KOSOVO SERB HARD-LINERS AND MODERATES FACE OFF IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000169

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR (FRIED, DICARLO),EUR/SCE, INL
NSC FOR BRAUN
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2017
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL YI UNMIK
SUBJECT: KOSOVO SERB HARD-LINERS AND MODERATES FACE OFF IN
GRACANICA OVER SERBIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

REF: A. 06 PRISTINA 924


B. 06 PRISTINA 921

C. 06 PRISTINA 1052

Classified By: COM TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4(B) AND (D)


1. (C) SUMMARY. In what was clearly an orchestrated effort,
Kosovo Serb hardliners prevented moderate Serb leaders from
holding the founding session of the Serbian National Assembly
(SNS) on March 4 in Gracanica. The meeting was originally
the brainchild of noted Croatian Serb activist Milorad
Pupovac, and was designed to bring together moderate elements
of the Kosovo Serb community, a project backed quietly by the
OSCE and Kosovo Prime Minister Ceku. Serb thugs, under the
direction of hardline northern Serb leader (and E.O. listee)
Marko Jaksic, arrived just as the meeting was scheduled to
begin and forced their way into the hall with angry shouts of
"Whom do you represent?" and "Marko Jaksic is our only
legitimate leader!" They engaged in direct confrontation
with the participants, accused them of being traitors, and
prevented the congress from proceeding. After an hour of
hostile verbal abuse, moderate SLKM Serb leader Oliver
Ivanovic conceded that the meeting could not be held under
such circumstances and adjourned for another place and time.
Ivanvovic told us afterwards that he believes the Serbian
government was behind the incident, and asked the USG to
raise the issue in Belgrade. The incident is particularly
disturbing for what it portends in terms of Serb behavior;
the message of intimidation sent by northern hardliners will
not be missed in the south among Serb community leaders
there. END SUMMARY.

MODERATE SERBS ATTEMPT TO FORM KOSOVO SERB NATIONAL ASSEMBLY


2. (SBU) On March 4, over one hundred moderate Kosovo Serbs
from around Kosovo met at the Klub Privrednika in Gracanica
(a large Serb enclave just outside Pristina) to hold the
founding session of the Serbian National Assembly of Kosovo
and Metohija (SNS). SLKM leader Oliver Ivanovic told us that
this event was the "all-Serb Congress" envisioned by Croatian
Serb MP Milorad Pupovac late last year, although Ivanovic
indicated that Pupovac himself was no longer directly
involved (ref A). (NOTE. The Kosovo Serb director of
Leposavic-based TV Mir, Nenad Radosavljevic, has long
advocated for a similar body. Neither Pupovac or
Radosavljevic attended the event. END NOTE).


3. (SBU) As President of the SNS Organizing Board, Petar
Miletic sent out invitations to the international community
liaison offices the prior week (NOTE. Miletic is also
spokesperson for moderate Slobodan Petrovic's Autonomous
Liberal Party (SLS). END NOTE) According to the invitation,
the SNS would be a "new political organization with no
affiliation to political parties," reflecting the "need for
Kosovo Serbs to organize and unite," with the ultimate
objective of creating new relationships with international
institutions and the Kosovar Albanian community.


4. (C) Ivanovic told us that he was closely involved in the
organization of the event, and said that participants
included "selected" representatives of Kosovo Serbs from
around Kosovo. Among them were SLS President Petrovic, SLKM
members Vesna Jovanovic, Gojko Savic, Dragisa Krstic, Novo
Brdo Mayor Petar Vasic and Velika Hoca representative of
Belgrade's Coordination Center for Kosovo and Metohija (CCK)
Dejan Baljosevic. Milorad Pavlovic, one of the Kosovo Serb
returnees injured in the September 2006 grenade attack in
Klina, also attended as a participant (ref B). Notably
absent were SLKM members Randjel Nojkic, who had previously
voiced his strong opposition to the SNS (ref C),and Belgrade
negotiating team member Goran Bogdanovic.

THUGS BREAK UP THE ASSEMBLY BEFORE IT STARTS


5. (SBU) Several minutes before the meeting was scheduled to
start, a group of approximately twenty men entered the hall

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with shouts of "whom do you represent?" They were led by
Gracanica CCK representative Srdjan Vasic and Serbian MP
Zvonko Stevic, both members of the Socialist Party of Serbia
(SPS). Among the group were Pristina CCK representative and
New Serbia (NS) member Slavisa Nikolic, Kosovo Polje CCK
representative Petar Savic, Slobodan Vasic and Djorge
Stankovic from Priluzje, Nikola Tripkovic and village leaders
from the Serb-majority enclave of Plementina. The intruders
continued shouting loudly at the participants, insisting that
they represented no one, and that northern Mitrovica
hardliner and E.O.-listee Marko Jaksic is the only
"legitimate" representative of Kosovo Serbs. They accused
the organizers of trying to usurp Jaksic's northern
Mitrovica-based Association of Serb Municipalities and
Settlements (ASMS). They also shouted support for Serbian
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and his Democratic Party of
Serbia (DSS),as well as for DSS coalition partner NS.
According to one SNS participant, the thugs read a letter
from Marko Jaksic condemning the SNS, though it was difficult
to hear in the din. (NOTE. Jaksic's hardline Serbian
National Council (SNC) poured further calumny on the SNS in a
March 1 press conference, proclaiming that the SNS aims to
cut institutional ties between Kosovo Serbs and Serbia and to
persuade Kosovo Serbs to live in an independent Kosovo. END
NOTE).


6. (SBU) SNS participants calmly asked the intruders to
leave, pointing out that this was a private meeting, but the
thugs eventually forced their way down the length of the hall
to the front of the room, where they proceeded to engage the
SNS participants and organizers in heated (and extremely
repetitive) verbal confrontations. According to those at the
front of the room, the thugs accused the participants of
being traitors and "American spies," and threatened them with
"lynching" if the meeting went forward. They asserted
menancingly that such an event could never be held in
Gracanica, the "heart of all that is Serbia in Kosovo." Much
of their vehemence was directed squarely at Ivanovic, who
they claimed was an agent of Kosovo PM Agim Ceku. They
accused him of failing to return Serbs to Kosovo and of
trying to manipulate fellow Serbs.


7. (SBU) Ivanovic stood his ground and calmly refuted their
arguments, maintaining that Kostunica, Tadic and CCK chief
Sanda Raskovic-Ivic were among the invitees but none of them
chose to come. Later he told the media that that the
Belgrade negotiating team was not taking into account the
interests of the enclaves south of the Ibar, and that as a
consequence Serbs there needed to organize and defend their
own interests. Others were equally vehement in defense of
the SNS congress; Marija Gavric, a former protocol assistant
to Bishop Artemije but moderate in her own personal views,
confronted the thugs directly, asking them whom they
represent and forcing them to concede that they also were not
elected by anyone. After an hour of heated back and forth in
front of the assembled media and representatives of the
international liaison offices, Ivanovic conceded that the
meeting could not be held under such circumstances and said
it would be rescheduled for another place and time. This
announcement was met with applause by the intruders.

KOSOVO SERB MEDIA HIGHLY PROACTIVE


8. (SBU) Among the numerous media representatives present at
the altercation, Radio KiM reporters from the small Serb
enclave of Caglavica took a particularly active role in
questioning the intruders about their motives. One Radio KiM
reporter asked the thugs what they thought the SNS was hoping
to achieve in the meeting. When the thugs responded that
they had no idea, the reporter asked them why they did not
sit and listen and find out what it was all about, instead of
coming in and immediately disrupting the session. The same
reporter later asked Serbian MP Stevic, who was among the
intruders, if he would be submitting expense reports to the
Serbian Assembly for his travel to Kosovo that day. Stevic
and the thugs demurred on all counts. In contrast to local

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Serb media coverage, Serbian RTS coverage broadcast
throughout Kosovo echoed northern Serb claims that the
meeting was disrupted by "citizens" protesting against the
"efforts of the SNS to destroy Kosovo Serb unity."

IVANOVIC and SAVA PLEADS FOR ASSISTANCE


9. (C) After the event, Ivanovic told COM that he believed
the Serbian government was behind the attempt to stop the
SNS. He asked us to contact Serbian President Boris Tadic
directly, saying that Kostunica was firmly against the SNS
and could not be persuaded to change his mind. COM assured
him that USOP will do everything possible to support Serb
efforts to move forward with the SNS. Moderate Serbian
Orthodox Church leader Father Sava also bemoaned the
disruption of the congress and asked USOP to assist the SNS,
saying that their positions are "reasonable and
constructive."


10. (C) COMMENT. The Gracanica incident is an unfortunate
portent of hardline Serb behavior, particularly troubling
because it was manifested in the south as an undoubted signal
to Serb moderates there that no one should harbor any
illusion as to who's in charge. The clear message of
intimidation will not be lost on Serbs anywhere in Kosovo.
USOP appreciates Embassy Belgrade's intent to raise this with
the leadership in Belgrade; the kind of heavy-handed pressure
evinced on Sunday in Gracanica cannot be allowed to pass
unremarked, and we will use the occasion of A/S Fried's visit
to Kosovo to follow up with Serb leaders in both north and
the south and reiterate our key redlines on violence and
intimidation. END COMMENT.


11. (U) Post clears this message in its entirety for
release to Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari.
KAIDANOW