TADIC: "WE ARE NOT GIVING UP ON KOSOVO"

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000056

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL UNSC UNMIK KV TV YI
SUBJECT: TADIC: "WE ARE NOT GIVING UP ON KOSOVO"


1. (SBU) SUMMARY. Serbian President Tadic warned Ambassador
Khalilzad on January 16 that independence for Kosovo could
turn Serbia against integration with Europe. Tadic said he
is trying to reach a compromise with Kosovo Albanians on
final status within a context of substantial autonomy and
suggested that consideration of any other arrangement should
be deferred until Serbia and Kosovo were safely integrated
into the European Union. Ambassador Khalilzad agreed that EU
integration is the ultimate answer to the Kosovo impasse, but
explained that the accession process could not get fully
underway with the Kosovo problem unresolved. He urged Tadic
not to let Serbia react to Kosovo events with self-defeating
actions. END SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) Ambassador Khalilzad met with Serbian President
Boris Tadic on January 16, hours before the Security Council
considered the secretary-general's quarterly report on UNMIK
(reported septel). Also participating in the meeting were
Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremic and Serbian
Ambassador to the UN Pavle Jevremovic as well as Deputy
Political Counselor.


3. (SBU) President Tadic said Serbia had presented "a very
clear model of substantial autonomy" during the
Troika-sponsored final status talks. He called for further
talks because "we are not giving up on Kosovo." He said he
had met in New York with Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci
and would meet with him again in an effort to reach a final
status compromise, but complained that recent Kosovo history
and promises of independence had made Kosovo Albanians
uncooperative. He allowed that "we have a very bad legacy
from which I am trying to recover," but insisted that "I am
not Slobodan Milosevic."


4. (SBU) To Ambassador Khalilzad's suggestion that the
ultimate destiny for Serbia and Kosovo alike is a stable and
prosperous union with Europe, President Tadic replied that
the Serbian people "are too angry now over the idea of losing
Kosovo. Their reaction is to distance us from Europe, asking
'why do we need to be in Europe when some EU countries
support independence for Kosovo.'" He proposed that the
international community take up the Kosovo status issue only
after Serbia is fully integrated into the EU, adding that "it
will be very hard to keep Serbia on an integration track if
Kosovo is independent."


5. (SBU) Ambassador Khalilzad urged Tadic to change his
perspective, to understand that "it would be a mistake for
Serbs to react to Kosovo events by hurting yourselves again."
Khalilzad explained that the EU has made clear that the
integration process could not be accelerated as the U.S. is
urging if we don't deal with the Kosovo problem first." He
closed by saying that Washington "holds you personally in
high esteem and hopes that this disagreement will not stand
as an enduring problem in our relations." Tadic noted that
we disagree "for the first time in our history."
KHALILZAD