HIGHWAYMEN CLASH WITH POLICE IN SOUTHERN SERBIA, ONE DEAD

UNCLAS BELGRADE 001122

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM SR KV
SUBJECT: HIGHWAYMEN CLASH WITH POLICE IN SOUTHERN SERBIA, ONE DEAD


1. (sbu) Summary: A spate of recent shootings in the Presevo
valley have led to knee-jerk conspiracy theories among local
analysts and media. While the incidents themselves are clearly not
political, they do tend to highlight the fragility of the security
situation in the valley as the Kosovo status process drags out. End
summary.


2. (u) On the evening of August 4, a group of masked and armed men
were stopping and robbing passenger vehicles on the
Bujanovac-Konculj-Gnjilane road in the Presevo Valley near the ABL
with Kosovo. Reportedly, three masked men in black unmarked
uniforms, armed with an automatic weapons and RPGs, supported with
at least seven more people in the surrounding hills, stopped six
vehicles by shooting their front tires and stole an unspecified
amount of money and jewelry from passengers. One vehicle managed to
escape and to alert local police. The police, in an unmarked
civilian vehicle, arrived at the crime scene and were immediately
engaged by the assailants. Outgunned, police requested assistance
of the Gendarmerie that soon arrived, repulsed the attack and killed
one of the assailants, identified as 22 year-old Enver Dalipi from
Konculj village. The shooting continued for an hour before the gang
escaped from the scene.


3. (u) Most of the local Albanian political parties condemned the
incident. Jonuz Musliu, Deputy Mayor of Bujanovac, who happened to
be in one of the attacked vehicles, confirmed that his car had been
attacked and that the motivation was undoubtedly robbery but could
not identify the assailants. Riza Halimi, Albanian MP in the
Serbian Parliament, condemned the attack and demanded that local
police identify the perpetrators as soon as possible. Halimi also
used the incident to call for the reduction of security forces in
the region and said that the incident should not be used as
justification for increasing the police and Gendarmerie presence in
the region. Saip Kamberi, President of the Bujanovac Council for
Human Rights told us that the event will definitely be manipulated
by both government and local Albanian politicians for political
gain, since none of the previous incidents from past summers have
been resolved.


4. (u) Roadside robberies like this are sadly common during the
summer in the Presevo valley. The "Konculj Gang", mostly composed
of former members of the demilitarized Liberation Army of Presevo,
Bujanovac and Medvedja (UCPMB),perpetrates these robberies almost
every year during the summer holidays when "guest workers",
predominantly ethnic Albanians, from western European countries
travel via Bujanovac to Kosovo. The worst incident occurred in
2004, when bandits killed a local Albanian woman when her husband
tried to run away from their roadside blockade. Serbian police have
so far been unable to identify the gang leaders and stop the
activity.


5. (u) The police's inability to arrest the highwaymen has,
unsurprisingly, inspired a number of conspiracy theories. Tabloids
are printing ungrounded, sensationalistic articles with the
headlines: "It Started", "Albanians Ready for War", "New War in
Southern Serbia," while some analysts believe that the attack of an
armed ethnic Albanian group has political motivations. They claim
that the attack was deliberately not a "typical terrorist attack"
which might weaken the position of the Albanian negotiators in
Kosovo but rather conducted by extremists to "send a message" to
Belgrade and the international community.


6. (u) In unrelated incidents, two more shootings occurred on
August 7 in the region. Two men were shot and killed in what police
and local OSCE officials call a family dispute in Presevo, while a
"business-related" fatality occurred earlier in the day in
Bujanovac.


7. (sbu) Comment: We are convinced that these attacks are simple
robberies which are an unfortunately common occurrence during summer
vacation months and, ironically, primarily target other Albanians.
While the incident itself is not cause for alarm, though, the
memories of the 2001 armed conflict in southern Serbia between UCPMB
militants and the Serbian forces are still fresh and strong, and the
fragile stability in the ethnically sensitive region remains
tenuous. The drawn-out Kosovo status situation only heightens these
tensions and contributes to the strategic ambiguity in the region,
which allows for criminal elements like the Konculj gang to thrive
for years, and for the Serbian police to risk inflaming passions
through even routine duties. End Comment.

SIMMONS