STRPCE'S ANTIPODE: NORTHERNMOST ALBANIAN VILLAGES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000630 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/SCE NSC FOR BRAUN USOSCE FOR STEGER E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/29/2016 TAGS: PGOV ASEC PREL KV SUBJECT: STRPCE'S ANTIPODE: NORTHERNMOST ALBANIAN VILLAGES IN KOSOVO Classified By: CDA Alex Laskaris for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d). ¶1. (U) Summary: Albanians in Kosovo's Leposavic Municipality are concerned about their security and worried about the long term prospects for their three villages. They eke out a modest living from agriculture and livestock, and are isolated from Pristina, UNMIK, Mitrovica and Leposavic. They believe that mines placed on the single access road to their villages were designed to ensure that they made no effort to defy the parallel Serb structures that govern the north or to drive them from their homes. We said that we had come to make sure that the villagers understood that we were aware of their existence and that -- as far as we are concerned -- Albanians in the north of Kosovo deserve the same protections and rights as Serbs in the southern enclaves. End summary. ¶2. (U) Charge and two LES colleagues (POL/ECON and USAID) met in Bistrica with representatives of three villages: Bistrica, Seraya and Kosutova. The three communities are some 10 kilometers east, and 800 meters above, Leposavic town. In the late 1980s, the total population was 1,600; today there are some 300. The villagers worked in the mines of northern Kosovo until 1990, when they were expelled from their jobs. All three villages were destroyed in 1999 and the populations were driven out of their homes. Today, most of the former residents live in south Mitrovica; many occupy the homes of Kosovo Serbs. ¶3. (SBU) Charge opened the meeting by saying that we wanted to come up to demonstrate to the local residents that the USG is aware that there are Albanian communities north of the Ibar. He added that just as we are concerned about the safety and viability of Serb communities in the south, the same applies to the seven Albanian villages in the Serb-majority municipalities of Leposavic, Zvecan and Zubin Potok. He said that the US was committed to both the Contact Group's guiding principle of no division of Kosovo and the Ahtisaari plan's vision of a unitary state with decentralized local government. ¶4. (SBU) Local representatives laid out two main concerns: their safety and their inability to secure funds from Leposavic earmarked for them by Pristina. Most claimed that recent mines laid on the one access road into the villages had been placed to ensure that they understood that the Serb parallel structures governed the north. Others said it was an attempt to get them to abandon the valley and the river that runs through it. ¶5. (SBU) The villagers complained about lack of jobs and the difficulty of getting to and from Mitrovica, particularly in case of a medical emergency. Most of the villagers raise livestock for sale in either Mitrovica or Vushtrri. They have a relatively well-appointed primary school serving the three villages, but resign themselves to the fact that they will either terminate their children's education or send them away for school when they move on to the next level. KFOR built them a rudimentary clinic and the PISG gave them two former UNMIK Toyota Forerunners. Despite their poverty, they are hooked into the Serbian power system and have what they described as better electricity than any Albanian in Kosovo. ¶6. (SBU) They get daily UNMIK civpol patrols and twice-daily drive-bys from Serb KPS officers. There is a French KFOR communications station on a hill above Seraya the villagers spoke highly of French KFOR's maintenance of the dirt road and the once-a-week visit by a French military doctor. Their main security request to us was to have Albanian KPS officers participate in the patrolling of the area. ¶7. (SBU) The villagers complained that they had been unable to access funds earmarked for them by Pristina and sent to the Leposavic Municipal authorities. They added that they had lost the ability to implement several UNMIK projects because the municipality had not moved to accept the funding. Charge said that he understood their predicament as it was similar to what is going on in Zvecan with the Albanian villages of Zhazha, Lipa and Boletin. He said that the Serb PRISTINA 00000630 002 OF 002 municipalities of the north had frozen cooperation with Pristina except insofar as the Albanian villages were concerned, adding that they should be able to go into Leposavic -- not as beggars - but as citizens securing what is theirs. Charge said he would raise the issue in Pristina. ¶8. (SBU) Taking advantage of the gathered VIPs at the August 16 farewell for the German COM, Charge discussed the plight of the villagers with President Sejdiu, Prime Minister Ceku and PDSRSG Schook. Ceku was delighted that we had visited, saying that he had family connections to Bistrica and knew the area well. He said he would speak to Deputy PM and Minister of Local Government Haziri to see what could be done. Ceku said that he had intervened in the cases of Zhazha, Lipa and Boletin and would do so again for the Zvecan villagers. Schook said that he would raise the issue with UNMIK administrator for northern Kosovo Gallucci. ¶9. (C) Comment: We will follow up to see if we can unblock financial transfers to these communities. Like Serbs south of the Ibar, these villagers are canaries in the coal mine; they also share unique vulnerabilities and a common interest in decentralization per the Ahtisaari plan. Like southern Serbs, these northern Albanians can either be the beneficiaries or the casualties of Kosovo-related diplomacy. LASKARIS