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DE RUEHPS #0352/01 1161308
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 261308Z APR 06
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6050
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0663
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHFMIUU/AFSOUTH NAPLES IT
RHMFIUU/CDR TF FALCON
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEPGEA/CDR650THMIGP SHAPE BE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUFOANA/USNIC PRISTINA SR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 PRISTINA 000352 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE 
NSC FOR BRAUN 
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KDEM PGOV PINR PREL SOCI YI UNMIK
SUBJECT: KOSOVO PRESIDENT SEJDIU CONTINUES MINORITY 
OUTREACH AT DECANI MONASTERY 
 
REF: PRISTINA 285 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, PROTECT ACCORDINGLY 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY.  On the first ever visit by a Kosovo 
President to Decani Monastery, President Fatmir Sejdiu toured 
the grounds and church on Orthodox Easter Sunday, and then 
discussed the protection of Kosovo's Serbian Orthodox 
heritage sites with Bishop Teodosije in Serbian.  Other 
visitors included the SRSG, COMKFOR, Charg and other Serb, 
Albanian and international representatives.  END SUMMARY. 
 
SEJDIU AND TEODOSIJE DISCUSS CULTURAL HERITAGE 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶2. (SBU) On April 23 Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu visited 
Visoki Decani Monastery in western Kosovo to participate in 
Serbian Orthodox Easter celebrations.  The 14th century 
monastery was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004, 
and remains the only UNESCO site in Kosovo.  The legal status 
and protection of Orthodox sacred sites will be addressed as 
part of the ongoing Kosovo status negotiations. (NOTE. 
During his mid-April visit to Kosovo, Ambassador Frank 
Wisner, the Secretary's Special Representative for Kosovo 
Final Status Talks, specifically suggested to Teodosije that 
he invite President Sejdiu to Decani for Orthodox Easter. 
END NOTE.). 
 
¶3. (SBU) After touring the monastery's church, Sejdiu 
participated in a reception hosted by Bishop Teodosije 
Sibalic of Lipljan and Father Sava Janjic.  Other 
participants included SRSG Soren Jessen-Petersen, COMKFOR 
Giuseppe Vallotto, Sejdiu's advisor Skender Hyseni, mayor of 
Decan municipality Nazmi Selmanaj, Serb List for Kosovo and 
Metohija (SLKM) leaders Oliver Ivanovic and Randjel Nojkic, 
representatives from the German, Russian and Italian liaison 
offices, as well as Charg, PolOff and PolFSN.  During the 
meeting President Sejdiu and Bishop Teodosije discussed (in 
Serbian) the importance of protecting Kosovo's cultural 
heritage, and agreed that the monastery is an important part 
of that heritage.  Teodosije thanked KFOR and Selmanaj for 
their assistance in protecting the monastery. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Teodosije praised the preliminary work of the 
Reconstruction Implementation Commission (RIC) for Orthodox 
Religious Sites, and urged faster action on further 
reconstruction of sacred sites damaged in March 2004 riots. 
He presented Sejdiu with a Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) 
report entitled "Crucified Kosovo," detailing church 
destruction in Kosovo since the arrival of NATO troops in 
¶1999.  The report includes pictures showing churches before 
and after they were damaged.  (NOTE.  According to the RIC, 
the first phase of debris clearing from 30 Orthodox sites 
damaged in March 2004 was completed in December 2005.  The 
RIC was established per a memorandum of understanding signed 
between the PISG and the Serbian Orthodox Church in March 
¶2005. END NOTE.) Teodosije also gave Sejdiu a book of 
photographs chronicling monastic life at Decani, entitled 
"Keepers of the Shrine." 
 
VISITORS TOAST TO PEACE, GOODWILL AND RECONCILIATION 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) After delivering messages of peace, goodwill and 
reconciliation over toasts of rakija (plum brandy) 
home-brewed by the Decani monks, Sejdiu and the others signed 
the monastery's guest book.  Afterwards the monks distributed 
red-dyed, hard-boiled traditional Serbian Orthodox Easter 
eggs to the guests, who, in accordance with Serbian 
tradition, proceeded to crack them against one anothers eggs 
to see whose was the "strongest."  The reception was followed 
by a banquet attended by Returns Minister Slavisa Petkovic, 
along with other international and local guests, including 
KFOR soldiers. 
 
 
PRISTINA 00000352  002 OF 004 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) During the reception, Ivanovic told PolOff that the 
SLKM intends to return to the Provisional Institutions of 
Self Government (PISG).  He has been saying the same thing 
publicly and privately for months, but this time added that 
their current strategy is to return immediately prior to the 
SRSG's report to the UN on standards implementation, due on 
May 30.  He said he didn't want to return too soon, thereby 
giving the SRSG "too much credit" for their return.  In a 
press statement after the event, Ivanovic praised Sejdiu's 
visit to the monastery, saying that "actions speak more than 
words." 
 
¶7. (SBU) On the road to the monastery, both tri-lingual 
(Albanian, Serbian and English) road signs for the monastery 
were in place on Easter Sunday.  Bishop Teodosije and Father 
Sava have complained for months that the signs are often 
vandalized and removed.  Teodosije also complained to the COM 
in early April about a large red banner for the Albanian 
nationalist party Balli Kombetar, which remained clearly 
visible on the road to the monastery on Easter. 
 
SEJDIU'S ONGOING EFFORT TO REACH OUT TO MINORITIES 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Sejdiu's visit to Decani Monastery is part of his 
ongoing campaign to reach out to Kosovo's Serbs and other 
minority communities, which has met with a mixed response 
from Kosovo Serbs.  In March he had productive meetings with 
minorities in Dragas/Dragash and Orahovac/Rahovec 
municipalities (reftel).  However, local residents and 
members of the municipal assembly boycotted his April 20 town 
hall meeting in the Serb-majority municipality of Strpce in 
southern Kosovo.  Strpce mayor Stanko Jakovljevic attended 
the beginning of the meeting, but then left after announcing 
he was going to try to convince members of the municipal 
assembly to participate.  He never returned.  Sejdiu has made 
several press statements saying he will continue to visit 
minority communities. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) In recent days, billboards have gone up around 
Kosovo sponsored by the ministry of culture urging citizens 
in Albanian, Serbian and English to protect Kosovo's cultural 
heritage, saying "Protect it - It's Yours!"  The billboards 
show photographs of Kosovo's main cultural heritage sites and 
objects, including Gracanica and Decani monasteries, 
alongside the mosques and bridges of Prizren, and the 16th 
century bridge in Vushtri/Vucitern. 
 
CEKU'S OVERTURE REBUFFED BY BISHOP ARTEMIJE 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU)  While Sejdiu's request to visit Decani was 
embraced by the moderate Teodosije, Prime Minister Ceku's 
request to visit Gracanica monastery on Orthodox Easter was 
denied by hard-line Bishop Artemije, Head of the Raska and 
Prizren diocese.  Artemije led Easter services at Gracanica, 
and there was a constant trickle of visitors to the monastery 
throughout the day.  In an April 19 letter to the office of 
prime minister, Artemije said he was not in a position to 
accept such a request until he and other internally displaced 
Serbs can return to their residences.  Artemije has lived in 
Gracanica since 1999 due to security concerns-- his official 
Episcopal residence in Prizren municipality was burned during 
the March 2004 riots.  (NOTE.  Kosovo media reported that 
Ceku instead participated in ceremonies to donate two 
tractors to two Serb villages in Peja/Pec municipality.  END 
NOTE.) 
 
TEODISJE PLANS FURTHER OUTREACH 
------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) Bishop Teodosije and Father Sava have long talked 
of a need for greater interaction and confidence-building 
between Serb and Albanian communities in Kosovo.  On several 
occasions Teodosije has expressed a hope to the COM that the 
 
PRISTINA 00000352  003 OF 004 
 
 
new Kosovo government will do more to reach out to Kosovo 
Serbs and show them there is a place for them in Kosovo.  He 
and the COM also discussed the possibility of organizing an 
outreach event at a public school in the town of Decan with 
the local mayor and citizens, as a way of starting to rebuild 
the positive relationship the monastery had with the local 
Albanian community before the war.  The COM agreed to 
participate in the event, to be held sometime after Easter. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Decani Monastery representatives are also 
organizing an interfaith conference, to be held at the Pec 
Patriarchate on May 2-3.  Father Sava told PolFSN on April 25 
that invitees will include religious and international 
representatives, Kosovo and Serbian ministry representatives 
who work on the protection of cultural heritage, and the 
mayors of Pec/Peja and Decan municipalities. 
 
MONASTERY PROTECTION ZONE RENEWED 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶13. (SBU) UNMIK announced on April 26 that the SRSG has 
signed an executive order extending the Special Zoning Area 
(SZA) around Decani Monastery for an unspecified period.  The 
SZA was established by executive order on April 25, 2005. 
The original order banned construction, commercial activity, 
and natural resource exploitation on 800 hectares of public 
and private lands in the Bistrica River Canyon near the 
monastery for a six-month renewable period; and was renewed 
in October 2005.  In an April 26, 2006 press release the SRSG 
underlined that the SZA "does not affect private ownership 
rights but makes clear to potential investors, owners and 
users of all land in the area must follow Kosovo laws and 
UNESCO and other international standards for the preservation 
of cultural and natural heritage." 
 
¶14. (SBU) On April 24 the media reported that Vetevendosja 
("Self determination") activists dumped a wagon-load of hay 
in front of the UNMIK headquarters in Pristina, claiming 
that, due to the restrictions in the special zoning area, 
property owners there cannot make full commercial use of 
their lands, and are only allowed to mow grass.  In the 
preceding weeks there were several small demonstrations in 
the town of Decan against the renewal of the zone. However, 
Luis Perez-Segnini, UNMIK,s representative in Decan 
municipality, told PolFSN that leaders of the demonstrators, 
including Vetevendosja founder Albin Kurti, had each 
expressly called for demonstrators to take special care to 
avoid confrontation with the monastery's monks and to instead 
focus energies on UNMIK. (NOTE.  Reacting to USOP concerns 
about the planned demonstrations, Kurti had promised E/P 
Chief during an April 10 meeting to make clear the monastery 
was not the target of their protest actions.  END NOTE.). 
 
 
LOCAL SERBS CELEBRATE DESPITE ONGOING UNCERTAINTY 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶15. (SBU) PolOff also participated in a private family 
gathering at the home of a Serb elementary school teacher in 
an enclave outside Gracanica.  Relatives who were displaced 
to Serbia during the conflict, including a grandmother 
suffering from cancer now living in Vojvodina and cousins 
living in Smederevo in central Serbia, had returned to 
celebrate Orthodox Easter with their family.  The teacher 
told PolOff she was especially concerned about recent reports 
in the media that UNHCR is developing contingency plans in 
case large numbers of Kosovo Serbs (up to 40,000 according to 
press reports) decide to leave Kosovo in the case of 
independence. 
 
¶16. (SBU) She said she does not want to leave Kosovo, because 
she and her husband (a professor at the university in north 
Mitrovica) have good jobs here.  (NOTE.  She was not affected 
by the recent directive from the Kosovo Coordination Center 
forcing Kosovo Serb teachers to choose between Pristina and 
 
PRISTINA 00000352  004 OF 004 
 
 
Belgrade salaries, because, as a part-time teacher, she only 
receives a salary from Belgrade.  END NOTE).  However, she 
said they waiting to see what will happen.  She said Kosovo 
Serbs are unwilling to make any investments or improvements, 
even something so simple as "painting a wall," for fear that 
it will be a lost effort if they leave Kosovo in the coming 
months.  She herself has an empty apartment standing ready in 
Belgrade, purchased with assistance from relatives living in 
western Europe. 
 
¶17. (SBU) COMMENT.  President Sejdiu's visit to Decani 
Monastery on Orthodox Easter was a success, and very well 
received.  It is exactly the type of concrete, high-level 
outreach that builds confidence and sets an example for 
Kosovo citizens that interactions with minority communities 
can be positive and constructive.  The billboards are further 
evidence the Kosovo government is taking its obligation to 
protect Kosovo's cultural heritage seriously.  Now the 
challenge is to convince the citizens of Kosovo to do the 
same, and to incorporate functional mechanisms for lasting 
legal protections into the final status agreements, with 
special provisions for Orthodox sites.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶18.  (U)  Post clears this message in its entirety for 
release to Special Envoy Ahtisaari. 
GOLDBERG