Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09BELGRADE17
2009-01-09 15:03:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Belgrade
Cable title:  

NEW SERBIAN ANTI-TIP COORDINATOR DISCUSSES PLANS

Tags:  KTIP ELAB KCRM PHUM SR 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO3352
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBW #0017/01 0091503
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 091503Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0840
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 0001
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 000017 

DEPT FOR G/TIP, EUR/SCE

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM PHUM SR

SUBJECT: NEW SERBIAN ANTI-TIP COORDINATOR DISCUSSES PLANS

REF: 08 Belgrade 1186

Summary
-------

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 000017

DEPT FOR G/TIP, EUR/SCE

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM PHUM SR

SUBJECT: NEW SERBIAN ANTI-TIP COORDINATOR DISCUSSES PLANS

REF: 08 Belgrade 1186

Summary
--------------


1. (SBU) Serbia appointed a new Anti-Trafficking Coordinator, Mitar
Djuraskovic, in November. Djuraskovic, a police officer with
anti-trafficking experience, quickly developed a plan for 2009,
which includes improving the current anti-trafficking institutional
framework and planning for the next few years. Djuraskovic said
challenges in the near-term included lack of funds and lack of good
statistics on current anti-trafficking investigations and
prosecutions. There was positive news from 2008 -- a major
anti-trafficking trial concluded this year, and police arrested
dozens of traffickers. Djuraskovic is enthusiastic, capable, and
interested in our suggestions. We look forward to working with him.
End Summary.

New Coordinator has Anti-Trafficking Experience
-------------- --


2. (U) We met with Mitar Djuraskovic, who was appointed National
Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Persons on November 19,
2008, to discuss Serbia's plans for the coming year and
accomplishments in 2008. The National Coordinator position was
vacant for nearly a year when the previous coordinator, Border
Police Chief Dusan Zlokas, retired and was not replaced.
Djuraskovic, who is also the head of the Department for Combating
Cross-border Crime and Criminal Intelligence Affairs in the Border
Police, has been working anti-TIP issues for many years and
participated on the Republic Team to Combat Trafficking in Persons.


2009 Plan Completed
--------------


3. (SBU) Djuraskovic said Interior Minister Dacic had instructed him
immediately to write an action plan for 2009, noting that the Action
Guide we presented to the government in November (reftel) stated
Serbia needed one. Djuraskovic cautioned that it was not yet a
"real action plan," because he had had little time to draft it and
had not been able to consult his NGO partners. According to the
draft plan, much of the work of the Minister-level Council to Combat
Trafficking in Persons and working level Republic Team, which have
not met for several months, would focus on planning and
institutional strengthening in the first part of 2009. The Council
and an Advisory Board including international organization

representatives would both meet in January. Meetings of working
groups on Prevention, Protection of Victims, Prosecution, and
Trafficking in Children would begin in February, and the Republic
Team would meet in March. He planned a two-day workshop in April to
develop a more robust action plan for 2010-2012. Djuraskovic
stressed that he would insist that representatives to these
multi-ministry bodies be fully committed to the work and not
representatives in name only.


4. (SBU) Although lack of time and budgetary issues would prevent
complex activities in 2009, Djuraskovic said several activities were
possible for the year. For example, he planned to launch an
anti-trafficking website and better publicize Interior's
anti-trafficking hotline. Djuraskovic also planned a round table in
March to bring in experts from outside the region to discuss the
links between corruption and trafficking, a subject on which there
was no regional expertise. He also planned training in April for
100 police, prosecutors, and judges on the same topic. The round
table and subsequent training would be expensive and require donor
funds, which he hoped to assemble from UNHCR, UNODC, and IOM
programs.

Challenges for Anti-Trafficking Work
--------------


5. (SBU) Djuraskovic said lack of funds could be an obstacle to
increasing anti-trafficking activity. The financial crisis and
difficulties establishing a national budget created uncertainty in
how much funding would be available for anti-trafficking work in

2009. Djuraskovic said he was trying to make the point that
prevention and raising awareness would be more important than ever
during the economic crisis because people would be more vulnerable
to exploitation. In the meantime, several projects were on hold.
For example, he had an idea for a competition for 20,000 Euros worth
of NGO projects aimed at reducing demand for "exploitation
services," but he had no funds. Serbian government funds programmed
in 2008 to produce "Modern Slavery," a thirteen-part television
series on trafficking aimed at young people, had never been
released, and Djuraskovic said he believed it would be difficult to
get the funds in 2009.


BELGRADE 00000017 002 OF 002



6. (SBU) Statistics for every phase of law enforcement and
prosecution were also a challenge, Djuraskovic said. He noted that,
without a detailed statistical analysis, it was impossible to
determine where and how the government needed to improve efforts.
For example, he knew that there had been 32 charges filed against
traffickers in 2008 through October, but he did not know how many
traffickers were involved in each case, how many and what type of
victims, or what phase of prosecution those cases were now in. Data
from the Statistical Agency showed Anti-Trafficking Law convictions
but not when the original arrests had been made or sentences.
Interior now had a database funded by the International Center for
Migration Policy Development to track and cross-reference arrests,
charges, investigations, trials, appeals, and sentences, and had
started entering data for new police investigations, but there was
as yet no data from the Ministry of Justice. He said he hoped the
Council in its first meeting would identify a mechanism for sharing
information to populate the database.

Successes in 2008
--------------


7. (SBU) Djuraskovic noted that there had been some progress in
anti-trafficking efforts in 2008, despite the challenges. For
example, the "Jet Set" trial, in which the Novi Pazar deputy public
prosecutor was arrested and tried, had concluded. Nine people had
received sentences ranging from time served to eight years, the
maximum penalty. In the first 11 months of 2008, 32 criminal
charges were filed against 74 persons for trafficking in human
beings, and 40 victims, mostly Serbian citizens, were identified.

Biographical Note
--------------


8. (U) Mitar Djuraskovic was born in 1967 and has spent most of his
career in law enforcement. He graduated from the University of
Belgrade Law Faculty and then worked at the Belgrade District Court
as an apprentice. In 1997 Djuraskovic joined the Belgrade police.
He was first an Inspector for Foreigners and was then assigned to
the Border Police Directorate. In May 2002, after the National Team
to Combat Trafficking was established, he was appointed associate to
the then-National Coordinator and a member of the Team's advisory
Board. Djuraskovic was named Head of the Department for Combating
Cross-border Crime and Criminal Intelligence Affairs in 2005, a
position he still holds. He was appointed Anti-Trafficking
Coordinator on November 19, 2008. Djuraskovic speaks some English.
He has never been to the United States. In our previous
interactions with him, he was a helpful and enthusiastic contact.

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


9. (SBU) Djuraskovic is experienced in anti-trafficking work, and he
has cooperated well with us in the past. Our NGO contacts also
praise him for being helpful and cooperative. He also appears to
have Dacic's support, and he and Dacic both clearly are interested
in USG suggestions. Despite the challenges ahead, Djuraskovic's
ideas and enthusiasm suggest the government's anti-trafficking
efforts will increase, although it may take some time for results to
show. End Comment.

BRUSH