PRESIDENT MUSHARRAF'S VISIT TO BOSNIA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SARAJEVO 000970

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/04/2017
TAGS: BK PREL PGOV PK
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT MUSHARRAF'S VISIT TO BOSNIA


Classified By: CDA Judith B. Cefkin. Reasons 1.4 (b),(d).

Summary
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1. (C) During his April 27-29 state visit to Bosnia,
Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf emphasized a
consistent message of interfaith harmony and tolerance and
the need for Bosnia to complete the process of postwar
reconstruction. Musharraf repeated this constructive message
throughout his bilateral meetings in Bosnia, including at his
potentially controversial visit to the graves of the victims
of the Srebrenica massacre. During the visit Musharraf and
Bosnian Prime Minister Nikola Spiric signed four bilateral
agreements on economic cooperation. Several Serb party
representatives boycotted the events surrounding the visit, a
development which the Pakistani Embassy said was noticed and
deeply unfortunate given Musharraf's inclusive message. The
Bosnian press reported the visit factually and without using
nationalist rhetoric. End Summary


2. (C) Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf paid a
state visit to Bosnia from April 27-29. Musharraf was
accompanied by a large delegation of over fifty officials and
business leaders that included Minister of Foreign Affairs
Khurshid Kasuri and Senior Minister of Defense Rao Sikandar
Iqbal. While in Sarajevo, President Musharraf met jointly
with the three members of the Bosnian Presidency and
separately with Prime Minister Nikola Spiric with whom he
signed four bilateral cooperation agreements. Musharraf also
delivered an address to Parliament. In addition to the
events in Sarajevo, Musharraf also visited Tuzla and
Srebrenica, the site of the 1995 massacre, where he laid a
wreath at the Potocari cemetery for massacre victims.

Atmospherics
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3. (C) During the 1992-1995 war President Musharraf served as
the Director General of Operations to the UN peacekeeping
mission in Bosnia. In this context Musharraf emphasized his
personal connection to Bosnia and its citizens throughout his
visit. Musharraf repeated a consistent message stressing the
importance of interfaith harmony in a multiethnic society and
post-war reconciliation and reconstruction. The Pakistani
Ambassador told us that Musharraf was focused on delivering a
message of tolerance directed at the Bosnian people as a
whole. During his address to Parliament Musharraf emphasized
that his wartime experience as a peacekeeper in Bosnia had
reinforced his conviction that Bosnia could function as a
viable multiethnic state and urged its citizens to uphold the
principles of peaceful coexistence and cooperation to that
end. He made repeated analogies to the role of religious
dialogue in the global war on terror as illustrative of the
importance of such cooperation. Musharraf highlighted
Bosnia's assistance to Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake as
evidence of the enduring friendship between the two nations.

Bilateral Cooperation
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4. (C) During his April 27 meeting with Prime Minister Nikola
Spiric, Musharraf signed bilateral agreements on air traffic
control, cooperation on armament production, and the
establishment of a bilateral economic commission. Musharraf
and Spiric also initialed an instrument ratifying and
agreement on preventing double taxation. Musharraf
reportedly took part in a private pull-aside with Bosniak
Presidency member Haris Silajdzic although the Pakistani
Ambassador was not present at the meeting and could provide
no further details.

Serb Boycott
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5. (U) In the period leading up to the visit, a number of
Bosnian Serb representatives, most notably the right-leaning
Serb Democratic Party (SDS) accused Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim)
political leaders of manipulating the visit to advance their
ethnic interests. Shortly before Musharraf's arrival, SDS
announced that its parliamentarians would not attend
Musharraf's address to Parliament. Mladen Ivanic, President
of the Serb Party for Democratic Progress (PDP),and a Vice
Speaker of the House of Peoples, was also absent from the
session. Although members of the moderate Serb Alliance of
Social Democrats (SNSD) attended the meeting, the Pakistani
Embassy told us that the boycott was noticed and highly
regrettable.

Musharraf Focus on Reconciliation

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6. (C) The DCM at the Pakistani Mission told us that, in
addition to the specific bilateral initiatives, one of
Musharraf's primary goals was to emphasize, to all
constituent peoples, the need for Bosnia to move beyond its
wartime past. According to the Pakistani Embassy, Musharraf
was particularly careful in the planning and execution of the
visit to the Potocari cemetery, a potentially explosive event
given the recent Srebrenica-related controversy in the wake
of the International Court of Justice verdict. He
purposefully avoided any comment on the ongoing Bosniak
campaign for special political status for Srebrenica, or its
secession from the Republika Srpska. Musharraf was largely
successful in his efforts with local media commentary
focusing on the broad themes of his address and factual
reporting of the visit events. Specifically, neither the
Bosniak-oriented press nor Banja Luka-based outlets sought to
use the visit to highlight nationalist themes on either side.

CEFKIN