SERBIA: STAFFDEL DESAI'S AUGUST 14 - 17 VISIT

UNCLAS BELGRADE 000861 EUR/SCE FOR PETERSON AND KOKTA, EUR/ACE FOR KEETON, H FOR CHARTRAND AND CARTER SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL SR SUBJECT: SERBIA: STAFFDEL DESAI'S AUGUST 14 - 17 VISIT Summary -------------- ¶1. (SBU) During an August 14-17 visit to Serbia, a staff delegation from the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (HACFO) heard about the benefits and importance of U.S. assistance from a wide variety of Serbian interlocutors and delivered a consistent message that Serbia needed to put its best foot forward in order to remain competitive in the battle for shrinking assistance funds. End Summary. Ministry of Foreign Affairs -------------- ¶2. (U) The HACFO staff delegation consisted of Nisha Desai-Biswal and Clelia Alvarado from the majority and Anne Marie Chotvacs and Mike Ringler from the minority. On August 15 the delegation met in Belgrade with the Country Team, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, political analysts, multilateral donors, and civil society representatives and also attended a reception for exchange alumni, journalists, MPs, bilateral donors, and USAID partners. The group traveled to Southern Serbia on August 16 for meetings with the leadership of Vranje and for site visits to the American Corner, Animated Film School, and USAID projects Natural Food and Fontana Dairy. ¶3. (SBU) During the meeting with Dragana Filipovic, Director of the MFA's Americas Division, Desai underscored the difficulty of continuing to appropriate assistance funds when Serbia projects an image of not wanting to engage with the United States through such acts as the February 21 attack on Embassy Belgrade, the Kosovo-related contact policy preventing high-level dialogue, and the failure of Miladin Kovacevic to return to the U.S. to stand trial in the May 4 assault on Amcit Bryan Steinhauer. ¶4. (SBU) Filipovic said that Serbia would return Ambassador Ivan Vujacic to Washington soon, possibly in September, to finish his mandate; he then would be replaced with someone who could establish a new dialogue with the new U.S. administration. After first arguing that the USG was blowing the Kovacevic case out of proportion, Filipovic took the delegation's point regarding its harm to bilateral relations and Serbia's image abroad. She promised to work toward resolution of that case and the other bilateral irritants in order to facilitate more frequent, higher-level dialogue between the Serbian and U.S. governments. She added that the remaining Hague indictees would be arrested, "the sooner the better." Ministry of Defense -------------- ¶5. (SBU) The Chief of the Military Cooperation Department in the Ministry of Defense, General (ret) Milorad Peric, stressed the importance of maintaining a full normal relationship between the United States and Serbia. He explained that the priorities for military-to-military cooperation with the United States were increased education and advanced studies of Serbian Armed Forces members, expanded cooperation within the State Partnership program with Ohio, and greater participation in foreign military sales. General Peric mentioned the likelihood of Serbia opening a mission to NATO at the beginning of 2009 and stressed good cooperation with KFOR at the technical level. Political Analyst Goran Svilanovic -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Former Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic bluntly told the staffdel that the United States no longer was able to affect day-to-day events in Serbia, because U.S. power was on the wane. EU influence in Serbia was far greater, he said, and as a result, Serbian-U.S. relations now need to "go through Brussels." Svilanovic stated that the EU and the United States should speak with one voice and focus Serbia on the EU accession process through an approach he termed "Copenhagen Minus and SAA Plus Plus." This would entail extending candidate status to Serbia at the soonest possible date, while foreseeing an extensive and intensive negotiating process that would preoccupy politicians and prevent them from playing up nationalism. ¶7. (SBU) Svilanovic added that Kosovo and the Kovacevic case were obstacles to deeper ties, but that Serbia could not allow itself to drift away from the West or become the heart of anti-U.S. and anti-Western sentiment in Europe. Svilanovic commented that Foreign Minister Jeremic's recent visits to Malaysia and Iran raised the question of where Serbia's interests lay, acknowledging that such actions did not send a pro-Western message. ¶8. (SBU) He characterized the situation in the Western Balkans as "still a mess." He expressed concern about the deteriorating political climate in Bosnia-Herzegovina since the failure of the April 2006 constitutional reform package. If Bosnia breaks up into two separate states, Milosevic would "win from the grave," an eventuality which the United States and the EU must prevent by asserting in no uncertain terms that no more states would be created in the region. Regarding Kosovo, Svilanovic criticized the lack of communication between Belgrade, Pristina, UNMIK, EULEX, and NATO. He raised the possibility that Belgrade might be able to engage EULEX through the UN. International Donor Community -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Representatives from the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees emphasized the importance of success in Serbia for a stable future for the Western Balkans. All of the donors underlined the importance of U.S. assistance to Serbia and stated that it complemented well their own programs and those of the European Union. Whereas assistance from the EU tended to be targeted to legislative benchmarks needed for EU membership, U.S. assistance had been able to delve deeper into technical areas and gain the trust of GOS counterparts. This has allowed donors to work together on fundamental issues such as pension reform, securities and capital market reform, and development in Southern Serbia. The donors emphasized that continued USG assistance to Serbia was needed to support success, not just prevent failure. ¶10. (SBU) The staffdel emphasized that Serbia needed to understand that "the clock is running" on U.S. assistance, that Serbia had limited time to make good use of assistance, and that given budget deficits, a slowing economy, and competing demands for U.S. assistance in other parts of the world, it was uncertain how much longer U.S. assistance to the Balkans could be sustained. Round Table on Civil Society and Rule of Law -------------- ¶11. (SBU) The staffdel met with leaders of five Serbian NGOs -- the Center for Free Elections and Democracy, the Faculty of Political Science's Center for U.S. Studies, the Belgrade Center for Human Rights, Fraktal, and Civic Initiatives. During a meeting held at the American Corner in Belgrade, the NGOs told the delegation that the United States and the EU had different priorities for assistance with democratization: the United States focused on helping people become active citizens, while the EU focused more on democratizing institutions. U.S. funding was faster and more flexible, making it crucial for responding to urgent situations, while EU funding was devoted to projects which may take years to complete. The NGOs agreed that as such the need for U.S. assistance remained great. Visit to South Serbia -------------- ¶12. (SBU) In Vranje, the delegation met with Mayor Miroljub Stojcic (Socialist Party of Serbia),Assembly Speaker Slobodan Stamenkovic (Democratic Party) and their deputies. Mayor Stojcic expressed gratitude for Vranje's participation in the USAID Municipal Economic Growth Activity (MEGA) program and for past U.S. assistance to the municipality. He deemed cooperation with the Embassy, and USAID in particular, a success and said he hoped that this cooperation will be maintained in the future. ¶13. (SBU) The delegation made site visits to two beneficiaries of the Security Contingency Planning and Economic Security (SCoPES) program, the Natural Food mushroom processing company and the Fontana Dairy. Oliver Varagic, owner of Natural Food, explained how U.S. assistance would allow him to expand production over the next five years. At the Fontana Dairy, a small ethnic Albanian-owned family business in Presevo, the staffdel heard about the importance of U.S. assistance in developing one of the most economically depressed regions of Serbia. Zeinulla Ibrahimi, Fontana's owner, stated that he had received no support from the central and local government; USAID was the only organization that had offered assistance to his company, which indirectly supports 600 Serb and Albanian families. ¶14. (SBU) The delegation met with several prominent Serb and Albanian politicians from the Presevo Valley. Shaip Kamberi (Party for Democratic Action-PDA) and Stojanca Arsic (Serb citizens group), the current and former mayors of Bujanovac, agreed that U.S. assistance played an indispensable role following armed conflict in the region in 2000-2001. Arsic stated emphatically that the future of Serbia was in Europe and that continued assistance was needed to pursue this goal. Riza Halimi, Albanian MP and head of the PDA, contrasted the lack of interest by the national government in developing South Serbia with the positive role played by the United States. He stated that he and the other minorities in the Parliament did not support the current government's Kosovo contact policy. ¶15. (SBU) The delegation also visited the American Corner in Vranje and the Animated Film School, a past aid recipient, where there was an opportunity to meet with American Corner staff, exchange alumni, and some of the children involved in an upcoming cross-cultural workshop. Comment -------------- ¶16. (SBU) Embassy Belgrade very much welcomes the Staffdel Desai visit. Though we had been delivering the same message to our Serbian counterparts -- that their image in Washington was that of non-cooperation and assistance was finite -- hearing the message come directly from Congress was invaluable. Embassy thanks Staffdel Desai for their interest in Serbia and looks forward to more such visits in the future. End Comment. ¶17. (U) This cable has been cleared by the staff delegation. MUNTER