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)

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Summary
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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.

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Tadic Rally
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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.

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Privatization Gone Bad
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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

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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.

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Newly Arrived Serbs
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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.

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We Want Europe, the Russians have never Done Anything
for Us
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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."

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The Future
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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.

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Comment
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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