KOSOVO BIO: ASSEMBLY SPEAKER JAKUP KRASNIQI

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000014

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DEPT FOR EUR, EUR/SCE, DRL, INL, AND S/WCI, NSC FOR BRAUN,
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER, OPDAT
FOR ACKER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/11/2017
TAGS: PGOV UNMIK KV
SUBJECT: KOSOVO BIO: ASSEMBLY SPEAKER JAKUP KRASNIQI

Classified By: COM TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D)


1. (C) SUMMARY: Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Secretary
General Jakup Krasniqi is the new speaker of the Kosovo
Assembly following his party's victory in the November 17
elections and approval by the Assembly on January 9. A
former history teacher, political prisoner and Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA) spokesman, the 57-year old Krasniqi
brings with him a record of provocative political conduct and
strident nationalist rhetoric. His experience and position
within the party has given Krasniqi great influence, and he
has not shied away from occasionally opposing PDK leader and
incoming PM Hashim Thaci on major political issues. Despite
Krasniqi's penchant for saying the wrong thing at the wrong
time, he was a productive member of the Unity Team's
lower-level Strategic-Political Group; USOP has maintained
good relations with him, and he for the most part listens to
our advice. END SUMMARY.

KLA'S FACE TO THE WORLD


2. (C) Krasniqi began his political activity in the Kosovo
Albanian clandestine movement in the 1970s while a history
teacher in his hometown of Gllogovc, central Kosovo. He was
arrested as a participant in the 1981 demonstrations aimed at
gaining republic status for Kosovo in the former Yugoslav
federation, and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. After
his release in 1991, he joined the newly-formed Democratic
League of Kosovo (LDK),and later became Gllogovc branch
president and General Council member. In parallel, Krasniqi
maintained close ties with the leadership of the nascent
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the Drenica area, namely with
Azem Syla and Hashim Thaci. Krasniqi left the LDK for good
in March 1998 to join the KLA.


3. (C) Krasniqi became the KLA's face to the world in June
1998 after being appointed spokesman for the KLA General
Staff, whose members maintained anonymity at the time. He
was also appointed to the KLA political directorate in August
1998, and participated at the Rambouillet talks in France in
February 1999. Due to his reported constructive role in
bridging internal differences, the disparate Kosovo Albanian
delegation unofficially nominated Krasniqi for the post of
Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of Kosovo
(PGOK),agreed then between the leaders of the delegation.
Nevertheless, Krasniqi's stature was not sufficiently high to
thwart the ambitions of KLA Political Director Hashim Thaci,
who was eventually given the post. Following Rambouillet,
Krasniqi went to Albania, where in April 1999 he was
initially appointed spokesman and later Minister of
Reconstruction in Thaci's PGOK.


4. (C) Upon his return to Kosovo after the war, Krasniqi
joined several discontented KLA leaders, including current
Macedonia Albanian politician Bardhyl Mahmuti and PDK
presidency member Azem Syla, to briefly challenge Thaci's
political preeminence in the former KLA spectrum by forming a
party of their own, the Party of Democratic Union (PBD).
Thaci eventually integrated the PBD into the Democratic Party
of Kosovo (PDK) he formed in October 1999, with Krasniqi
becoming the party's secretary-general, a post in which he
has been reconfirmed three times. As the party's general
manager, he wields great power within the PDK and has not
shied away from occasionally defying Thaci's primacy on major
political issues.

STRIDENT NATIONALIST RHETORIC


5. (C) Krasniqi's postwar public and political engagement
failed to build on his constructive role at Rambouillet.
Either as a party or government official - he served as
minister of public services in the government of Bajram
Rexhepi during 2002-2004 - Krasniqi has often employed harsh
and strident rhetoric, primarily targeting the PDK's
political archrival LDK, and UNMIK, especially the latter's
law enforcement policies and actions. Some examples include
his claim that the voters "killed the nation's martyrs once

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again" after the PDK's landmark defeat to the LDK in the 2000
municipal elections, or his branding of UNMIK trials of
former KLA members on war-related charges &a crime directed
against the future of Kosovo.8 A series of acrimonious and
provocative statements he made during a three-week stint as
acting PM in August 2003 prompted UNMIK to respond by
claiming that Kosovo had created its own version of the
British &silly season.8 Krasniqi's behavior was
particularly noxious during the March 2004 riots, which he
publicly described as a result of legitimate popular
dissatisfaction with UNMIK's anti-Albanian policies.


6. (C) Krasniqi has toned down his anti-UNMIK rhetoric more
recently, but has continued with acerbic statements against
the previous LDK-AAK governing coalition in his capacity as
PDK caucus leader from 2004-2007. Nevertheless, he
participated constructively in the Unity Team's
Political-Strategic Group, tasked with policy preparations
for the final status process. Still, he has reverted on
occasion to his favorite theme of Albanian national
unification which had caused him significant political
backlash since his first interviews as KLA spokesman. In a
recent editorial headlined "Albania is One," Krasniqi
lamented the denial of national unification to Albanians and
asserted that such an aspiration was neither a mistake nor
inappropriate.


7. (SBU) Krasniqi was born on January 1, 1951, in the village
of Negrovc near Gllogovc/Gllogovac. He has bachelor's and
master's degrees in history from the University of Pristina.
Krasniqi was married in 1991 after being released from
prison, and has three daughters and a son. He does not speak
English.


8. (C) Comment: Krasniqi is a mixed bag: a rhetorical
firebrand who has despite his more strident political
assertions been able to work productively with other
representatives in the Unity Team and lead the PDK Assembly
caucus in a manner that avoided boycott or other disruptive
tactics. USOP has generally had good relations with
Krasniqi, chiding him after several rhetorical excesses and
succeeding in subduing his commentary. We can expect that he
will be a more politicized Assembly speaker than the last
incumbent, the somnolent Kole Berisha, and potentially more
divisive -- a concern that almost led PDK leader Thaci to
pass him over for the Speaker position in favor of younger
candidate Hajredin Kuci. Krasniqi's standing in the party,
however, and his desire for the seat, made it almost
inevitable that he would win the position. USOP intends to
work closely with Krasniqi to remind him of the Assembly's
unique and powerful role in Ahtisaari implementation and the
declaration of independence itself, and to provide him as
much guidance as possible on all these endeavors. End
comment.
KAIDANOW