SERBIA: PRESIDENT TADIC SAYS KOSOVO'S PARTITION IS AN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 001020

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O.12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL SR KV
SUBJECT: SERBIA: PRESIDENT TADIC SAYS KOSOVO'S PARTITION IS AN
OPTION, IF ALL ELSE FAILS

Ref: A) Belgrade 337, B) 07 Belgrade 1411 C) 07 Belgrade 1328, D)
Belgrade Highlights 9/22-9/26

Summary
--------------


1. (SBU) Serbian President Boris Tadic publicly stated on Monday
that Kosovo's partition was an option, if all other options failed.
His comments followed his lobbying efforts in New York where he
publicly said all options were on the table, but where he did not
mention partition. Although his top foreign policy advisor denied
vehemently to us that the statement represented a policy shift,
Tadic's answer to a question from a respected and persistent
reporter may further demonstrate that Serbia's president believes
that partition remains a viable option. End Summary.

Tadic Mentions Partition
--------------


2. (SBU) During a September 29 interview, President Tadic said he
would consider Kosovo's partition if all other options failed. In
response to a direct question about possible partition during a live
interview with Zoran Stanojevic of Radio and Television Serbia
(RTS),Tadic said dividing Kosovo at the moment "is not on the
agenda," and that the Serbian government still hoped for a solution
formulated upon the "greatest possible autonomy" for Kosovo within
Serbia. After Stanojevic asked about partition a second time, Tadic
answered, "I am ready to think about that option [partition] too if
all previous options fail, and there are many, since there is still
a lot of room to find a solution within the essential autonomy
option," Tadic said. In the RTS interview, Tadic said that in an
effort to find a solution to Kosovo "all initiatives are
legitimate," and that anything would be better than the situation in
which one side would lose everything. Tadic's reference to
partition was the first time he publicly stated this as an option.
(Comment: Despite working for the state run media outlet RTS,
Stanojevic is a BBC-trained journalist with a reputation for
professionalism and asking tough questions. End Comment.)

Tadic's Mentions All Options in New York
--------------


3. (SBU) Stanojevic was following up on comments that Tadic made in
New York. While there to lobby for Serbia's International Court of
Justice initiative (Ref D),Tadic told RTS on September 25 that all
options for Kosovo were on the table. He said that "when...we sit
again at the negotiating table, we will discuss all possible
options. All options are legitimate and better then this one where
one side is losing all and the other side gets everything." When
pressed on partition at that time, Tadic stated that it was "too
early to raise that question," and "that we should not cross bridges
before we reach them."


4. (SBU) Serbian media quickly speculated whether Tadic's comments
inferred partition. Local pro-government newspaper Danas ran a
September 27 article entitled "All Options Are Open," noting that
Tadic's comments did not exclude partition. The article quoted
Minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanovic and State Secretary Oliver
Ivanovic as saying that there had been no change in Serbia's policy.
Bogdanovic added, however, that Tadic had not mentioned partition
because "to do so would be to put all your cards on the table"
before possible negotiations.

President's Office Downplays Comments
--------------


5. (SBU) Jovan Ratkovic, Tadic's top foreign policy advisor,
emphasized to us on September 30 that Tadic's comments did not
represent a change in policy. Ratkovic said that he had briefed
Tadic before the interview and could confirm that there was no plan
to raise the idea of partition during the interview. It would not
be in Serbia's interest to generate additional public discussion of
Kosovo's status at a time when the GOS was working to take it off
the domestic political agenda through the ICJ referral process,
Ratkovic stressed. He said that Tadic had merely responded to a
direct question from the journalist in the simplest way possible.


6. (SBU) When asked what Tadic meant when he said in New York that
"all options" were on the table, Ratkovic said that Tadic was trying
to emphasize Serbia's openness to any constructive compromise
solution; he had not used the word partition nor had it in mind. In
response to a similar question about Tadic and FM Jeremic's
statements that the ultimate goal of the ICJ process was new status
negotiations on Kosovo, Jovanovic said that Belgrade's hope is to
establish direct talks with Pristina: in a first phase to resolve
non-status issues such as refugees, missing persons, infrastructure,
trade, and energy; and in a second phase, possibly to achieve
agreement on status. Ratkovic stressed that these would be

BELGRADE 00001020 002 OF 002


bilateral discussions; "we can't keep pretending that we live on two
different planets...it's weird and bad for both sides that we don't
have even backchannel contacts."

Is Partition Part of the Strategy?
--------------


7. (SBU) Some informed observers believe that Tadic's public
mentioning of partition as a distant, but possible option, could
ressurrect the option within Serbia's new government. Jelena Milic,
Director for the Center for Euro Atlantic Studies in Belgrade (a
pro-NATO, left of center think tank) told us on September 29 that
she believed Tadic would accept Kosovo's partition. According to
Milic, Tadic is hoping that the ICJ will rule that Kosovo's
declaration of independence contravened international law. That,
she believes, would open the way for the Government of Serbia to
push for the resumption of talks wherein the Government of Serbia
would accept partition. She said that she believes this has been
Tadic's goal all along.

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


8. (SBU) Tadic's statements regarding partition as a last resort
are important, although the significance is not yet completely
clear. Tadic may have decided to state outright a goal that many
believe he has long held and may have been emboldened by the
prospect of a successful ICJ vote in the UNGA on October 8. If so,
this is all the more reason to prepare a counter-argument in the ICJ
to Serbia's assertion that Kosovo's unilateral declaration of
independence was illegal. Tadic's statements illustrate the amnesia
rampant in Serbia about the appalling events leading up to the NATO
bombing and subsequent UN supervision of Kosovo. He needs to be
reminded on as many fronts as necessary that the question of status
is settled, that he was elected on a pro-European platform, and that
he should focus on taking steps that would help, rather that hurt,
Serbia's chances of joining the EU. End Comment.

MUNTER