KOSOVO'S MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000187

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE
NSC FOR BRAUN
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI
S/WE SASHA MEHRA, GERDA LANE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KDEM PGOV PINR PREL YI UNMIK PHUM SOCI KWMN
SUBJECT: KOSOVO'S MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN

REF: A. STATE 202341

B. PRISTINA 169

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY


1. (SBU) Post has identified the five most influential
women in the Kosovo, per Ref A, as well as three Kosovo women
who are influential among their respective minority
communities. Political officer Heidi Barrachina is POC for
women's issues at post: (381) 38-549-516 x3104;
barrachinahh@state.gov.

FIVE MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN IN KOSOVO


2. (SBU) The five most influential women in Kosovo:

Name: Flaka Surroi
Title and Institution: President of the Koha Group, which
publishes Kosovo's highest circulation daily newspaper "Koha
Ditore."
Background: In the 90's she served as an activist with the
Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms, then
later contributed to postwar reconstruction as head of one of
Kosovo's most successful NGOs - the Kosovo Community Fund.
Contact Information: Email: flaka@koha.net. Address: Sheshi
Nene Tereza No. 31 A; 10 000 Pristina, Kosovo. Tel: (381)
38-249-104; (381) 38-243-875. Mobile: (377) 44-506-426.

Name: Jeta Xharra
Title and Institution: Kosovo Director of the Balkan
Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and moderator of the
popular weekly television debate program "Jeta ne Kosove"
(Life in Kosovo).
Background: Xharra was a youth activist before the 1999 war,
and then went on to become a journalist with Koha Ditore and
then the BBC. She later completed a masters degree in the
UK. Contact Information: Email: jeta@birn.eu.com. Web:
http://kosovo.birn.eu.com. Address: Sheshi Nena Tereze 22B
No. 6; 10 000 Pristina, Kosovo. Tel/fax: (381) 38-228-168.
Mobile: (377) 44-135-209.

Name: Pranvera Dobruna
Title and Institution: Managing Director of the Kosovo Energy
Corporation (KEK),the largest public utility in (and
possibly the largest publicly-owned enterprise) in Kosovo.
Background: Energy is major political, economic and
development issue in Kosovo, and Dobruna is directly involved
and influential in all aspects of energy policy, including
the unbundling of the energy sector and the possible
privatization of Kosovo's largest state-owned enterprise.
Contact Information: Email: pranvera.dobruna@kek-energy.com.
Address: Mother Theresa Street, No. 36; Toscana Building; 10
000 Pristina, Kosovo. Telephone: (381) 38-228-684. Mobile:
(377) 44-505-895.

Name: Major General Atifete Jahjaga
Title and Institution: Assistant Commissioner for the Border
Security and Boundary Police section of the Kosovo Police
Service (KPS).
Background: A key leader in the KPS, Jahjaga has worked
tirelessly to promote the democratization of the police
force. She was the first Kosovo woman to become an a
Lieutenant General and then Assistant Commissioner; and the
first KPS officer to be accepted to the FBI Academy in
Quantico, Virginia.
Contact Information: Email: atifetejahjaga@gmail.com.
Address: Luan Haradinaj Street, 10 000 Pristina, Kosovo.
Telephone: (381) 38-50-80-1060. Mobile: (377) 44-505-222.

Name: Mimoza Kusari
Title and Institution: Executive Director of Kosovo's
American Chamber of Commerce.
Background: Seen as the voice of the Kosovo business
community, Kusari has had a direct influence on the
government's economic and foreign investment policies.
Contact Information: Email: mimoza.kusari@amchamksv.org.

PRISTINA 00000187 002 OF 002


Address: Gustav Major Street, No. 6; 10 000 Pristina, Kosovo.
Telephone: (381) 38-246-012. Mobile: (377) 44-540-018.

INFLUENTIAL WOMEN AMONG KOSOVO'S MINORITY COMMUNITIES


3. (SBU) Given the complex and sensitive inter-ethnic
situation in Kosovo, post would like to add the following as
influential women from among Kosovo's minority communities.

Name: Vesna Jovanovic
Title and Institution: Member of the Kosovo Assembly and of
the moderate Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija (SLKM).
Background: A proactive and moderate Kosovo Serb politician
who has successfully advocated for her community of Partes to
become a new Serb-majority municipality, and who is closely
involved in the attempts to establish a new moderate Kosovo
Serb Assembly that seeks greater engagement with Kosovo
institutions, the international community and with the
majority Kosovo Albanian population (Ref B).
Contact Information: Email: vesnajovanovic 722004@yahoo.com.
Address: Partes village, Gnjilane municipality, Kosovo.
Telephone: (377) 44-248-056; (381) 63-8751-751.

Name: Nadira Avdic-Vllasi
Title and Institution: Editor-in-Chief of the Bosnian
language programming section of the public broadcaster Radio
Television Kosovo (RTK); editor in chief of Bosnian language
Alem magazine.
Background: In addition to her role with minority media,
Avdic-Vllasi is one of the organizers of the Kosovo Bosniak
Forum, a civil society organization that enables Bosniaks to
engage on political issues that will affect them.
Contact Information: Email: navllasi@yahoo.com. Address:
Hajdar Dushi 1A No. 9; 10 000 Pristina, Kosovo. Telephone:
(381) 38 2409 669. Mobile: (377) 44 185 100.

Name: Hiljmnijeta Apuk
Title and Institution: Director and founder of the NGO
"Little People of Kosovo," representing the disabled.
District Financial Officer, Kosovo ministry of health.
Editor in Chief of the Kosovo newspaper for persons with
disabilities.
Background: Represented Kosovo at the UN General Assembly's
International Convention on Protection and Promotion of the
Rights and Dignities of persons with disabilities in 2006.
Longtime activist supporting rights for the disabled, both in
Kosovo and in the former Yugoslavia.
Contact Information: Email: hiljmnijetaa@yahoo.com. Web:
www.lpkosova.com. Telephone: (381) 28-30-814; (381)
28-24-670. Mobile: (377) 44-293-518.


4. (U) Post does not clear this message for release to UN
Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari.
KAIDANOW