KOSOVO: USOP WORKS TO REASSURE STRPCE SERBS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000686

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SIPDIS

DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE
NSC FOR BRAUN
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI
EUR/ACE FOR DMAYHEW

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/11/2017
TAGS: KDEM PGOV PINR PHUM SOCI KV UNMIK
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: USOP WORKS TO REASSURE STRPCE SERBS

REF: PRISTINA 612

Classified By: CHIEF OF MISSION TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (b),(d).


1. (C) SUMMARY. Nestled in the Shar mountains, Strpce
municipality - the southernmost Serb-majority area in Kosovo
- holds great potential for economic development, but is also
faced with several critical issues: delayed privatization of
a potentially lucrative ski area that has stalled economic
development, troubles with the electricity supply, mistrust
of ethnic Albanian police officers fueled by a excessive use
of force during a recent raid, and an illegal construction
problem in its choicest location. USOP will continue to
weigh in with Kosovo's leaders and institutions to make
certain that this important Serb community's equities are
protected. END SUMMARY.

BREZOVICA: GREAT EXPECTATIONS FINALLY BEING MET?


2. (C) Unlike other Serb-majority areas in Kosovo, Strpce
possesses a solid base for future economic development. The
Yugoslav-era Brezovica ski resort, despite needing private
capital for a necessary modernization, holds great potential
to become a pillar of the local economy and an engine for
further development. The privatization process, stalled for
various reasons, has caused significant frustration among
Strpce's citizens, who suffer from high unemployment. Many
local Serbs, such as moderate former mayor Sladjan Ilic,
Deputy Mayor Slavisa Staletovic, and municipal CEO Radica
Grbic, along with international actors, place significant
responsibility for this at the feet of current Mayor Stanko
Jakovljevic, a member of the Serbian Socialist Party (SPS),
who also serves as a leader of Belgrade's Coordinating
Council for Kosovo (CCK). Jakovljevic's historic opposition
to this privatization, premised on the notion that the Serb
community might lose control over Brezovica to Kosovar
Albanian investors, caused UN/DPKO to reconsider its
commitment to the resort's privatization and place a
moratorium on the process in late 2006.


3. (C) Despite both his traditional reluctance and UN DPKO's
hesitation, Jakovljevic signed an MOU on May 28 with the SRSG
and Kosovo Trust Agency (KTA) that would allow the Brezovica
privatization process to go forward, though for unknown
reasons he never disclosed this action to other senior
municipal officials in Strpce, including Staletovic and
Grbic. At a recent lunch in late August with USOP and USAID,
Grbic reacted with surprise upon hearing that such an
agreement existed. She later told poloff she was shocked
that such an important issue could be kept secret. We urged
both her and Staletovic to support privatization of the
resort, which would help revitalize the community. (Note:
USOP is not a signatory to this document. In early
September, we received a copy of a cable from UN/DPKO
confirming that DPKO had agreed to restore the Brezovica ski
area to the KTA privatization list. KTA subsequently
publicly announced this agreement. Only then did this MOU
and Jakovljevic's role in it become evident to Strpce
citizens. On Septebmer 18, KTA's Board of Directors is
expected to confirm Brezovica's placement on the list. End
Note.)

POWER CUTS


4. (C) Interruptions in the electricity supply are another
hardship. As with other Serb enclaves in Kosovo, local
residents have not paid KEK for energy since 1999 and do not
receive bills. On July 25, the Kosovo Electricity Company
(KEK) disconnected the ski resort for non-payment; cellphone
towers providing service to Strpce residents had been
illegally connected to the resort's lines and also lost
power, cutting off coverage in the area (see reftel).
Elektro-Privreda Serbia (EPS) employees resident in the
municipality reconnected power, but refused to deal directly
with KEK. On August 21 USOP and USAID discussed these issues
with Staletovic, who claimed that Strpce residents want to

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pay their electricity bills and proposed having the
municipality, and not KEK, collect payments. Acknowledging
that it had been a long time since anyone paid for service in
Strpce, he claimed that "after a few months, no one will
complain anymore." (Note: We have pledged to work with the
municipality and KEK to discuss ways to facilitate such a
payment system. End Note.)

POLICE RAID


5. (C) A recent raid by ethnic Albanian police officers has
also had an unfortunate effect upon local attitudes. On
April 18, about 150 Kosovo Albanian and international police
officers stormed Kosovo Serb Milan Mirkovic's residence in
Strpce in the early morning in search of drugs and weapons.
The police found neither and were accused by the Serb family
of having used excessive force; the four men in the Mirkovic
home at the time of the raid -- Milan Mirkovic, his two sons
Nicola and Jovan, and Dragan Ilic, a friend who was spending
the night -- claim that the police assaulted them, and an
UNMIK Police press release, dated April 19, acknowledges as
much (despite later denials to COM and others by UNMIK police
commissioner Monk). The document details numerous injuries
to all four, including bruises, cuts, swelling, etc.


6. (C) The raid, which was not cleared by either the KPS or
UNMIK Police leadership, was the culmination of a botched
narcotics investigation that, according to internal KPS
reports shared with USOP, relied on intelligence dating back
to August 2006. Immediately after the incident, USOP met
with UNMIK Police Commissioner Richard Monk and KPS Deputy
Commissioner Sheremet Ahmeti to register our strong concern
over the conduct of the operation. Monk and Ahmeti both
acknowledged that the raid was flawed, and Ahmeti admitted
that the police used excessive force. They promised to
investigate the operation and punish anyone found guilty of
wrongdoing. We also used the raid to press the KPS to enact
standard operating procedures for dealing with inter-ethnic
crimes to prevent a repeat of this kind of incident.


7. (C) The impact of the raid continues to ripple through
Strpce. In a conversation with poloff July 26, three months
after it took place, municipal CEO Grbic pointed to the raid
and its aftermath as a significant problem affecting the
municipality. She emphasized the excessively large number of
police involved, the violence with which the raid was carried
out, the failure to discover any criminal activity in the
house that was raided, and the physical and psychological
abuse heaped on the suspects. She claimed that Mirkovic had
withdrawn his complaint against the police after threats made
by Albanian KPS officers during the 72-hour detention period
and, later, over the telephone. Grbic's opinions on the raid
were seconded by former mayor Ilic, who told poloff that the
international KPS and CivPol personnel present at the raid
simply watched and did not intervene to stop what he termed
"a violation of human rights."

WEEKEND ZONE


8. (C) The situation surrounding the so-called "Weekend
Zone," a picturesque area near Strpce's Brezovica ski resort,
poses yet another challenge. The mayor has complained for
years about illegal construction taking place there; the
builders are Albanians, some of them high-level political
figures, who lack permits from the municipality. The mayor
and other locals, including Grbic, believe that Albanians
intend to use the Weekend Zone as a lever to wedge Serbs out
of Strpce. The municipality took 26 cases of illegal
construction to court in 2006; each case was delayed and then
decided in favor of the construction companies. In 2007, 17
cases were sent to the municipal court; to date, none have
been tried. UNMIK civpol Strpce rep (and Amcit) Teresa Pyle
told a KFOR Liaison Monitoring Team on July 24 that many
locals suspect the municipal court judge Adam Huseni of
having his own reasons for delaying the cases - he himself
reportedly has a residence in the Weekend Zone.

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9. (C) In the interim, construction has continued unabated;
Ilic said that many houses in the Weekend Zone have been
constructed very quickly in order to establish "facts on the
ground" before the municipality can take action. One KPS
report says that the Municipal Department of Urbanization
taped off a construction site July 7, only to find a week
later that the tape had been removed and construction had
resumed. In early July, Jakovljevic asked the Municipal
Assembly to pass a decree establishing a vehicle inspection
point to prevent more construction materials from entering
the area. This was done on July 12, manned 24 hours a day by
staff of the Department of Urbanization. The installation
consists of a guard booth and a drop bar extending two-thirds
of the way across the road, which is kept raised until a
truck arrives (the bar is lowered at night but cars can
easily move around it). To date, the inspectors have stopped
a small number of trucks with construction materials, turning
them around when the drivers failed to produce the necessary
construction permits. USKFOR, OSCE, and CivPol chief Pyle
all told poloff that they view the mayor's use of the
democratic process as a positive development, and consider
the unobtrusive access point an effective way of dealing with
the illegal construction problem.

REASSURANCE FROM USOP


10. (C) During a USOP-hosted lunch with Staletovic and Grbic
August 21, we described our pressure on the KPS in the wake
of the April raid to formulate and implement standard
operating procedures (SOPs) for police actions involving
minority communities, particularly Serbs. (Note: We have
already provided comments to UNMIK and the KPS on these SOPs,
which we believe must mandate the operational participation
of KPS officers from the same minority group as the subjects
of the police action, as well as require approval in advance
from the UNMIK police leadership. End Note.) Regarding the
Weekend Zone, we explained to Grbic and Staletovic that we
did not view stopping construction materials for illegal
building sites as a barrier to free movement, so long as
normal traffic was not disrupted and people were not
harassed.

COMMENT


11. (C) Of all the Serb-majority areas in Kosovo, Strpce --
with its ski resort and alpine tourist potential -- holds the
most promise for providing the economic undergirding to allow
Serbs to remain and perhaps even flourish. Strpce provides a
good example of the frustrations and mistrust that both
ethnic communities feel towards each other, as well;
Albanians rail against the free provision of electricity to
Serb residents while Serbs becry the illegal construction of
homes in their municipality by politically-connected
Albanians. Both have legitimate issues at stake, and need to
communicate more frequently with international mediation to
help resolve some of the problems. USOP will continue to
weigh in with the leadership of Kosovar Albanian-led
institutions, like the KPS, KEK and others, to make certain
this important Serb community's equities are protected.
KAIDANOW