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INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHKH/AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM 0002
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ 0004
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RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0055
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 LJUBLJANA 000066 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/NCE, AF/E 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/30/2016 
TAGS: PREF PREL PGOV PHUM KCRS EAID PINR SU SI
SUBJECT: SLOVENIA'S PRESIDENT SEES LEGACY IN DARFUR 
 
REF: LJUBLJANA 34 
 
Classified By: COM Thomas B. Robertson for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1.(C)  Summary:  After two weeks of working his agenda on 
Darfur across Europe and in the US, President Janez Drnovsek 
appeared upbeat about the prospects for spurring renewed 
interest and commitment to resolving the humanitarian, 
security and political crises in that troubled region.  He 
told COM that conversations with UN Secretary General Kofi 
Annan, EU High Representative Javier Solana, French President 
Chirac, former President Bill Clinton, Chinese officials and 
a number of celebrities have convinced him that he is pushing 
on an open door.  Drnovsek plans to run a full page 
advertisement in the New York Times the week of January 30 
explaining his "The World for Darfur" initiative and hopes 
that many of the politicians and other eminent people who 
have responded positively to his overtures will agree to have 
their names included.  Drnovsek also sees the US presidency 
of the UN Security Council as a window of opportunity to get 
all permanent member governments constructively engaged. 
 
2.(C)  Drnovsek gave COM his latest thinking on solutions for 
Kosovo and Montenegro.  On Kosovo, he said it was important 
to move swiftly before the situation became too destabilized. 
 He thought the responsibilities of president and chief 
negotiator on status talks should be divided between Nexhat 
Daci who he thought could get support to become president and 
Hashim Thaci who could be brought constructively to the talks 
to act as chief negotiator.  Anything else, Drnovsek said, 
would be too complicated. Drnovsek expressed frustration with 
the European Union on Montenegro saying it was not really 
trying to facilitate a legitimate referendum, rather it was 
hoping to continue delaying what Drnovsek sees as inevitable. 
 He suggested that Solana should seriously consider some of 
Drnovsek's past proposals (Reftel) including a union or 
association of Serbia and Montenegro as two independent 
states. 
 
¶3. (U) President Drnovsek also related the unique and 
fascinating chance he had to be singled out by Bolivia's new 
president Evo Morales to accompany him throughout his day of 
indigenous inauguration.  According to Drnovsek - "every kid 
in Bolivia knows who I am and where Slovenia is" now. 
Finally, President Drnovsek discussed his plans for a new, 
a-political, independent movement to support his drive to 
raise Slovene interest in volunteerism and responsibility, as 
a relatively wealthy nation, to care for the welfare of the 
less fortunate, both at home and abroad. End Summary. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Awakening Slovenia's Global Perspective 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (C) President Janez Drnovsek invited COM to lunch Friday 
January 27, shortly after his return from Bolivian President 
Morales' inauguration and brief stopover in New York. 
Drnovsek has been engaged the last six months searching for 
issues on which he can have influence and a positive impact. 
Having been roundly rebuffed by the Serbs in October 2005 on 
his nine point plan for Kosovo, and finding little traction 
on Montenegro, Drnovsek has expanded his vision further 
afield. 
 
¶5. (C)  Drnovsek's approach to Darfur is three-fold.  First, 
he sees a need to address the holes that exist in the current 
humanitarian response.  Second, he sees that securing a safe 
environment is part of the key to addressing his first point 
and thirdly, Drnovsek would like to address what he sees as a 
political stalemate in the talks in Abuja.  On all of this, 
Drnovsek assured the Ambassador, he has the support of Prime 
Minister Janez Jansa who has agreed to commit resources to 
Drnovsek's activities.  Understanding the clear limitations 
of Slovenia's ability to impact the Darfur situation on its 
own, Drnovsek has set about building support in Europe and 
the U.S.  A visit to the President's website (www.up-rs.si) 
where letters are posted from Senator Hillary Clinton, 
Amnesty International activist Bianca Jagger and the 
President of Iceland among others, reveals growing support 
for his efforts. 
 
¶6. (C)  Beginning in early January 2006, Drnovsek started 
laying the domestic groundwork for his Darfur initiative.  He 
met with the larger NGOs resident in Slovenia: Karitas, 
 
LJUBLJANA 00000066  002 OF 004 
 
 
Together Foundation, Red Cross, UNICEF and others to 
determine what Slovenia could usefully do to help alleviate 
the humanitarian situation in Darfur.  The initial plan to 
establish a refugee camp in Chad to assist up to 10,000 
displaced persons may have been overly ambitious for 
Slovenia, and, perhaps not an urgent need.  During lunch 
Drnovsek suggested that Slovenia would send its mobile 
hospital to Darfur and that he had heard already from a 
number of physicians volunteering to donate time to the 
endeavor.  He did not elaborate on when the mobile hospital 
would be dispatched nor for how long it would remain on the 
ground. 
 
¶7. (C)  Drnovsek talked about his plans to visit Sudan and 
said that his trip had been postponed to February.  Recently, 
he had heard again from the Government of Sudan that it would 
like him to delay his travel until March.  This clearly 
dismayed Drnovsek who said it would be key to keeping 
momentum on Darfur for him to be able to do something in 
February.  He said he had spoken twice with former President 
Clinton about visiting Darfur, and Clinton had expressed 
interest, though the February timing would not work for him. 
COM mentioned that former President George H.W. Bush had 
teamed up with President Clinton both on the tsunami relief 
and New Orleans relief.  Drnovsek said he would like to reach 
out to former President George H.W. Bush and also to former 
Secretary of State Powell.  ( Note: Post will assist 
 
SIPDIS 
President Drnovsek in getting the correct contact 
information.) 
 
¶8. (C)  Other immediate calls to action by Drnovsek include 
urging Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi to dispatch the promised 
3000 troops to the border region between Chad and Sudan, and 
to use his good contacts with both Khartoum and the Sudanese 
rebels to play a constructive role.  Drnovsek has also called 
upon French President Jaques Chirac to bolster troop levels 
at its base in Chad and to help that government to protect 
the border between Chad and Sudan. Drnovsek believes these 
two actions could be taken quickly, more quickly certainly 
than any potential UN action.  He said the Libyan troops 
could augment African Union (AU) troops already deployed and 
French forces could be placed within the existing NATO 
operation. 
 
¶9. (C) Because he feared being put off too long on his Sudan 
visit, Drnovsek said he would be dispatching the Chief of 
Slovenia's intelligence services as his personal envoy for 
Sudan on Saturday, January 28.  Podbregar has a long 
association with Drnovsek having been his national security 
advisor when Drnovsek was Prime Minister.  He will carry a 
personal message from Drnovsek to President Bashir. 
According to Drnovsek, Bashir spent time in Slovenia during 
the Yugoslavia years and speaks some Slovenian (NFI). 
Drnovsek drew a comparison between President Bashir and 
former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, saying just as 
Milosevic had come out of Bosnia as a peacemaker and missed 
the chance to do the same on Kosovo, Bashir has improved his 
credibility with the North-South agreement, but is risking 
everything by not doing the right thing on Darfur. 
 
 
-------------------------- 
Kosovo: Separate the Power 
-------------------------- 
 
¶10. (C)  Drnovsek attended Kosovo President Rugova's funeral 
on Thursday, January 26 where he  had a chance to meet with 
Solana, Hashim Thaci and opposition leader Veton Surroi.  He 
said that Kosovo Assembly President Nexhat Daci would be 
visiting Ljubljana the week of January 30.  Drnovsek 
expressed a deep concern that too much politicking on 
succession would be destabilizing and that a good solution 
would be to split Rugova's duties by making Daci President, 
and Thaci chief negotiator.  He said Surroi was less 
supportive of this idea than Thaci since he clearly has 
designs on both jobs for himself.  Drnovsek asked if the USG 
would give this idea some serious consideration. COM pledged 
to pass it along. 
 
¶11. (C) On Montenegro, Drnovsek's firm belief in the right to 
self determination is apparent.  He is frustrated by the EU's 
approach saying it does not really want the Montenegrins to 
hold a referendum on independence and is employing a series 
of delay tactics which he suggests is partly motivated by the 
 
LJUBLJANA 00000066  003 OF 004 
 
 
desire to limit the proliferation of "small" countries in 
Europe and in the future, the European Union.  With the 
termination of the current agreement not to hold a referendum 
set to expire on February 7, Drnovsek is anxious for the EU 
to engage more seriously on resolving this question.   He 
says it should use a 40% (the Danish solution; see reftel) 
threshold for winning the referendum, because moving it any 
higher would clearly favor the opposition and moving it any 
lower would clearly favor the Government.  40% is a good 
compromise. 
 
------------------------------------ 
Expanding Slovenia's Global Identity 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶12. (U)  Just prior to lunch, President Drnovsek had held a 
press conference in which he outlined his plans for helping 
the situation in Darfur and the launch of his Movement for 
Justice and Development. When asked during a press briefing 
if this was some sort of new political movement along the 
lines of former President Kucan's Forum 21, Drnovsek replied 
negatively saying it was open to all sorts of people and was 
not meant to be a political movement. Beyond saying he wanted 
to motivate Slovenians to become more engaged in 
philanthropic activities, Drnovsek did not reveal much about 
how he hopes to pursue this goal going forward. 
 
-------------------------- 
Bolivia - Unexpected Honor 
-------------------------- 
 
¶13.  (SBU)  Drnovsek had absolutely no explanation for why 
he, a white European from a country with few ties to Latin 
America, let alone Bolivia, was plucked out of the crowd to 
accompany Evo Morales during his indigenous inaugural 
ceremonies.  Drnovsek was clearly moved by the experience and 
feels a deep connection to Bolivia and its people. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶13. (C) There has been much speculation on Drnovsek's motives 
for engagement on Darfur.  Frank discussion in an interview 
for a Croatian newspaper in early January regarding his 
serious and ongoing health concerns may offer some deeper 
context to his recent forays into high profile global issues 
such as Kosovo and Darfur.  Drnovsek is clearly not in good 
health, but when asked pointedly about his health he either 
ignores the question as he did with CNN's Finoula Sweeney, or 
he claims that his departure from conventional medical 
treatment and reliance on a positive attitude and homeopathic 
ministrations is having an extremely beneficial effect.  You 
only need witness his recent travel schedule, he says, to see 
he is not a sick man.  While advancing metastases to his 
lungs and liver may be adding urgency to Drnovsek's actions 
on Kosovo and Darfur, an awakening sense of Slovenia's global 
obligations is also evident in Drnovsek's public comments on 
everything from Kosovo to Darfur to Slovenia's commitment to 
send trainers to Iraq. 
 
¶14. (C) In the last six months, Drnovsek has clearly, and 
perhaps consciously, been making the transition from 
politician to statesman.  According to current President of 
the Liberal Democrats (LDS) and European parliamentarian, 
Jelko Kacin, Drnovsek called January 30 from a visit to 
Romania to say he was leaving the LDS once and for all.  (NB: 
Drnovsek had "frozen" his membership when he was elected 
President in 2002).  This move was also announced in a one 
line posting on his web-site.  This, claims Kacin, is further 
evidence that the President is not really himself any more. 
On the one hand, Kacin appears stung by what can only be 
interpreted as a withdrawal of support for the LDS under his 
leadership by the very popular Drnovsek. On the other hand, 
Kacin is giving voice to concerns, shared by others, that the 
President, a person in an office without significant 
resources will not be able to deliver in a concrete way, 
making his initiatives appear more or less useless, and 
damaging Slovenia's reputation at the same time.  It is no 
secret there is a serious lack of communication between the 
 
SIPDIS 
President's office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
While Drnovsek claims the full support of Prime Minister 
Jansa, it is clear that Drnovsek has not invested any time in 
clearing this with FM Rupel.  That said, the MFA has come out 
 
LJUBLJANA 00000066  004 OF 004 
 
 
to say it supports Drnovsek's Darfur initiative. 
 
¶15. (C)  Politics aside, Drnovsek is doing what we would hope 
the leader of a small, central European, new EU member 
country might do.  He is demonstrating to his own citizens 
and to Europe, the US and beyond, that a small, democratic 
country, with modest resources but a global perspective can 
have an impact on important issues.  It's possible he has bit 
off a little more than he can chew, but Drnovsek's timing is 
right, and he has struck a chord in the international 
community.  Post is working with the Department to ensure 
Drnovsek has the benefit of U.S. views on the challenges and 
way forward in Darfur.  We are working on a digital video 
conference between Africa Bureau principals and President 
Drnovsek for February 1.  We will also include, on the 
Slovenian side, representation from the MFA. 
ROBERTSON