AMBASSADOR BRIEFS PM ON BOSNIA MEETINGS IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L ZAGREB 000540 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/01/2017 TAGS: PREL BK HR SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR BRIEFS PM ON BOSNIA MEETINGS IN WASHINGTON REF: A. 06 ZAGREB 1423 ¶B. 06 ZAGREB 1439 Classified By: DCM Greg T. Delawie, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Drawing on points provided by EUR/SCE, Ambassador and DCM briefed PM Ivo Sanader and MFA State Secretary Hidajet Biscevic June 1 about the meetings held in Washington the week of May 21 between State Department officials and Bosnia-Herzegovina politicians Milorad Dodik and Haris Silajdzic. ¶2. (C) The Ambassador added that we would appreciate Sanader's continued engagement with all parties in BiH, and his encouraging them to keep working for police reform and constitutional reform. ¶3. (C) Sanader was grateful, and said he understood. He appreciated that the meeting was more a target of opportunity than a planned negotiation, which was fine. He did lay down a marker that it would be important to include the BiH Croats in any real discussion of police reform and constitutional reform. He noted that he is continuing to work on the BiH Croats in order to encourage a merger of the HDZ and HDZ-1990 parties. He asked that we keep HDZ-1990's Ljubic involved as well as HDZ's Covic. ¶4. (C) Sanader noted that U/S Burns had told him earlier that week that he had spoken with Cardinal McCarrick; Sanader hopes McCarrick can work with Puljic to keep him involved in the reform process. ¶5. (C) Sanader said it was up to the BiH Croats to react to the proposals we had put on the table, so he would not do so. He thought that both Croat parties could accept police reform, but said he believed they were still divided on entity voting. He felt that dissolution was a minor issue. He also asked us to keep in mind the constitutional amendments he had proposed to us last fall (reftel). ¶6. (C) Sanader concluded this topic by noting that U/S Burns had encouraged him to stay involved in BiH's future. BRADTKE