VZCZCXRO5206
OO RUEHAST
DE RUEHPS #0532/01 1711740
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 201740Z JUN 06
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6230
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0736
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 000532 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE, AND EUR/SSA, NSC FOR BRAUN, 
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM PREF UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: SALI BERISHA TELLS KOSOVO ALBANIANS TO RECONCILE 
WITH SERBS 
 
 
PRISTINA 00000532  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Sensitive, But Unclassified, Please Protect Accordingly. 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  During an emotional June 15-17 visit to 
Kosovo, Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha reiterated his 
support for Kosovo's independence, voiced his confidence in 
Kosovo's current leadership and asked Kosovo Albanians to 
reconcile with Serbs.  He also attempted to mend fences with 
Kosovo opposition party leaders.  In a meeting with Contact 
Group (CG) representatives, Berisha welcomed the CG's 
insistence that existing borders not be disturbed and 
commented that Belgrade's decentralization proposals look 
like a prelude to partition.  Berisha's visit was well 
orchestrated and he was warmly received everywhere he went, 
especially in cities near his native town of Tropje, on 
Albania's border with Kosovo.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U) Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha made only his 
second ever official visit to Kosovo June 15-17.  His 
previous visit was to attend the January 2006 funeral of 
Kosovo's late president Ibrahim Rugova.   Berisha started his 
three-day visit by paying homage to Rugova, his longtime ally 
and friend.  He referred to Rugova as "the founder of the 
free, European and independent Kosovo" and a "great man of 
the nation."  His first day included meetings with various 
Kosovo government and international officials as well as 
speeches before the Kosovo Assembly and the municipal 
assembly of the city of Pristina, which made him an honorary 
resident.  After his meetings with Kosovo government 
officials (including President Fatmir Sejdiu, Prime Minister 
Agim Ceku and Kosovo Assembly president Kole Berisha), 
Berisha said he and his government support Kosovo's 
independence and guarantees for the rights of Kosovo's 
minorities.  He also expressed faith in the capacity of 
Kosovo's current leadership to achieve independence. 
 
¶3. (U) In a speech at the Kosovo Assembly and in public 
appearances elsewhere, Berisha's key message to Kosovo 
Albanians was to forgive and reconcile with the Serbs.  He 
told the Assembly in a televised address that "societal 
reconciliation in Kosovo is in the vital national interest" 
of the Albanian nation and added that the attitude of 
Kosovo's Albanians towards its Serb minority is of great 
importance for relations between Serbs and Albanians 
throughout the Balkans.  He said that forgiving does not mean 
forgetting, and stressed that reconciliation was the noblest 
way to honor the memory of loved ones lost in the conflict. 
On the second day of his visit he addressed the Fushe 
Kosove/Kosovo Polje municipal assembly and other community 
representatives in the same building in which Slobodan 
Milosevic made his famous 1987 speech assuring assembled 
Serbs that ethnic Albanians "would not beat them" any longer. 
 Afterwards Berisha visited a local Serb orthodox church 
damaged in the March 2004 ethnic riots and promised to 
provide funds and technical assistance for its renovation. 
 
¶4. (SBU) In addition to meeting with Kosovo government 
leaders and UNMIK chief Soren Jessen-Petersen, Berisha asked 
to meet with heads of liaison missions from Contact Group 
(CG) countries.  He told local CG representatives he had 
advised Kosovo government leaders not to worry about the 
creation of "homogeneous communes,"  citing with approval the 
experience of Macedonia's mono-ethnic municipalities. 
Berisha also said that the Albanian government is very happy 
with the CG's principle of no changes in Kosovo's current 
borders.  He noted that Belgrade's decentralization proposals 
look like a plan for partition.  He added that Kosovo's 
independence will remove the necessity for Serbia to keep a 
large army and allow Serbia to demilitarize.  Berisha 
believes a newly independent Montenegro should become a 
magnet for international assistance and that will help both 
Albania and Kosovo because most aid projects will be regional 
in nature.  Berisha concluded by telling CG representatives 
he thought he could be helpful on such issues as 
decentralization, returns and human rights. 
 
¶5. (U) During his visit Berisha also reached out to parties 
 
PRISTINA 00000532  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
that grew out of the Kosovo Liberation Army, including Hashim 
Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and Ramush 
Haradinaj's Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK).  Berisha 
visited the memorial to the Jashari family in the village of 
Prekaz, and walked with Thaci through downtown Pristina to 
PDK party headquarters.  He also had a cordial meeting with 
Haradinaj and the entire AAK presidency.  (NOTE: Berisha has 
always been viewed as close to Rugova and his Democratic 
League of Kosovo party, and the PDK and AAK have 
traditionally had closer relations with Albanian socialist 
parties.  END NOTE.). 
 
¶6. (U) Berisha's visit turned emotional while he toured 
municipalities in western Kosovo that border on his own 
hometown of Tropje across the border in Albania.  In Prizren, 
Gjakova and Peja thousands took to the streets, greeting him 
with cheers and performing Albanian folk dances in his honor. 
 During his brief stop in Gjakova, Berisha allowed that this 
was the most eagerly awaited day of his life because as a 
child growing up across the border 20 kilometers away in 
Albania, he had often tried to discern the city from the 
vantage of the Gjakova mountains that continue across the 
border into Albania.  (NOTE:  In June 2000, UNMIK refused to 
permit Berisha, then the controversial leader of the Albanian 
opposition, to enter Kosovo at the border crossing near 
Prizren on the grounds that his visit could be detrimental to 
the fragile security situation in Kosovo at the time. 
Berisha returned to the town of Kukes in Albania without 
reaching Kosovo.  END NOTE). 
 
¶7. (SBU) COMMENT:  Berisha was welcomed in Kosovo as a 
leading ethnic Albanian politician, and his visit elicited 
feelings of genuine kinship from Kosovo Albanians.  As a 
native of Albania's north, Berisha's nationalist politics and 
Albanian language are easily identifiable to Kosovars.  For 
his part, Berisha said all the right things for Kosovars and 
internationals alike during the visit.  The outpouring of 
broad-based public support for him is an indication that 
Albanian politics still transcends borders.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶8. (U) U.S. Office Pristina clears this cable for release in 
its entirety to U.N. Special Envoy for Kosovo Martti 
Ahtisaari. 
GOLDBERG