SERBIA - KOSOVO MINISTRY WAITING CONSTITUTION AND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 000591

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O.12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KPAO SR MW KV
SUBJECT: SERBIA - KOSOVO MINISTRY WAITING CONSTITUTION AND
GOVERNMENT

REF: BELGRADE 579

SUMMARY
--------------


1. (SBU) As Kosovo prepares to enact its new constitution
on June 15, Serbia's Ministry for Kosovo is cautiously
watching, but not actively planning any major response to
the event, and is expecting that little on the ground will
change in the near term. Kosovo Minister Slobodan
Samardzic will travel to North Mitrovica on June 14 in an
obvious effort to keep the Kosovo issue festering in the
minds of Serbs during this period of government formation.
Like the rest of the government, the fate of the Kosovo
Ministry is uncertain, and the future role of the ministry,
if any, will be left to the new, most likely pro-European-
led government. End Summary.

Constitution: No Immediate Change Expected
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2. (SBU) The Government of Serbia does not expect there to
be a significant change on the ground with the enactment of
Kosovo's constitution on June 15, Assistant Minister for
Kosovo Ljubomir Kljakic told us on June 11. (Since Kosovo's
February 17 declaration of independence, Post's direct
access to Minister Samardzic has been severed. Post
continues to engage the ministry at the assistant minister
and special advisor levels.) Samardzic will be in North
Mitrovica on June 14 and 15 meeting with local Serb
officials when the constitution goes into effect, Kljakic
said. Despite the implementation of the constitution,
Serbia would expect UNMIK to continue performing its
functions after June 15, and that is with whom Serbia would
continue to engage, said Kljakic. He admitted, however,
that afterwards the issues of communication would become
more complex and "discussions must start between all
parties to resolve unresolved issues."

Serb Assemblies Will Be in Place By Constitution
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3. (SBU) Before the new Kosovo Constitution, all of the new
local assemblies in the Serb majority municipalities of
Kosovo will be constituted, Kljakic said. Although legally
the political composition of the municipal assemblies
should be fixed once they are constituted, Kljakic
acknowledged that it may change after Serbia forms its
national government. Ultimately municipal leaders will
have to work with Belgrade and whomever is in power in the
central government, Kljakic said. He said the new
assemblies would not work with the Kosovar authorities in
Pristina, but admitted that some "umbrella" mechanism would
need to be created to resolve the "daily life" problems of
the Serb communities and the other neighboring
municipalities.

Ministry Sees Announcement on Property as Hollow Gesture
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4. (SBU) Kljakic disregarded a June 11 article in the
Belgrade-based Vecernje Novosti newspaper which explained
that the Kosovo Property Agency (KPA) had started to
deliver the first decisions on property decided by the
Kosovo Property Claims Commission (KPCC) to Kosovo Serb
claimants. According to the article, the first 97
decisions were recently handed over to Kosovo Serb
claimants and an additional 400 decisions should be
delivered by the end of June. Kljakic said the news was
merely "political propaganda" from Pristina in a vain
effort to convince Serbs prior to the constitution that the
Kosovar government cared about their interests. (Post
understands that the resolution of these claims represents
an important break in a logjam of an estimated 40,000 cases
awaiting adjudication. Many other cases have already been
resolved through the KPA and its predecessor institution,
however.)

Kosovo Ministry Currently on Hold
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5. (SBU) Like most other government offices, the Kosovo
Ministry remains in limbo under the current technical
government, and has become increasingly inert since the May
11 elections. "Without a full government it is difficult

BELGRADE 00000591 002 OF 002


to act as you would wish," Kljakic said. He expected that
the state strategy on Kosovo would remain the same
regardless of whether President Boris Tadic's Democrats
(DS) or Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic
Party of Serbia (DSS) formed the next government. Since
Serbia's next government will not choose to recognize
Kosovo's independence, "the politics of the next government
will be the same except with tactical and rhetorical
corrections," he said.

Kosovo Ministry: Should it Stay or Should it Go?
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6. (SBU) If outgoing Prime Minister Kostunica were to
succeed in forming the new government, the DSS would
maintain the Kosovo Ministry, Kljakic confirmed to us. He
and others were less certain, however, what a government
led by President Tadic's Democratic Party would chose to do
with the ministry. Kljakic said a DS-led government may
chose to find another venue to handle Kosovo issues, but he
admitted this was only his speculation at this stage.


7. (SBU) Others within the Kosovo Ministry speculated that
it would be politically difficult for a new DS-led
government to dismantle the Kosovo Ministry, which has been
a significant source of nationalist sentiment on the Kosovo
issue over the past year. Kosovo Ministry Advisor Stanko
Blagojevic told us on June 7 that he expected the ministry
to remain the same size (about 100 people) no matter which
party formed the next government. He thought the DS could
possibly even increase the size of the ministry if they
came into power, as a way of overcompensating for what he
described as their "less rigid" Kosovo policy. He thought
only a DSS-Radical government with its solid anti-Kosovo
independence credentials could be in a political position
to decrease the size of the ministry (i.e. "Nixon to
China"). The best idea would be to dismantle the ministry
and create a much smaller special directorate within
another ministry, political insider and publisher of VIP
News Report Bratislav Grubacic told us on June 10.
Socialist Party leader Ivica Dacic also told us on June 10
that his party did not want to inherit control of the
ministry in a new DS-led government, since the ministry
would most likely not be responsible for policy but rather
just cultural and economic coordination (reftel).

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


8. (SBU) While Minister Samardzic continues to find ways
to stoke the Kosovo issue, the rest of the Kosovo Ministry
has become increasingly inactive under the technical
government, awaiting a decision on its future political
bosses. In such limbo the Kosovo Ministry has resigned
itself to promoting the status quo in Kosovo. End Comment.


MUNTER