Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08SARAJEVO1575
2008-10-07 13:14:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Sarajevo
Cable title:  

BOSNIA - COUNCIL OF EUROPE REPORT PLAYS INTO

Tags:  PREL PGOV PINR PHUM KDEM BK 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO0267
RR RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHVJ #1575/01 2811314
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 071314Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY SARAJEVO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9059
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUZEJAA/USNIC SARAJEVO
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/JCS WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SARAJEVO 001575 

SIPDIS

EUR/SCE (HYLAND, FOOKS),NSC FOR HELGERSON

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/07/2018
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR PHUM KDEM BK
SUBJECT: BOSNIA - COUNCIL OF EUROPE REPORT PLAYS INTO
SILAJDZIC'S HANDS

REF: SARAJEVO 1518

Classified By: Michael J. Murphy. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SARAJEVO 001575

SIPDIS

EUR/SCE (HYLAND, FOOKS),NSC FOR HELGERSON

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/07/2018
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR PHUM KDEM BK
SUBJECT: BOSNIA - COUNCIL OF EUROPE REPORT PLAYS INTO
SILAJDZIC'S HANDS

REF: SARAJEVO 1518

Classified By: Michael J. Murphy. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe (PACE) on September 30 adopted a resolution on Bosnia
that -- inter alia -- calls for a new constitution by October
2010 that: 1) reforms entity voting; 2) narrows the "vital
national interest" protections; 3) allows "others" to compete
in elections for the Presidency; and 4) creates a state-level
Supreme Court. Bosniak member of the Tri-Presidency Haris
Silajdzic is highly likely to portray these recommendations
as an endorsement of his proposals for constitutional reform.
The declaration also singles out the Republika Srpska (RS)
as an obstacle to Bosnia's reform progress, condemning recent
RS initiatives that undermine and weaken state-level
institutions. In his September 30 speech to the PACE,
Silajdzic pounced on the opportunity to reiterate themes he
had stressed at UNGA on September 23 (i.e., the RS is a
product of genocide; the international community is
responsible for rectifying that genocide). Predictably,
Serbs reacted angrily to Silajdzic's PACE address and
underscored plans for an October 13 special session of the RS
National Assembly (RSNA) at which they will craft a response
to Silajdzic's rhetoric and the PACE resolution. END SUMMARY

CoE Endorses New Bosnian Constitution
--------------


2. (SBU) The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE) on September 30 adopted -- with few objections -- a
resolution on Bosnia following weeks of negotiations,
proposed amendments, and sharp rhetoric. The resolution
calls for dialogue on a new constitution -- in close
cooperation with the European Commission for Democracy
through Law (Venice Commission) -- to begin immediately after
the October 5 municipal elections, with a view to drafting
and adopting the constitution by October 2010, the timeframe
of the next Bosnian general elections. The report notes that
constitutional reform is necessary for police reform

legislation to take effect and to solidify the distribution
of competencies between the entities and the state. The
resolution also calls for creation of a state-level Supreme
Court.

Embracing Silajdzic's "Civic State"
--------------


3. (SBU) The PACE resolution stresses that members of
Parliament must act as free and democratically elected
representatives of all Bosnian citizens and not as defenders
of purely ethnic interests. Bosnia should become a "genuine
civic state of all citizens living in it," the resolution
argues. With this objective in mind, the resolution calls
for:

-- Revamping of the entity voting procedures in the
state-level House of Representatives;
-- Narrowing the "vital national interests" clause;
-- Ensuring "others" have an opportunity to participate in
political life by competing for the Presidency and
participating in the designation of the delegates to the
House of Peoples.

RS Guilty of Undermining Bosnia
--------------


4. (SBU) The resolution is critical of the RS, accusing it of
undermining and weakening state institutions and citing as an
example the adoption of the RS Law on Conflict of Interest,
which entrusts implementation of the law to the RS Election
Commission, rather than the state-level Commission. The
RSNA's adoption of a draft law to create an RS-specific
Ombudsperson for children's rights also impinges on the
competencies of the state Ombudsperson's office, according to
the report. Finally, the resolution -- stressing that Kosovo
cannot be viewed as a precedent -- condemns the Republika
Srpska National Assembly (RSNA) resolution on February 21
which referred to the possibility of holding a referendum on
self-determination. The PACE resolution asserted that the
RSNA resolution "contradicts the Dayton Peace Agreement,
which does not give entities the right to secede."


SARAJEVO 00001575 002 OF 003


RS Proposals Rejected
--------------


5. (SBU) The Council of Europe monitoring team -- composed of
one Finnish and one Turkish Council of Europe representative,
as well as a delegation from all three ethnic groups in
Bosnia -- drafted the report and discussed several iterations
of it with Bosnian leaders. All changes that the RS proposed
to the initial draft -- removing the clause on entity voting,
"unnecessary criticism" of the RS for adopting an
entity-level (rather than contributing to a state-level) law
on conflict of interest, and referring to the RS as an
obstacle to progress -- were rejected in an early phase of
negotiation. Of the Bosniak proposals, the Council of Europe
adopted only the proposal from Party for Democratic Action
(SDA) MP Bakir Izetbegovic that calls upon the Bosnian
officials to set money aside in the state, entity, and
cantonal budgets for the return of internally displaced
persons.

Silajdzic Engages in Another Diatribe
--------------


6. (SBU) As acting chairman of the Tri-Presidency, Silajdzic
addressed the PACE at the meeting that produced the final
resolution, and as usual, he had some unfriendly words for
the Serbs. Echoing the statements he made at the UNGA
(reftel),Silajdzic declared that if the UN does not help
Bosnia eliminate entity voting, the UN will be responsible
for the "genocide" that led to the creation of the RS. He
accused the RS of engaging in "systematic, continuous,
deliberate discrimination to prevent the return of
minorities." He added that entity voting allowed the Serbs
to block amendments to the citizenship law, thereby ensuring
that "more than half a million Bosniak refugees, who left the
country not out of their free will but to save their lives,
will lose Bosnian citizenship."

Serbs Predictably Angered
--------------


7. (SBU) Silajdzic's speech and the resolution itself have
angered Serbs. The RSNA -- over the objection of the Bosniak
delegates -- scheduled a special session for October 13 to
craft a response to Silajdzic's speeches to the UNGA and the
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, as well as to the
PACE resolution itself. The RSNA plans to personally invite
to the session the leaders of the six ruling parties in the
state government, as well as the Tri-Presidency -- including
Silajdzic.


8. (SBU) RS President Rajko Kuzmanovic stated that the
resolution -- although non-binding -- was unacceptable to the
RS. He added that the European parliamentarians clearly were
not familiar enough with the situation in Bosnia to assess
the consequences of eliminating entity voting and the "vital
national interests" clause. RS PM Milorad Dodik said that
"changes to entity voting could lead to the abandoning of
institutional mechanisms on which the Dayton Accords were
founded and which helped establish an ethnic balance, and
that is something the Serbs will never accept." Serb
Tri-Presidency member Nebojsa Radmanovic called Silajdzic's
speech "political autism of irresponsible elite, who are
unable to see real changes in society."

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


9. (C) We expect Silajdzic will trumpet this report from the
rooftops -- particularly the language on the need for a
revamping of entity voting to ensure a "civic state" -- in
negotiations on constitutional reform, which many political
leaders expect will begin sometime this fall. He will
contend that Europe has "endorsed" his constitutional reform
proposals and that anything less would be inconsistent with
"European values" -- the same tact he took in 2006 with an
earlier PACE resolution that was more equivocal on issues
such as entity voting. As in the past, Silajdzic is also
likely to suggest that any Bosniak that is prepared to accept
something less than what is contained in the resolution is
either implicitly endorsing "the RS as a genocidal creation"
or sacrificing long-term Bosniak interests and their
responsibility to protect them to a narrow political

SARAJEVO 00001575 003 OF 003


expediency.
ENGLISH