SERB RELUCTANCE TO RETURN TO SVINJARE LINKED TO SECURITY, NOT PACE OF REBUILDING PRISTINA 00000653 001.2 OF 002 Sensitive But Unclassified; Please Protect Accordingly. ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The return of Serbs to the village of Svinjare is more complex than the rebuilding of houses destroyed and damaged by ethnic Albanians in the riots of March 2004. The rebuilding/repair effort is underway, though according to the UNMIK office that advises the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC),even in the best-case scenario it will only be 80 percent complete by the onset of winter. Rather, issues of mutual mistrust continue to hamper the resettlement effort. On the one hand, whether Serbs want to resume living side-by-side with Albanians remains an open question. On the other hand, local Albanians make it clear they would prefer that their former Serb neighbors simply stayed away. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) The U.K. Liaison Office in Pristina organized a Contact Group (CG) visit to the village of Svinjare, which is on the south side of the Ibar River a few kilometers from Mitrovica. Over 100 Serb-owned houses were damaged and destroyed in the March 2004 violence, and the return of Serb residents has become an important test case for inter-communal relations. On August 3 local CG representatives plus media, Kosovo Police Service (KPS), Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) and UNMIK's Office of the KPC Coordinator arranged a joint visit to the village. The Provisional Institutions of Self Government (PISG) has designated the KPC as being responsible for the repairs, and their activity is being supervised by UNMIK's Office of the KPC Coordinator. DPO represented USOP. The Facts on the Ground -------------- ¶3. (SBU) The UNMIK briefer told the assembled CG representatives that, prior to 1999, there were 113 Serb houses in Svinjare Currently, only three Serb houses are occupied full time. There are now 66 Albanian families in the village, and there have been seven known cases of Serbs selling their homes to Albanians. ¶4. (SBU) According to UNMIK, a total of 84 Serb properties currently need some form of work, ranging from minor repairs to complete renovations. The KPC is currently working on five of them, with 79 awaiting the tendering process. To finish 80 percent of the work prior to the onset of winter, UNMIK will have to agree to an expedited tendering process. ¶5. (SBU) An elderly Serb woman and a well-know and colorful Serb villager -- surrounded by a gaggle of 50 diplomats, reporters, security personnel and onlookers -- reported that they had moved back into their homes and were experiencing no difficulties with their Albanian neighbors. Unlike the rest of the Serbs with whom we subsequently met, they both live full-time in their homes. (NOTE: Others come in on the morning train from the nearby municipality of Zvecan, and return in the afternoon. END NOTE.). The mayor of Zvecan has reportedly encouraged Serb returns to Svinjare but the same cannot be said of other, more hard-line Serb leaders, including those from Belgrade's Coordination Center for Kosovo and Metohija. Serb and Albanian Presentations -------------- ¶6. (SBU) The Russian Head of Mission asked that the Serbs be allowed to speak to the Contact Group separately from the Albanians. After the Albanians -- with the notable exception of KPC General Rama Rraman and his Chief of Staff -- were ushered out, Serbian community spokesman Milorad Radivojevic said that only four out of 580 Serbs originally from Svinjare are satisfied with security conditions. Referring to previous work on damaged houses, he said that 97 percent of his neighbors are dissatisfied with the quality of the work performed; he cited poor windows and doors, as well as roof beams lacking adequate reinforcement. (NOTE: Although we have no basis to make a judgment on the quality of the PRISTINA 00000653 002.2 OF 002 reconstructed housing, it looks quite solid as is; comparatively speaking, it is better that some we have seen in other locations. END NOTE). Radivojevic added that deserted houses awaiting completion have been repeatedly looted and vandalized. ¶7. (SBU) Another Serb provided a long list of foreign dignitaries who had visited Svinjare since the destruction of Serb houses; he also went over the KFOR and UNMIK deployments in the area. He summed up by saying "none of you can protect us, not the world's most powerful military alliance, not the United Nations. ¶8. (SBU) Albanian community spokesman Rrahman Hasani said he would welcome the return of his former Serb neighbors, but added that the village infrastructure was in dire need of repair, particularly its sewage system. (NOTE: In a brief conversation with us, Hasani said that the Serbs did not want to come back, strongly implying that this was fine with him. The KFOR liaison to the KPC in Svinjare told COM during a previous visit there that KPC Commander Rrama had take it upon himself to visit the Albanian households in the vicinity in order to ward off potential trouble. END NOTE.) ¶9. (SBU) The meeting degenerated into an argument when UK Liaison Office head David Blunt invited the two communities to speak to each other in our presence. A Serb said that all had been well in the village before the UN arrived to plant the seeds of discord between the communities. An Albanian villager launched into an angry recitation of genocidal crimes against his brethren, and the mutual recriminations continued until brought to a close by the CG representatives. ¶10. (SBU) COMMENT: Svinjare's issues cannot yet be solved via a construction project. While the rebuilding of homes and outbuildings continues, mutual mistrust remains a significant stumbling block to completing this one of the Contact Group 15 priority items for standards implementation. One set of neighbors burned another set out of their homes. The institutions of Kosovo neither prevented nor halted the assault, nor have they brought all the perpetrators to justice. At the same time, it is by no means clear that the Serbs of Svinjare would want or even be allowed to accept "yes" for an answer by their political masters. We will continue to follow events in the community and report on progress there. ¶11. (U) U.S. Office Pristina clears this cable for release in its entirety to U.N. Special Envoy for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari. KAIDANOW