MY SWEET LITTLE SERBIAN VILLAGE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BELGRADE 000111 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/30/2017 TAGS: PREL PGOV PINS SR SUBJECT: MY SWEET LITTLE SERBIAN VILLAGE CLASSIFIED BY DCM JENNIFER BRUSH FOR REASONS 1.4 (B/D) -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) DCM re-visited the central Serbian town of Kraljevo where she lived as an exchange student 34 year years ago, and found her "typical" Serbian family galvanized by the presidential elections and traumatized by the thought of returning to the '90's under a Radical government. Coincidentally, DCM's January 26-27 visit coincided with a rally by President Tadic where he unveiled his new campaign slogan, "a vote for Nikolic is a vote for (indicted war criminal) Vojislav Seselj." DCM's family was experiencing the fatigue of privatization gone wrong (massive unemployment) and also the changing socio- economic dynamics of absorbing 40,000 Serbs re-settled from Kosovo. According to DCM's family, their choice was stark, a flawed future with Tadic -- but a future with the promise of a life in Europe -- or a return to the agony of Milosevic. The family -- as well as their teen-aged children -- described in vivid detail living in their basements during the 93 days of NATO bombing in 1999 and said they hoped Serbs would opt never to return to life underground. End Summary. -------------- Tadic Rally -------------- ¶2. (C) President Tadic visited Kraljevo for a January 26 rally on his way to a January 27 rally in Novi Pazar. Kraljevo is a mid-sized Serbian town in the heart of Serbia, known for its military base, chrome factory, monasteries, the Vrnjacka Banja thermal springs and three National Basketball Association players. DCM lived in a village outside of Krajlevo in 1973 as part of the Experiment in International Living student exchange program. The city's voters backed Radical Party candidate Tome Nikolic, who is from a village between Kraljevo and the larger Central Serbian city of Kragujevac, in the January 20 first round of elections. Because of the town's strong military tradition, large numbers of Kosovar Serb immigrants, and generally rural population base, it has all the makings of a Nikolic strong-hold. ¶3. (C) Tadic attracted a full sports hall of supporters, and supporters spent the day of the rally on the town square, calmly waving blue and yellow Democratic Party flags. During his rally speech, Tadic emotionally called on the people of Kraljevo to 
make a clear choice -- Europe or the Serbia of Vojislav Seselj. This portion of Tadic's speech was played over and over again on Kraljevo's independent television station. As DCM strolled around the town square, Tadic supporters who had attended the rally quietly approached her family and reported that the rally was good and that they were relieved to have a full hall for the event. There were no visible Nikolic events scheduled for that day. Reaction to the Tadic visit can be described as muted but positive. -------------- Privatization Gone Bad -------------- ¶4. (C) Among the beleaguered people of Kraljevo, Tadic seemed to represent a flawed, but critical, alternative to Nikolic. Though all of them have the equivalent of junior college degrees or higher, half of DCM's family now is unemployed and relies on the small five-hectare family farm for milk, cheese, meat and vegetables. The family blames its woes on a combination of privatization gone horribly wrong and the influx of rich Serbs from Kosovo. ¶5. (C) During Yugoslav times, Kraljevo survived on a combination of income from the large military base, the Magnochrom steel factory and a Railroad wagon manufacturing plant. NATO bombed the military installations in 1999, putting the base and military runway out of commission. The military base is in care-taker status and some of its grounds are now used on weekends for car rallies. Some of the base's legacy remains; apparently Kraljevo still registers 40 nationalities and has a functioning Roman Catholic Church, attended by the descendants of Slovene and Catholic Yugoslav National Army officers. The town still remembers its role during WWII, both as the site BELGRADE 00000111 002.2 OF 003 for one of the worst German massacres of civilians, including women and school children, and for serving as a haven for Slovenes fleeing the Nazis arriving in Kraljevo on the "Brotherhood and Unity" train. This event was re-enacted throughout the 40 years of communist rule and the Slovenian town of Maribor and Kraljevo carried out a number of "sister city" exchanges during that time. DCM's family told her local residents were trying to re-start a Slovenian- Serb Friendship society, which already was resulting in yearly successful exchanges of firemen. ¶6. (C) In 2005 Magnochrom was sold to the Indian steel magnate family Mittal as part of Serbia's privatization effort. All 7000 employees were laid off and the factory was cannibalized for parts and scrap metal. The privatization was deemed "failed" in late 2007 and now the rusting hulk remaining of the plant looms like a festering sore over the entrance to the city. The railway wagon privatization to a Ukrainian consortium was more successful and the plant is continuing to export railway wagons, mostly to foreign customers to the east. One of DCM's family recently was fired from his job at a Greek bank that had bought out "Yugobanka," formerly former Yugoslavia's third largest bank. After the bank, under the Greeks, dropped to 12th place, DCM's contact, who had worked the whole time for Yugobanka and then the Greek successor, claims he recommended the bank lower its interest rate on credit in order to become more competitive, and for which, he claims, he was fired. He now says he has to pay allegiance to a political party in order to get meaningful employment, which he says, he refuses to do. ¶7. (C) Both the privatization and growing strength of political parties exerting control over all aspects of the economy happened under current President Boris Tadic. -------------- Newly Arrived Serbs -------------- ¶8. (C) DCM's family, who consider themselves Kraljevo's original citizens, also blame their lowering economic standard on the influx of newly arrived Serbs from Kosovo, a number they estimate to be approximately 40,000. According to the family, the Kosovar Serbs arrived in three waves: -- in 1974, following the constitutional granting of autonomy to Kosovo and Vojvodina, -- in 1999, following the NATO bombing, and -- in 2004, following widespread looting of Serb homes and religious objects in Kosovo. ¶9. (C) Compared to DCM's stay in 1973, when Kraljevo and her village remained a sleepy little Serbian backwater, the landscape is now liberally sprinkled with impressive villas built by Kosovar Serbs who had sold their property at advantageous rates to Albanians. The little village itself now has a sparkling new private hospital and a "Costco"-like enterprise, selling everything from cars to carpets, run by the Karic brothers, the former Kosovar Serb bankers to Milosevic. DCM's exchange student sister, a lawyer by profession, claims she lost her long-time job at the local hot springs resort to a Kosovar Serb who "bought" the job from one of the local political parties. She said many local Serbs have lost their jobs this way and as a result many of the old Kraljevans had left the city for good leaving the majority to Kosovar Serb Nikolic supporters. DCM's family claim they are ashamed their once proud city is supporting Nikolic. They claim Nikolic "bought" his high school degree, was functionally illiterate and could only accurately use four of the Serbian language's seven case endings. One family member said his father, a former Yugoslav National Army, had voted straight Radical since Seselj formed his party. He said he and his father had been fighting over politics constantly until this year when he pleaded with his father to give his granddaughters a future and vote for Tadic; and finally his father relented. -------------- -------------- We Want Europe, the Russians have never Done Anything for Us -------------- -------------- BELGRADE 00000111 003 OF 003 ¶10. (C) DCM's family were very interested in Serbia's growing relationship with Russia. They were disgusted with the oil and gas deal, recently signed by Presidents Tadic and Putin in Russia and said most ordinary Serbs felt nothing in common with Russia and furthermore were suspicious of Putin. The family recited Russia's history of failed promises and said they hoped Serbs would emerge from their current mood of spite and hard-headedness and look west, rather than east. In terms of current negotiations for the Stabilization and Association Agreement for entry into the EU, family members were exasperated by the focus on the capture of Bosnian Serb Army General Ratko Mladic. "Why should we be held hostage to one man?" they asked, "he's not even from Serbia." -------------- The Future -------------- ¶11. (C) The family brightened when they talked about the potential of Kraljevo. They were particularly proud that three NBA players had come from Kraljevo. They also were proud that Kraljevo was home to the newest sport in Serbia, American Football, and that their team, the Kings, had attracted an American coach. Kraljevo also is home to the current world number one 14 and under boys tennis player. Kraljevo is surrounded by snow-capped mountains and has the closest (though currently not functioning) airport to the largest Serbian ski resort Kapaonik. It also is the closest city to Serbia's most famous hot water springs, Vrnjicka Banja, which began attracting many more domestic tourists during the 1990's when Serbs no longer were welcome on the Adriatic Coast. Former NBA star Vlade Divac apparently is actively looking to open a full-scale destination resort near Kraljevo and is looking to take advantage of the mountains, hot springs, and historic monasteries surrounding the city. None of this will happen, the family fears, with a Nikolic win -- no Europe, no tourism, no jobs. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶12. (C) Kraljevo and its inhabitants occupy a part of Serbia called "Sumadija," the forests. Many Serbs consider the area, and its history, the heart of Serbia. DCM has the fortune to have followed the area and her exchange student family for 34 years. The family considers their relationship with the United States deep and binding, partially as a result of this connection. The role of a single exchange student in this context shows the power of citizen-to-citizen exchanges. DCM's experience with her family is a stark example of the choices the people of Serbia will make when they go to the polls on February 3. End Comment. MUNTER