Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06SARAJEVO2699
2006-10-27 15:31:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Sarajevo
Cable title:  

BOSNIA - DAS DICARLO PROBES NEWLY ELECTED BOSNIAK

Tags:  PGOV PREL PINR BK 
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VZCZCXRO2444
OO RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHVJ #2699/01 3001531
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 271531Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY SARAJEVO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4727
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JCS WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUFOAOA/USNIC SARAJEVO
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SARAJEVO 002699 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR(DICARLO),EUR/SCE, P (BAME); OSD FOR FLORY;
NSC FOR BRAUN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/01/2011
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR BK
SUBJECT: BOSNIA - DAS DICARLO PROBES NEWLY ELECTED BOSNIAK
PRESIDENT SILAJDZIC ON CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM


Classified By: Ambassador Douglas L. McElhaney. Reason 1.4(b) and d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SARAJEVO 002699

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR(DICARLO),EUR/SCE, P (BAME); OSD FOR FLORY;
NSC FOR BRAUN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/01/2011
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR BK
SUBJECT: BOSNIA - DAS DICARLO PROBES NEWLY ELECTED BOSNIAK
PRESIDENT SILAJDZIC ON CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM


Classified By: Ambassador Douglas L. McElhaney. Reason 1.4(b) and d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: On October 19 before the Peace Implementation
Council (PIC),DAS Rosemary DiCarlo met separately with the
outgoing Bosniak member of the Tri-Presidency and leader of
the Party for Democratic Action (SDA) Sulejman Tihic;
Republika Srpska (RS) PM and leader of the Alliance of
Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) Milorad Dodik; and the
Tri-Presidency-elect, Haris Silajdzic (Bosniak),Zeljko
Komsic (Croat),and Nebojsa Radmanovic (Serb). DiCarlo
underscored the importance of constitutional and police
reform as well as ICTY cooperation with each of her
interlocutors. She also urged Dodik to support the
international community's efforts to resolve the Kosovo
status issue. Tihic claimed that his party would support the
U.S.-brokered package of constitutional reform, despite it
electoral setbacks. Dodik underscored that he and the
RS-based parties remained committed to it as well. Silajdzic
dominated the exchange with the Tri-Presidency, attacking the
U.S.-brokered package of constitutional amendments as "worse
than Dayton." Komsic and Radmanovic rejected Silajdzic's
criticisms as well as his suggestion that the parties should
negotiate a new constitution from scratch. END SUMMARY

DiCarlo Outlines USG Bosnia Priorities
--------------


2. (C) DiCarlo opened her meetings by expressing USG dismay
at the level of nationalist rhetoric during the recent
election campaign. She chastised Republika Srpska PM Dodik
for his regular references to a referendum, bluntly adding
that the U.S. would not support and would not allow a
referendum. Underscoring their responsibility for governing
Bosnia after the OHR's June 2007 departure, DiCarlo urged her
interlocutors to implement the reforms required to secure the
country's Euro-Atlantic future. Otherwise Bosnia might find
itself "left behind" as its neighbors joined NATO and the EU.
Secretary Rice expected Bosnia's political leaders to honor

their commitment to take the first steps on constitutional
reform and adopt as soon as possible the U.S.-brokered
package of constitutional amendments, DiCarlo emphasized.
Police reform was another crucial post-election challenge,
she said. Without it, the EU would not sign a Stabilization
and Association Agreement (SAA) with Bosnia. Finally,
Bosnian cooperation with ICTY remained a U.S. priority.

Tihic: Optimism Despite Threats to His Leadership
-------------- --------------


3. (C) In the first meeting, Tihic began by observing that
though SDA remained the largest Bosniak party, Silajdzic's
election and gains by the Party for BiH (SBiH) at the SDA's
expense had prompted several senior SDA members to call for
his resignation and weakened support within the party for the
U.S.-brokered package of constitutional amendments. Tihic
implied that his preference was for his SDA party to form a
coalition government with the six parties that supported
constitutional reform in April, but he added, that he was
under intense pressure from party rank and file to support an
SDA-SBiH coalition. Party members opposed joining the
pro-constitutional reform Social Democratic Party (SDP) in a
coalition, and Dnevni Avaz, Bosnia's largest circulation
daily, was waging an incessant campaign in support of an
SDA-SBiH alliance.


4. (C) Despite his difficult post-election political
position, Tihic said the U.S.-brokered package of
constitutional amendments "still had a chance." Tihic
claimed that all nine SDA MPs would, in the end, support the
package, although SBiH would make every effort to sow dissent
and he would need U.S. help keeping them on board. He also
urged the U.S. to prod the Europeans into more pro-active
support for the U.S.-brokered package. Silajdzic uses
apparent European indifference as evidence of support for his
claim that the package does not meet "European norms," Tihic
explained. Tihic also pleaded with the Ambassador to stop
the media criticism of the package, particularly the attacks
from Dnevni Avaz. If Avaz's anti-constitutional reform media
blitz ended, opposition to the U.S.-brokered package would
collapse, Tihic predicted.

Dodik: I'm Part of the Solution, Not the Problem

SARAJEVO 00002699 002 OF 002


-------------- ---


5. (C) Dodik stressed that he and his party continue to
support the U.S.-brokered package of constitutional
amendments. As far as he is concerned, his party would be
prepared to adopt the package before a new Council of
Ministers (CoM) is in place, though other parties might balk
at this approach. He urged the U.S. to remain pro-active on
constitutional reform. Without U.S. leadership, the package
would not pass, he predicted. Dodik said he was prepared to
form a coalition among the pro-constitutinal reform parties,
but whether this was possibledepended on Tihic's SDA. If
not, his SNSD wouldsimply "distribute the seats within the
CoM thatbelonged to the Republika Srpska" and join an ad hc
government of shifting coalitions. Regardless, SNSD would
not obstruct the formation of a new government, but his party
would insist on holding the Chairmanship of the CoM.


6. (C) With regard to police reform, Dodik said that he (and
the other RS party leaders) would not accept a reform
proposal that eliminated the RS police force. To do so would
be political suicide, he explained, adding that issues
related to efficiency and functionality could be resolved
with simple legislative fixes rather than creating new police
forces and districts. Responding to DiCarlo's comments on
Kosovo, Dodik said that "privately" Kosovo does not interest
him. People in the RS are interested, however, and
sometimes, as a politician, he would have to comment on it,
but he stressed, that he had never linked the RS to Kosovo
and never called for RS secession from Bosnia. Dodik said he
understood that ultimately Kosovo would be independent, but
he urged that the international community find a way to keep
the Serbs in Kosovo. He was prepared to urge them not to
leave publicly, if that would help, he said.

Tri-Presidency: Silajdzic Dominates the Discussion
-------------- --------------


7. (C) Silajdzic dominated DiCarlo's discussion with the
Tri-Presidency-elect. He suggested that OHR's summer 2007
departure was premature and strongly criticized the
U.S.-brokered package of constitutional amendments.
Silajdzic claimed that the amendments agreed to in March were
"worse than Dayton" and jeopardized Bosnia's existence.
Entity voting remained his party's main objection to the
package, but there were others, including language that
called for the dissolution of parliament and new elections if
the House of Representatives failed to elect a Council of
Ministers. The elections had created a new political
reality, which Bosnia's political leadership and the
international community must accept, he said. The parties
should now sit down and negotiate a brand new constitutional
for Bosnia. Silajdzic also noted that Bosnian Muslims are
increasingly ambivalent towards the U.S. as a result of its
policies in BiH and globally.


8. (C) Komsic and Radmanovic responded by stressing that
their parties, SDP and SNSD respectively, continued to
support the package of amendments agreed to in March. They
underscored that the package as a whole was not acceptable to
any party, but that it represented a series of hard fought
compromises. The parliament should adopt it before beginning
discussions on phase two of constitutional reform.
Radmanovic added that his party would not accept opening up
the already agreed package in order to eliminate entity
voting, as Silajdzic had proposed. Komsic and Radmanovic
explained that there was a "collective frustration" among
Bosnians that ICTY indictees Karadzic and Mladic had not been
arrested and transferred to The Hague. Each hoped that this
would happen soon so the country could put this issue behind
it.


9. (U) DAS Rosemary DiCarlo cleared this message.
MCELHANEY