KOSOVO: SERBIA WEEKLY UPDATE (4/9 - 4/13)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BELGRADE 000489

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O.12958: DECL: 04/13/17
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM PBTS KPAO SR MW YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: SERBIA WEEKLY UPDATE (4/9 - 4/13)

REF: BELGRADE 483

CLASSIFIED BY POLOFF IAN CAMPBELL, reasons 1.4 (b,d)


1. (U) This cable summarizes notable events relating to
Serbia and Kosovo.


2. (SBU) Summary: For the week of April 9, Serbia's self-titled
"diplomatic offensive" to block passage of a UNSC resolution on
Kosovo was the dominant event related to Kosovo and Serbia. The
Ambassador and his French counterpart hosted a lunch for journalists
to directly address USG support for supervised independence for
Kosovo (reftel). German Ambassador Zobel caused a mini-tempest when
he was attributed as saying instability in Kosovo could lead to
irredentism in Vojvodina and the Sandzak. CODEL Rohrabacher visited
Belgrade on April 13 and met with President Tadic. End Summary.

UNSC: THE VIEW FROM BELGRADE
--------------


3. (U) PM Kostunica continued his sanguine assessment that no UNSC
resolution will emerge based on the Ahtisaari plan, citing on 4/9
"Serbia's irrefutable arguments." In an interview to Blic, Serbia's
PermRep to the UN Pavle Jeremic warned against "moves to score
winning points in the local political scene" with regards to Kosovo.
Jeremic cautioned that Serbia should remain realistic despite having
"won the first round in the UNSC."


4. (U) Outgoing FM Draskovic told Vecernje Novosti on 4/9 that a new
negotiating process on the future Kosovo status "has already started"
through Serbia's consultations with UNSC member states, adding that
the result can only be a compromise. Draskovic left for Pretoria this
week to meet with his counterpart to explain Serbia's stand on Kosovo
and ask that South Africa not lend support to Ahtisaari's plan. The
next countries to be visited will be Congo and Ghana.


5. (U) On April 10, Tadic said he ruled out the possibility of
"bartering" the province's independence for Serbia's integration with
the EU, calling it an "indecent proposal." Tadic also stressed that
EU membership is Serbia's most important strategic goal. He added
that Serbia's efforts to block the final adoption of Ahtisaari's plan
by the UNSC will not destroy Serbia's relations with the U.S. and the
West. Tadic advisor Vuk Jeremic said that Serbia's diplomatic
outreach on Kosovo has been both bilateral and multilateral.


6. (U) On security, Tadic assured that Serbia is prepared to help "in
any way in establishing security in Kosovo." Tadic said there is a
professional level of cooperation between KFOR and Serbian Armed
Forces.


7. (U) Belgrade media reported the Ambassador's comments on 4/11 that
he expects a UNSC Resolution on Kosovo to be adopted "in late spring
or early summer," and to "open the door for supervised independence
for Kosovo." He also said that the UNSC has started work on
"drafting an adequate resolution" and said Ahtisaari's "fair and
reasonable" plan presents a solution, something that no one has been
able to do previously.


8. (U) Belgrade media also widely covered UNSYG Ban Ki Moon comments
to French and Slovenian press that he backs Ahtisaari's plan and
describes it as a solid foundation for the future Kosovo status and
contains everything needed for a workable and long-term solution. He
also stated that Kosovo can no longer be a part of Serbia because the
90% Albanian population in it simply no longer want to live in
Serbia. Ahtisaari's comments that Serbia has to accept Kosovo's
independence if it wishes to join the EU received attention in
Serbia.


GERMAN AMBASSADOR CAUSES FIRESTORM
--------------


9. (U) German Ambassador to Serbia Andreas Zobel created a firestorm
on 4/11 with comments that "problems in Vojvodina and Sandzak might
flare up" if Kosovo does not become independent. B92 reported that
Zobel said it was not true "that Kosovo had always belonged to
Serbia, since it officially became Serbia's in 1912, along with
Vojvodina, which joined in 1918." Zobel added that PM Kostunica,
President Tadic and their "wise advisors" could not explain to him
the precise meaning of the formula "more than autonomy and less than
independence." As to the Ahtisaari plan, Zobel said it was "not
good, but better than all other possible solutions." The possible
UNSC visit to the region, he said, "could only come to one conclusion
- Serbs and Albanians cannot live together."


10. (U) A statement from the German Embassy the following morning
said Zobel's statements were "taken out of context" and that the
Ambassador was only making a point that "EU integration was the best
guarantee for Serbia's stability." Later in the day, Zobel held a

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press conference, apologized, and stressed that his statements should
only be assigned to him personally, and not to Germany or the EU.


11. (U) The GOS announced it would issue "a most severe protest to
the German government regarding Ambassador Zobel's statements." A
GOS statement described Zobel's remarks as "impertinent meddling into
Serbia's affairs." The statement continued, "despite the hospitality
he was shown in Serbia, Ambassador Zobel has demonstrated disrespect
for the dignity of state institutions in this country." Reactions on
4/13 followed this line as well, with Radical party hardliners
calling for Zobel to be declared persona non grata.

CONGRESSMAN ROHRABACHER MEETING WITH PRESIDENT TADIC
-------------- --------------


12. (c) Tadic used a 4/13 meeting with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher
(R-CA) to urge the Congress not to move forward with a resolution
supporting the Ahtisaari plan and supervised independence for Kosovo.
Tadic said that in order for him to be able to pursue his vision of
maintaining a strategic partnership with the U.S. in the aftermath of
a Kosovo status decision, he would need to have a reservoir of
policymakers in the US who he could portray to the Serbian people as
sensitive to Serbia and its interests, and that a resolution now
would tie the Congress to the administration policy and not allow for
him to create room to work with US policymakers after Kosovo. The
Congressman reiterated that there is absolute unity between the
legislative and executive branches on Kosovo, and said he would make
every effort to ensure that the resolution included language that
highlighted the importance of continued positive U.S.-Serbian
relations.

REFUGEE/IDP ISSUES
--------------


13. (SBU) Cross-Boundary Legal Assistance Project Recovered one
Apartment, Many Documents for IDPs: Six months through the project
year, direct service providers engaged in the PRM-funded legal
assistance project, through a grant to CRS, are exceeding all
expectations. In a meeting with RefAssistant, the local NGOs
provided the following YTD statistics: The Balkan Center for
Migrations and Humanitarian Activities (BCM) in Belgrade served 742
clients mostly on property-related issues and to obtain personal
documents; The War Affected Persons' Relief and Protection Committee
assisted 1,551 clients, helping to secure documents and providing
other legal services; Norma, a Kosovo-based organization,
collaborated with BCM to assist 34 clients with documents and
property claims. They received one referral from the Kosovo Legal
Aid Kosovo, a nascent, government-funded program, not yet fully
operational. Norma's greatest success to date led to the repossession
of an apartment in Urosevac/Ferizaj, on behalf of an IDP. Norma
challenged a falsified contract of sale, and won the case both in the
municipal court in Urosevac, and before the district court in
Pristina, on appeal.


14. (SBU) UNHCR and local NGO Praxis presented, at the April IDP
working group conference, an "Analysis of the Situation of Internally
Displaced Persons from Kosovo in Serbia: Law and Practice." The gap
analysis laid out for the Government of Serbia 19 recommendations to
improve for improving the lives of IDPs. Several recommendations
targeted stepping up government efforts to ensure the rights of Roma
IDPs, their access to social benefits, and ability to secure housing
and basic protections; Many others focused on facilitating the
process by which IDPs obtain personal and property records, citing
specifically the need to automate the archives from Kosovo (the
so-called dislocated registry office books). Praxis also presented a
glossy, reader-friendly study "access to Documentationfor IDPs in
Serbia" which they prepared in the course of executing a
PRM-supported project under the direction of UNHCR. UNHCR
highlighted PRM support legal assistance project, well designed to
fill the gaps.


15. (SBU) UNHCR Fine-tunes Legal Assistance Project: UNHCR has
submitted documentation of revisions to the regional legal assistance
proposal. UNHCR proposed augmenting the ongoing, successful Roma
civil registration program in Kosovo and, because of insurmountable
impediments to concluding a cooperation agreement with the Mitrovice
University Law School, providing the Ministry of Internal Affairs
(Kosovo) training and capacity building related to asylum and
migration, registration, and prevention of statelessness.


16. (SBU) Serbian Commissioner for Refugees Dabetic told RefCoord and
RefAssist that he was uninterested in conducting a new registration
of IDPs in Serbia independent of a Kosovo general census. (Note:
Kosovo last conducted a census in the early 1990s. End note.) UNHCR
figures set the number of IDPs registered in Serbia at about 206,000.
Many agree on the need to resurvey the population to determine how
many of this number have either successfully integrated, returned to
Kosovo, left the region, or returned to Serbia, having failed to
obtain asylum (or work) elsewhere. Dabetic argues that a survey in

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Serbia without a parallel census in Kosovo would result in
significant double counting of individuals in the process of
migrating across the boundary and those who maintain residences in
both areas.

OTHER DIPLOMATIC ACTIVITY
--------------


17. (U) China & Russia: On 4/11, a GOS spokesman announced that
officials from China and Russia will visit Belgrade on April 17
(Chinese Deputy PM Hui Liyangyu),and April 18-19 (Russian FM
Lavrov).


18. (U) UK: British Ambassador to Serbia Wordsworth said earlier this
week that he hoped the Kosovo issue would be resolved with the
adoption of a UNSC resolution before the June G8 summit.


19. (U) EU: Belgrade media reported EU Foreign Policy chief Javier
Solana's statements that the 27 EU member states "fully support" the
EU's preparation for the ICO, which will be based on a new UNSC
resolution.

POLT