KOSOVO: ORDINARY SERBS IN KOSOVO'S NORTH SAY THEY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000780

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

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

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/07/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: ORDINARY SERBS IN KOSOVO'S NORTH SAY THEY
WANT TO STAY, BUT ARE UNCERTAIN, UNINFORMED

REF: PRISTINA 688

Classified By: COM TINA S. KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Kosovo,s Serbs face an existential
question: stay on in post-status Kosovo or start over
somewhere else. USOP officers traveled recently to Zvecan in
northern Kosovo to try to gauge the views of ordinary Serbs.
Most of our interlocutors predicted that Serbs would flee en
masse if independence were the final status outcome, but --
to a person -- said they themselves would remain. They also
downplayed the likelihood of a violent response by Serbs.
Most also had no idea what effect on-going decentralization
talks would have on their everyday lives, speaking only in
vague generalizations about things getting worse with
independence. They said they were focused on jobs and
economic development. Few have any contact with Kosovo
Albanians. While it is difficult to draw conclusions from
this limited sample, educating Kosovo Serbs on the benefits
of decentralization could help reduce the hold of local
hardliners and the impact of Belgrade's policies. END
SUMMARY.

All Serbs Will Leave, But I'll Stay...


2. (C) During a series of meetings in the northern
Serb-majority municipality of Zvecan on September 6, several
Kosovo Serbs from the north -- community activists, student
leaders, a doctor, a businessman, and a professional
basketball coach -- told us about their plans and
expectations for Kosovo after status. They all expressed a
desire to stay in Kosovo, although most were unsure of what
independence would mean in practice. Some, such as Mitrovica
Youth Initiative leaders Vladan Vlaskovic and Dragan
Milicevic, spoke of violent ethnic cleansing directed against
Serbs by Kosovo Albanians if Kosovo becomes independent.
Chairman of the Steering Board of the Student Alliance of
Mitrovica University Bojan Vasic felt that most Kosovo Serbs
would flee if independence were announced, but made clear
that he himself would stay, as did the other students who
attended the meeting. No one mentioned the likelihood of
armed action by Kosovo Serbs in response to independence.

Uninformed About Decentralization Talks


3. (C) Other than civil engineer and successful businessman
Andrija Mijanovic, who followed the on-going talks on
decentralization, the Serbs we spoke to seemed uninformed
about the status negotiations. They had almost no idea what
effect decentralization would have on their lives. Mitrovica
University architecture student Masa Stojisavljevic said she
expected life after independence to be "much worse" than her
current existence under international administration, but
gave only vague generalizations as to why. When pressed on
the point, she and nearly all the others acknowledged that on
a practical level not much would change in their everyday
lives, even as some continued to predict dire consequences.

Primary Concerns Are Economic


4. (C) Our interlocutors' primary concerns were not focused
on final status, but on economic problems. Most complained
about the lack of employment and development in the region.
Several mentioned the importance of the nearby Trepca mining
complex as the economic driving force behind the entire
region in the past, but none expressed much hope the decrepit
facilities will be revitalized soon. The student leaders
told us they would move to Serbia if that is the only place
they can find jobs, but noted the difficulty of finding work
there as well. Community activist Vlaskovic and others
mentioned that self-appointed Serb leaders in the north
oppose a status resolution mainly because they benefit
financially from the unregulated status quo in which they
control large amounts of funding from Belgrade with
essentially no oversight.


5. (C) Businessman Mijanovic told us that because of

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uncertainty about the future, most Kosovo Serbs are unwilling
to invest and the vast majority of their businesses remain
very small (with one to four employees). He asserted that 80
percent of people in the north receive inflated public-sector
salaries from Belgrade, and said hardline leaders Marko
Jaksic and Milan Ivanvovic (both E.O.-listed) use their power
over these funds to manipulate the population.

Stark Lack of Contact with Kosovo Albanians


6. (C) The lack of everyday contacts between these Serbs in
the north and Kosovo Albanians in the south was striking.
Mijanovic noted that the vast majority of Serbs in the north
have not "crossed the bridge" since 1999. Student leader
Vasic told us he has no formal or informal contacts with
Kosovo Albanian student leaders in Pristina, apart from his
participation last year in a joint event sponsored by a
Swedish NGO that took place in Upsala, Sweden. Kosovo Serb
students were afraid to travel to Pristina for a follow up
meeting and Kosovo Albanian students refused to travel to
northern Mitrovica, he asserted. Stojisavljevic recounted
how some Albanian students cursed her and mocked her concerns
about freedom of movement when she participated recently in a
BBC-sponsored event in Pristina.


7. (C) OB/GYN doctor at the northern Mitrovica hospital and
former Kosovo MP Momcilo Savic told us that Kosovo Serbs from
throughout Kosovo come to his hospital for treatment, while
Kosovo Albanians just across the bridge in south Mitrovica go
to Pristina or elsewhere for care. He denied that Albanians
would be turned away or threatened if they came for
treatment, saying that they simply fear travel to the north.
Savic claimed that the only way to move forward was with full
segregation of Kosovo Serbs and Albanians: "we do not touch
them, they do not touch us."

Heavy Hand of Belgrade


8. (C) Those Serbs who do reach out have been blacklisted or
threatened by their ethnic compatriots. Miomir Dasic, VP of
the Kosovo Basketball Federation and coach of the Mitrovica
men's professional basketball club "Bambi," said he and his
family have received multiple death threats because his team
will participate for the first time this year as the only
Serb team in the Kosovo men's Super League. He said that
when he tried to set up a multi-ethnic children's team,
parents would not let their kids participate because they
were threatened with losing their jobs. Mijanovic told us
that his business (which has 28 full time employees and up to
120 contractors) exclusively works on international
contracts, because Jaksic and Ivanovic have blacklisted him
for local work.

Comment


9. (C) All of Kosovo,s Serbs face a dilemma: on one side
lies ostracism within their community and loss of Belgrade,s
material support, and on the other side there is the fear of
living as a minority in a hostile environment. As reported
reftel, this conundrum is even more acute for Serbs living in
enclaves south of the Ibar River. The best tool we have to
change this calculus is continued outreach to Serb
communities and continued support for a decentralization plan
that allows Serbs to retain meaningful authority over their
daily affairs. Although Kosovo's economic prospects are
uncertain, the focus of our development assistance should be
to create conditions under which educated and ambitious
Kosovars, whether Serb or Albanian, are not compelled for
financial reasons to leave Kosovo. We will continue our
engagement through all Mission elements to get this message
out. As we do so, it is important that we broaden our
contacts with all levels of the Serb community. End Comment.


10. (U) U.S. Office Pristina clears this cable for release in
its entirety to U.N. Special Envoy for Kosovo Martti
Ahtisaari.
KAIDANOW