Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08BELGRADE1187
2008-11-19 09:08:00
SECRET//NOFORN
Embassy Belgrade
Cable title:  

SERBIA: SOCIALIST MINISTER'S CHANGES AT INTERIOR

Tags:  PREL PGOV ASEC SR 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO4528
RR RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHNP RUEHROV
DE RUEHBW #1187/01 3240908
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
R 190908Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0644
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHNS/NSC WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 BELGRADE 001187 

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/19/2018
TAGS: PREL PGOV ASEC SR
SUBJECT: SERBIA: SOCIALIST MINISTER'S CHANGES AT INTERIOR

REF: BELGRADE 718

Classified By: Acting Political Chief Bradford Bell for reasons 1.4 (b/
d).

Summary
-------

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 BELGRADE 001187

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/19/2018
TAGS: PREL PGOV ASEC SR
SUBJECT: SERBIA: SOCIALIST MINISTER'S CHANGES AT INTERIOR

REF: BELGRADE 718

Classified By: Acting Political Chief Bradford Bell for reasons 1.4 (b/
d).

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


1. (C) Four months after the formation of the new Serbian
government, First Deputy Prime Minister, Interior Minister,
and Socialist Party head Ivica Dacic has made controversial
changes at the Interior Ministry. While some claim that
Dacic is surrounding himself with Milosevic-era cronies who
will only perpetuate problems at Interior, others say his
personnel changes are addressing badly needed reform.
Whatever his motives, Dacic is facing serious challenges at
Interior, as evidenced by a well-publicized walk-out of
overworked riot police in Belgrade. Though many of Dacic,s
appointments may be a form of political patronage, we expect
at a minimum that he will consider, as a member of a
pro-European coalition government, the need to meet
international standards as he undertakes any further
reorganization of Interior. End Summary.

Dacic's Reorganizations at Interior
--------------


2. (U) Socialist Party (SPS) head and Interior Minister Ivica
Dacic recently began appointing officials to senior policy
and operational positions at the Interior Ministry (MOI),
which is still largely filled with appointees from former
Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) Interior Minister Dragan
Jocic. In October, Dacic appointed Deputy Police Director
Branislav Mitrovic, MOI Cabinet Chief Branko Lazarevic,
Public Relations Head Suzana Vasilijevic, Combating Organized
Crime Unit Head Svetislav Djurovic, Border Police Head Nenad
Banovic, and State Secretary Dragan Markovic. (Note: We have
heard that Dacic argued with the Democratic Party (DS) over
the appointment of Markovic, who was a compromise between
DS's preferred candidate and Dacic's.) He is also replacing
some local police chiefs.


3. (S/NF) Long-term MOI officials complain that Dacic intends
to fill all key positions with Milosevic-era party cronies
and is isolating professional police, such as Police Director
Milorad Veljovic. A police officer with access to Dacic and
his chief of staff told us that Dacic was allowing high-level
SPS official Veljko Odalovic to appoint inexperienced,

Milosevic-era individuals to key positions and that Dacic was
using those individuals to circumvent Veljovic. The officer
believed Dacic would ultimately remove the well-respected
police chief. Customs Director Predrag Petronijevic
expressed similar concerns to the DCM. Petronijevic said he
thought Dacic had staged an October 24 walk-out by Belgrade's
riot police as a pretext to clean house and install his own
people. Petronijevic pointed out that the new heads of
Organized Crime and the Border Police were ex-military, not
police. Belgrade University Security Studies professor Zoran
Dragisic was also concerned about some of Dacic's personnel
choices but said he thought that the DS would insist on
making some appointments and could protect Veljovic if
President Tadic chose. (Note: Dragisic unsuccessfully
interviewed for the position of International Cooperation
Head at the MOI.)

Another View of Dacic
--------------


4. (S) Not all observers take such a dim view of Dacic's work
at Interior. Head of OSCE's Law Enforcement Strategic
Development Unit in Belgrade, Amadeo Watkins, said he had
also heard rumors that Dacic was working around Veljovic but
thought it was untrue that Dacic was trying to set Veljovic
up. Watkins pointed out that Jocic had not empowered
Veljovic either but that Dacic nevertheless most likely saw
Veljovic as Jocic's man. Watkins saw Dacic's new
appointments as positive, because the Interior cabinet and
police directorate heads left over from the Jocic era were
opposed to badly needed reform in the ministry. Watkins
praised recent appointments, such as Lazarevic and
Vasilijevic, although he voiced concern that some of Dacic's
advisors were not law enforcement experts. On the other
hand, some uniformed police tell us that, while they are
concerned that some of the new police chiefs are
inexperienced, they are happy Dacic is promoting from within
and they are assisting the new chiefs in learning the job.

Dacic Defends Appointments
--------------

BELGRADE 00001187 002 OF 003




5. (SBU) Dacic staunchly defended his staff choices in a
November 3 meeting with the DCM. When we asked Dacic
directly about Milosevic-era personnel among his staff and
advisors, he retorted that he had been in the Milosevic
government himself. He said he had appointed people he
trusted and that none of his recent appointments, such as
Mitrovic, had served in high-level positions under Milosevic.
He noted that most law enforcement professionals at a
certain level had served under Milosevic; even the respected
Veljovic had been Nis police chief at that time.

Reforms Needed at Interior
--------------


6. (SBU) Regardless of the motives for his personnel choices,
Dacic faces challenges at Interior, as the riot police
walk-out highlighted. The night of October 24-25, the
Belgrade Brigade, which is responsible for crowd control,
refused to report for duty, citing months of uncompensated
overtime and exhaustion. The Belgrade Brigade had been
working 18-hour days since late July when daily
demonstrations in downtown Belgrade began to protest the July
27 arrest of war crimes defendant Radovan Karadzic (reftel).
Dragisic told us that police salaries were so low that
Interior could not recruit Belgrade residents to fill posts
in the capital. In an October 30 interview with news
magazine Vreme, Veljovic blamed the police protest on a
shortage of 14,000 police. Veljovic pledged to address the
issue but said police would continue to be overworked if the
Finance Ministry did not authorize new positions. Interior
International Cooperation Head Drazen Maravic told us
privately that the shortage affected every police unit.


7. (C) The Interior Ministry requires more than just
additional personnel to overcome the legacy of mismanagement
by the Milosevic regime and later DSS control. OSCE,s
Watkins said that Dacic's first task at Interior needed to be
strategic planning. Watkins said Serbia was probably not
lacking 14,000 police but that the Ministry would have no way
of knowing that without a needs assessment. Watkins
emphasized that improved management and human resources
procedures were needed in order to better use existing
personnel, who could then be paid better with any future
budget increase. Watkins said the key priorities were to
simplify Interior,s complicated, stove-piped bureaucratic
structure and get rid of Jocic appointees in key positions.
Changes in the uniformed police would then follow, according
to Watkins. Professor Dragisic said there were other
challenges for Interior, such as reversing a militarization
of the police from the Milosevic era, depoliticizing the once
professional gendarmerie, integrating the Border Police into
Interior, and decentralizing control of individual police
units. Dragisic said Interior had long been politicized,
with local police chiefs working for their party, which
demoralized professionals and obliterated citizens'
confidence in the police.

Will Dacic Change Interior for the Better?
--------------


8. (C) While observers differ as to Dacic's progress thus
far, most agree that Dacic will probably try to reform the
ministry. Watkins told us he was optimistic Dacic had the
right vision for reforming Interior, because it was in the
political interest of Dacic, as the leader of a small party
with wavering popularity in the ruling coalition, to perform
well. Professor Dragisic emphasized that reforming Interior
would also allow Dacic to portray himself as a reformer.
Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights director Biljana
Kovacevic-Vuco told us that Dacic would only carry out reform
if President Boris Tadic (DS) insisted upon it. Dacic
himself touted Interior's accomplishments and repeated the
government's pro-European priorities in an October 31 press
conference celebrating the government's first 100 days in
office. Privately, Dacic told us that he intended to look
for ways to capitalize on international police training,
improve regional cooperation on combating corruption, and
improve the Ministry,s technology and equipment.

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


9. (C) Though observations about Dacic,s intentions and his
new personnel appointments run to extremes, the truth lies
somewhere in the middle. Many rumors against Dacic are
probably spurred by political jockeying. Whatever his
motivations, a strong desire to remain a part of the ruling
coalition will probably keep Dacic -- who knows that his

BELGRADE 00001187 003 OF 003


party would not fair well in new elections -- in check. The
Embassy continues to have an open channel to Dacic, through
which we will continue to insist on police professionalism,
rule of law, and accountability. End Comment.
MUNTER