SERBIA'S NEW KOSOVO MINISTRY

UNCLAS BELGRADE 000668 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O.12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM PBTS SR MW YI SUBJECT: SERBIA'S NEW KOSOVO MINISTRY ¶1. (U) Summary: Serbian lawmakers have created a new Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija which will administer the GOS' functional institutions within Kosovo. Many of the Ministry's competencies assume the continuation of international negotiations to resolve Kosovo's status. Under the terms of the governing parties' agreement, Prime Minister Kostunica's DSS will control the Ministry (the new Minister will be Kosovo negotiator Slobodan Samardzic). The Ministry will absorb the existing Coordinating Center for Kosovo (CCK). End Summary. ¶2. (U) The Ministry will be led by Kosovo negotiator and PM advisor Slobodan Samardzic. Leon Kojen, who recently resigned from Tadic's staff and remains on the current GOS negotiating team, will be State Secretary. SIPDIS COMPETENCIES OF MINISTRY -------------- ¶3. (SBU) According to parliamentary sources, Serbia's new Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija will be empowered, under the new Law on Ministries, to be "in charge of state administration related to functioning of the institutions of the Republic of Serbia in Kosovo." The stated specific competencies of the Ministry will be: - education, health, social affairs, culture, infrastructure and telecommunication in Serb areas of Kosovo; - activities of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC),restoration of religious and cultural heritage sites; - financial, legal, technical, and human resource assistance to all areas of importance for Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo; - cooperation with the Commissariat for Refugees related to internally displaced persons (IDPs); - drafting of a Law to define "substantial autonomy" for Kosovo; - cooperation with the international community's civilian and military missions in Kosovo(UNMIK and KFOR); - nomination of composition of the GOS negotiation team in charge of international activities related to continuation of negotiations; - management of the GOS negotiation team; - maintaining international contacts during negotiation process; - formulation of future status of Kosovo; - other competences as envisaged by the Law. ¶4. (SBU) According to our contacts, the organizational structure of the Ministry has not yet been determined in any detail. Also, the organization will not be subject to the Law on Ministries and can be determined later by the GOS. ¶5. (U) Current CCK director Sanda Raskovic-Ivic has said publicly that the new Ministry will absorb CCK in order to combine the CCK's "technical" role and leave the GOS' "high policy" on Kosovo to the new Ministry. Keeping the CCK independent, Raskovic-Ivic said, would imply that the GOS had "opened the Ministry for foreign affairs for Kosovo, which is exactly what we have fought against." ¶6. (SBU) Comment: While the creation of the Ministry is not official until the Law on Ministries is passed before the deadline of midnight on May 15, our contacts are confident the enumerated competencies are unlikely to be amended. This move consolidates Kostunica's control of key elements of Serbia's Kosovo policy into a single Ministry. There is no daylight between Samardzic and Kostunica on Kosovo. We will explore if/how President Tadic plans to inject himself and his party into Kosovo policy -- and how his DS-controlled Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense will coexist with the new Ministry's intent to be involved in Serbia's foreign contacts on Kosovo. End Comment. POLT