BOSNIA - DODIK INDICATES WILLINGNESS TO TALK WITH

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SARAJEVO 001059

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR(DICARLO),EUR/SCE(HOH/FOOKS),
L(MANSFIELD); NSC FOR BRAUN; USNIC FOR WIGHTMAN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/01/2015
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR BK
SUBJECT: BOSNIA - DODIK INDICATES WILLINGNESS TO TALK WITH
SILAJDZIC ON REFORMS

REF: SARAJEVO 1042

Classified By: Ambassador Douglas McElhaney. Reason 1.4(b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: On May 14, we met with Republika Srpska PM
and President of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats
(SNSD) Milorad Dodik to discuss making progress on
constitutional and police reform before he and Bosniak member
of the Tri-Presidency Haris Silajdzic visit Washington next
week. In a two hour-long discussion, we stressed the
importance of breaking the current political logjam and
suggested that Washington might provide an appropriate venue
to finalize a deal and announce a breakthrough. We also
reviewed for Dodik the outlines of the proposals on
constitutional and police reform presented to us earlier in
the day by Silajdzic (reftel). Dodik was more open to them
than we had anticipated and agreed to discuss them with
Silajdzic later in the week at a meeting hosted by the
Ambassador. We will have a better idea after these exchanges
whether a "Washington deal" is possible. END SUMMARY

Constitutional Reform
--------------


2. (C) We introduced the subject of constitutional reform by
emphasizing that the proposals Silajdzic had tabled earlier
in the day with the Ambassador mirrored those Party for
Democratic Action (SDA) President Sulejman Tihic had passed
to Dodik a little over a week ago. First, the Bosniaks were
seeking a change to the "dissolution clause" of the
U.S.-brokered package of amendments. This provision
(Amendment II, Article 11) provides that the Parliamentary
Assembly "shall be dissolved" when the House of
Representatives fails to elect the Presidency or Prime
Minister after three attempts. (Note: The provision as to
agreed to by the six political parties included a reference
to the PM only. Reference to the Presidency was added by the
Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee during
consideration of the amendments. End Note.) Dodik accepted
this proposal immediately, noting, "we do not need any
meeting in Washington to agree to that."


3. (C) Second, the Bosniaks wanted to limit the scope of
entity voting only to issues concerning the transfer of
competencies from the entities to the state and to issues
concerning shared competencies. Entity voting would be
eliminated on all exclusively state-level competencies.
(Note: Amendment I of the U.S.-brokered package of amendments
would spell out, for the first time, which competencies
belong exclusively to the state and which are shared between
the state and the entities. End Note.) Somewhat
surprisingly, given his previous private objections to any
change in the entity voting provisions of the U.S.-brokered
package of amendments, Dodik did not reject the Bosniak
proposal out of hand. Instead, Dodik claimed Tihic's ideas
"were somewhat vague" and that he would "like a better
understanding of how it would work in practice" before
accepting or rejecting it. He also implied that he would
insist that entity voting remain in place on the state budget.

Police Reform
--------------


4. (C) We explained that a deal on police reform would entail
acceptance by all parties of the Police Reform Directorate
(PDR) report, the associated timeline for its implementation,
and the paper tabled by OHR at the March 14 police reform
talks. The paper included provisions for, among other
things, the creation of a special police district for
Srebrenica and a single police district for Sarajevo. The
issue of the name of the local police bodies in the RS would
be decided at a future date by the Presidency on the basis of
consensus after a Stabilization and Association Agreement
(SAA) is signed. Dodik responded by noting that there are
different interpretations what he had agreed to at the March
14 meeting. He stressed that the RS police would have to
remain an "administrative unit" within any state-level police
structure. Though he professed a willingness to discuss the
issues with Silajdzic, he warned that the international
community needed to keep in mind the political constraints he
faced on police reform.


SARAJEVO 00001059 002 OF 002


Comment
--------------


5. (C) Our exchange with Dodik was encouraging. We plan to
meet again with him and Silajdzic later this week for more
detailed discussions. Only once we get them both around the
table, will we be in a position to judge the sincerity or
their professed willingness to use their Washington visits as
a forum for concluding "breakthrough" agreements on
constitutional and police reform.
MCELHANEY