SLOVENIA: DINNER WITH THE RUPELS: KOSOVO/SERBIA,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 LJUBLJANA 000030

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT. FOR EUR/NCE, EUR/SCE, EUR/WE
NSC FOR A. STERLING

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/19/2017
TAGS: PREL PHUM IT SI
SUBJECT: SLOVENIA: DINNER WITH THE RUPELS: KOSOVO/SERBIA,
ITALY, HUMAN RIGHTS ET AL

REF: LJUBLJANA

Classified By: COM Thomas B. Robertson for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary. At dinner with COM and wife January 17, FM
Dmitrij Rupel reported briefly on his recent trip to Belgrade
where he urged PM Kostunica to accept the inevitable on
Kosovo. He said he expected the Italian-Slovenian
relationship to improve over the next year, noting a discrete
agreement recently concluded on the return of cultural
artifacts to the original churches from which they had been
taken. Rupel spoke with passion about the difficulty the GOS
was having managing the "erased" issue, and he commented that
there had been efforts within the police to cause a major
incident over the Ambrus Roma case. He confirmed that the
government's relationship with President Drnovsek has
deteriorated substantially during the last year, and that
Drnovsek even refuses to return his calls. End Summary.

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On Message on Kosovo and Serbia, but Still Concerned About
the Outcome
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2. (C) After congratulating the Rupels for the successful
introduction of the Euro, and the surrounding festivities
earlier this week, COM asked the Minister about his recent
trip to Serbia, noting that he had gotten positive coverage
in the Slovenian press for carrying the EU's water on Kosovo.
Rupel said that it was interesting that Tadic had refused to
see him this time; on his previous trip it had been Kostunica
who refused to see him. He said he had appealed once more to
Kostunica to understand that the international community
would go forward on Kosovo, and that Serbia needed to look to
its future in European institutions and NATO. Kostunica
thanked Rupel for his support for Serbia's PFP membership.
He looked confident, Rupel reported, smiling and talking
about the progress Serbia had made in its referendum on the
constitution and a "united Serbia," - one still including
Kosovo. Rupel said he did not know how to respond, beyond
appealing to Kostunica's past leadership as a dissident in
preparing Yugoslavia for change. (Note. Rupel mentioned a
book that Kostunica and fellow dissident Cavoski had written
about political pluralism which had inspired both Serbs and
Slovenes in the dissident movement in the eighties. End
Note.) Asked about his prognosis for the elections, Rupel
admitted he was not sure whether Kostunica, in the end,
would, in fact, form a coalition with Tadic. He noted rumors
in Serbia that Tadic had talked about offering the PM slot to
the former finance minister in former PM Djindic's
government, but only as a first step to ultimately offering
it to Kostunica. There was a lot of pre-election dancing
around these issues, he said.


3. (C) Rupel said that some of the Europeans were concerned
that the U.S. did not have the Russians on board on Kosovo
and had not been talking to them. COM assured him we had
been talking to the Russians, but that the most important
thing, in our view, was for the Europeans to support
Ahtisaari's plan in full, without delay, which would make it
harder for the Russians to make mischief. Rupel mentioned
European concern that the Kosovars might get out of hand, but
he agreed that this was only one more reason to move smartly
forward with Ahtisaari's schedule. As to some European
concerns that Kosovo independence would be an uncomfortable
precedent for the Russians and others, Rupel agreed that his
own speechwriter's (Borut Grgic) recent op-ed on the subject
had made clear why Kosovo was a special case.

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Italy: A Good Beginning and Some Progress to Report
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4. (C) Rupel said he had hit it off well with Italian FM
D'Alema during his recent visit to Slovenia, taking him to
the Goriska Brda wine region where they lunched at the
beautiful Movia vineyard. D'Alema, he told COM, was quite a
gourmet, having started the Slow Food movement in Italy when
he was in the opposition. He even urged Rupel to have an EU
ministerial meeting, at some point, at the Movia winery. On
substance, Rupel thought they had made some progress. On the
issue of the return of paiQings and other cultural artifacts

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now held in Italy and removed during WWII from churches now
in Slovenian territory, Rupel said the Italians and
Slovenians had been working with the Holy See to reach a
favorable outcome. He said he expected that the Franciscan
order in Italy would return them to the Franciscans in
Slovenia some time this year. This had not been an easy
issue, since, Rupel reminded COM, these works had been in
what was then Italy during the war. It was not legally
correct to say they had been removed from Slovenia.
Nevertheless, everyone knew this was the right thing to do,
and it should proceed. Rupel was critical of Slovenian
parliamentarians who had grilled D'Alema on this issue during
his visit after both sides had agreed to handle it discreetly
through Vatican channels.

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Human Rights: Not Getting the Message out on the Erased
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5. (C) Rupel raised the Human Rights Report, asking who would
be writing it. COM explained the process and said that it
would be coming out in the next month or so. Discussion
turned to the issue of "the erased," citizens who had been
removed from the citizenship rolls in the years immediately
after Slovenian independence. Rupel said that few people
appreciated that over 200,000 non native people, over 10
percent of the population, had been granted citizenship after
independence. Of the 18,000 some considered to be "erased,"
in fact there were no more than 4,000 without legal status.
Of these, many were dead or had left the country, although
Rupel admitted that he had no idea what the real numbers
were, and that the records were very spotty. As to the
question about completing a constitutional law to deal with
the issue, something directed by the Constitutional Court,
Rupel said the government had been pressing the opposition to
come to an agreement on the way forward, since such a law
would require two-thirds support in the parliament to pass.
In fact, the opposition complained that the GOS was pressing
too hard on this. Rupel, who had been in the previous
government working on this issue, emphasized that there
really was no prejudice against ethnic minorities in
Slovenia, and that the issue had been blown out of
proportion. COM, referring to recent articles in the Western
and internet press, and emphasizing that the erased had taken
the issue to the European Court of Human Rights in
Strasbourg, stressed that the GOS needed to take the issue by
the horns, admit the problem, not be defensive, and show it
was actively trying to solve it fairly.

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......and Then There are the Roma
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6. (C) Rupel defended the GOS record on dealing with the
Ambrus Roma family (the Strojans) over the past months,
emphasizing their criminal record and hundreds of outstanding
complaints against them (pointing out that 3 of the Strojan
family had been involved in a rape case for which the court
had, without explanation, released them). On a close-hold
basis, he mentioned that the head of the police unit had been
fired because there had been a move afoot within the police
to orchestrate a serious incident with the Roma, where people
might actually be killed, to force the fall of the Jansa
government. This had fortunately been uncovered and stopped,
and PM Jansa at a cabinet meeting had expressed relief that
the government had avoided such an incident.

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Relations with President Drnovsek Bad
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7. (C) Rupel said it was sad that President Drnovsek had
embarrassed himself by trying to engage in the Ambrus Roma
event, going out by himself with a truck to present
containers for living purposes to the family, without
informing the police or anyone in the government. (Note:
Drnovsek had been stopped and sent back by citizens of Ambrus
who were controlling access by road to the site, without
succeeding in delivering anything. Rupel assured COM that
the individuals who were enforcing their own controls on the
road had been dealt with by the police after the fact.)
Rupel lamented that Drnovsek had broken off all regular

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contact with the government. In early Janury, when the MFA
had organized its meeting of amassadors, Rupel had sent a
personal note to Drnosek, inviting his participation in the
meetings n any way he chose. (In the past, the President
had hosted a reception for the ambassadors.) Drnovsek had
still not responded, and in fact had refused any
participation in the meetings. Recently, as Rupel was
heading down to Serbia for meetings with Kostunica et al,
Rupel had learned that Drnovsek would be giving a press
interview that morning on foreign affairs subjects. Rupel had
called Drnovsek to make sure he would not say something
unfortunate on Serbia or Kosovo that could undermine Rupel's
meetings, as had happened once before. Drnovsek refused to
take Rupel's call. Over the last year, contacts between
Drnovsek and the Jansa government had deteriorated further.
Previously, the President, Prime Minister and Rupel would
have lunch together every Thursday after the cabinet meeting.
That had not happened for about a year. (Comment: Rupel
still maintains a fondness for Drnovsek, and he appears to
sincerely regret that relations have deteriorated so
seriously. There is no question, however, about whom he
blames for this state of affairs. It has become common
knowledge that former Foreign Minister, Ivo Vajgl, now senior
foreign policy advisor to the President, and Rupel detest
each other. While Rupel stayed away from discussing Vajgl,
each time Drnovsek's name came up, Rupel's wife, Marjetica,
would mention "Rasputin," obviously with Vajgl in mind. End
Comment.)

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Comment: A Good Week for Rupel
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8. (C) With the introduction of the Euro this past week, all
the VIP visitors to Slovenia, Rupel's trip to Serbia, and
D'Alema's visit here earlier this month, Rupel was in good
form. To be sure, December saw him under fire when Dnevnik,
one of the local papers close to the opposition, ran a front
page story several days running on his wife's use of his
official car for shopping and other inappropriate uses.
There have been other stories suggesting that Rupel is
unprepared to lead Slovenia's efforts to chair the EU in

2008. Mrs. Rupel was far more downbeat than the minister
that these attacks would run right up at least to the
Presidential elections this fall and then into the Slovenian
Presidency. The good news is that Rupel is still on message
on Serbia and Kosovo and appears to be making progress with
Italy.
ROBERTSON