SERBIA: FOCUS ON KOSOVO AND REFUGEES AT OSCE HDIM

UNCLAS BELGRADE 000846 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PHUM KDEM OSCE SR SUBJECT: SERBIA: FOCUS ON KOSOVO AND REFUGEES AT OSCE HDIM REF: STATE 78227; BELGRADE 357 ¶1. (SBU) In an August 11 meeting, Poloff previewed for MFA Human Rights Directorate First Secretary Vladan Lazovic and OSCE and CoE Directorate Counselor Vladan Soskic topics and concerns that might be raised by the U.S. delegation to the upcoming OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) (ref A). ¶2. (SBU) Lazovic and Soskic thanked Poloff for the information and responded that Serbia intended to highlight during the HDIM the status of the Serb minority in Kosovo and the need for a durable solution for the approximately 300,000 refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Serbia as a result of the conflicts in the 1990s. Soskic clarified that Serbia was committed to addressing the refugee and IDP situation within the multilateral framework foreseen by the Sarajevo process initiated in 2005 and stressed that Serbia believed that the OSCE Office in Zagreb should not be closed until this process was implemented satisfactorily. He also suggested that the Serbian delegation might be able to share experiences from its recently concluded presidency of the Decade of Roma Inclusion (ref B). ¶3. (U) Lazovic stated in conclusion that the Ministry will have information on the composition of its delegation once the HDIM agenda is finalized but that he anticipated broad participation by a number of government ministries. BRUSH