STRPCE'S ANTIPODE: NORTHERNMOST ALBANIAN VILLAGES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000630

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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

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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