VZCZCXRO9725
OO RUEHAST
DE RUEHPS #0484/01 1571638
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 061638Z JUN 06
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6186
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0713
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 02 PRISTINA 000484 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE 
NSC FOR BRAUN 
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KCRM PGOV PINR KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO SERB HARDLINERS CALL FOR SELF DEFENSE 
 
 
PRISTINA 00000484  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, PROTECT ACCORDINGLY 
 
¶1.   (SBU) SUMMARY.  According to the OSCE, 500-700 people 
participated in a June 5 demonstration in Zvecan against 
recent acts of violence against Kosovo Serbs.  Local leaders 
announced a resolution by the Zvecan municipal assembly to 
end contact with the Kosovo government until the crimes are 
solved and the security situation has improved.  (NOTE. 
Interactions between the northern Kosovo Serbs and the 
Pristina government are extremely limited in any event.  END 
NOTE.)  UNMIK officials went to Zvecan and promised to 
increase security in northern Kosovo by bringing in 
additional Kosovo Serb police officers and international 
Civil Police.  They also offered to bring undercover Serbian 
police officers already operating illegally in northern 
Kosovo into the Kosovo Police Service.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Head of OSCE Mitrovica Region Alastair Livingston 
told PolOff on June 6 that 500-700 people participated in a 
peaceful, half-hour demonstration on June 5 in Zvecan over 
three recent attacks on Serbs in that municipality.  On June 
1 Kosovo Serb Miljan Veskovic was shot and killed while 
driving on the road between Zvecan and Zitkovc; on May 11 two 
Kosovo Serbs were shot and injured at a gas station near 
Grabovac; and on May 6 a vehicle being driven by a Serb 
Orthodox priest was shot at near the village of Rudare. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Mitrovica regional Kosovo Coordination Center (CCK) 
representative Momir Kasalovic spoke at the demonstration, 
along with the mayors of the three northern Serb-majority 
municipalities (Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok). 
Kasalovic told PolFSN on June 6 that the three mayors issued 
a joint statement announcing an immediate end to all contacts 
with the Kosovo Provisional Institutions of Self Government 
(PISG) until the perpetrators of these and other crimes are 
found and brought to justice. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Speakers at the demonstration announced resolutions 
made during a June 2 extraordinary session of the Zvecan 
municipal assembly (MA).  According to an internal OSCE 
document, the MA resolved that the recent attacks were 
"terrorist acts" planned to intimidate Serbs and make them 
flee, "thus finalizing the seven-year ethnic cleansing of 
Serbs in Kosovo."  According to the OSCE document, the MA 
said UNSC resolution 1244 allows for the return of "several 
hundred" Serbian police officers to Kosovo, demands that the 
provision be fully implemented, and says that if this does 
not happen, then the MA will put up vacancy notices for 999 
police officers, to be paid for by the Serbian government. 
(NOTE.  Annex 2 to 1244 stipulates that, "an agreed number of 
Yugoslav and Serbian personnel will be permitted to return" 
to fulfill some specified functions such as clearing 
minefields and "maintaining a presence" at patrimonial sites. 
 END NOTE.)  According to the OSCE, the MA authorized a 
committee for emergency situations to organize for the 
"self-defense" of Zvecan, demands that the Serbian Ministry 
of Interior (MUP) participate in all criminal investigations 
in Kosovo, and urges other Serb-majority municipalities in 
northern Kosovo and the Mitrovica advisory board to take 
similar measures. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Livingston said that after the demonstration UNMIK 
PDSRSG Steve Schook, Kosovo Police Service (KPS) Commissioner 
Kai Vittrup and UNMIK Department of Justice head Al Moskowitz 
met with Zvecan leaders in a previously scheduled meeting to 
discuss the security situation in the north.  Livingston said 
they agreed to increase security by deploying additional 
Kosovo Serb KPS officers to the north.  Livingston said 
Zvecan currently only has two KPS police cars, and Schook and 
Vittrup agreed to provide more vehicles.  Livingston said 
they also agreed to send in up to 500 additional UN 
international civil police (CivPol) officers.  Livingston 
said they reiterated the promise they made two months ago, to 
provide accelerated KPS training for Serbian MUP officers 
currently illegally operating in plain-clothes north of the 
Ibar River, who can be trained and re-badged as KPS officers. 
 
PRISTINA 00000484  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
 In a press statement after the meeting, Schook asked for the 
support of Municipal presidents to identify former Kosovo 
Serbian policemen who could join the KPS.  Livingston said 
Schook and Vittrup also told local leaders that they had 
reason to believe at least two of the recent attacks (against 
the priest and at the gas station) were committed by Serbs. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Downplaying statements made at the demonstration, 
moderate Kosovo Serb leader and north Mitrovica resident 
Oliver Ivanovic told PolOff on June 6 that the speakers are 
not influential and have no backing from the Belgrade 
government or the CCK.  Ivanovic said Kasalovic cited 
E.O.-listed Mitrovica hard-liner Marko Jaksic (not CCK 
leaders in Belgrade) as the source for his statements, and 
Jaksic later clarified in a June 6 press statement that he 
wants a breaking of ties with the PISG, not with UNMIK. 
UNMIK Mitrovica regional representative Jerry Gallucci also 
played down the impact of the statements made by the northern 
hard-liners. 
 
¶7. (SBU) COMMENT.  Kosovo Serbs in the north are frustrated 
by what they perceive as a deteriorating security situation. 
The fact that perpetrators are seldom caught allows northern 
radicals to label the crimes ethnically motivated, even 
though UN police say there is no evidence to indicate an 
ethnic motive behind crimes that have occurred in the 
Serb-controlled north.  The current situation provides an 
opportunity for UNMIK and the KPS to fortify their presence 
in the north, which they should do anyway in advance of a 
status resolution, and to be seen to be doing so at the 
request of and in cooperation with local leaders.  It also 
gives added impetus to their many attempts to bring MUP 
officers out of the shadows and into the KPS - a first step 
towards legitimizing one of Kosovo's many parallel 
institutions.  We do not know how much Belgrade supports the 
initiatives announced at the demonstration, but we do know 
that Kasalovic has gone to Belgrade today for 
"consultations."   END COMMENT. 
 
¶8.  (U)  Post clears this message in its entirety for release 
to Special Envoy Ahtisaari. 
GOLDBERG