VZCZCXRO3730
OO RUEHAST
DE RUEHPS #0653/01 2201204
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 081204Z AUG 06
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6367
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0795
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 000653 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL, INL, AND EUR/SCE, NSC FOR BRAUN, USUN FOR 
DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF PGOV PREL UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: SERB RELUCTANCE TO RETURN TO SVINJARE 
LINKED TO SECURITY, NOT PACE OF REBUILDING 
 
 
PRISTINA 00000653  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Sensitive But Unclassified; Please Protect Accordingly. 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  The return of Serbs to the village of 
Svinjare is more complex than the rebuilding of houses 
destroyed and damaged by ethnic Albanians in the riots of 
March 2004.  The rebuilding/repair effort is underway, though 
according to the UNMIK office that advises the Kosovo 
Protection Corps (KPC), even in the best-case scenario it 
will only be 80 percent complete by the onset of winter. 
Rather, issues of mutual mistrust continue to hamper the 
resettlement effort.  On the one hand, whether Serbs want to 
resume living side-by-side with Albanians remains an open 
question.  On the other hand, local Albanians make it clear 
they would prefer that their former Serb neighbors simply 
stayed away.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) The U.K. Liaison Office in Pristina organized a 
Contact Group (CG) visit to the village of Svinjare, which is 
on the south side  of the Ibar River a few kilometers from 
Mitrovica.  Over 100 Serb-owned houses were damaged and 
destroyed in the March 2004 violence, and the return of Serb 
residents has become an important test case for 
inter-communal relations.  On August 3 local CG 
representatives plus media, Kosovo Police Service (KPS), 
Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) and UNMIK's Office of the KPC 
Coordinator arranged a joint visit to the village.  The 
Provisional Institutions of Self Government (PISG) has 
designated the KPC as being responsible for the repairs, and 
their activity is being supervised by UNMIK's Office of the 
KPC Coordinator.  DPO represented USOP. 
 
The Facts on the Ground 
----------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) The UNMIK briefer told the assembled CG 
representatives that, prior to 1999, there were 113 Serb 
houses in Svinjare  Currently, only three Serb houses are 
occupied full time.  There are now 66 Albanian families in 
the village, and there have been seven known cases of Serbs 
selling their homes to Albanians. 
 
¶4. (SBU) According to UNMIK, a total of 84 Serb properties 
currently need some form of work, ranging from minor repairs 
to complete renovations.  The KPC is currently working on 
five of them, with 79 awaiting the tendering process.  To 
finish 80 percent of the work prior to the onset of winter, 
UNMIK will have to agree to an expedited tendering process. 
 
¶5. (SBU) An elderly Serb woman and a well-know and colorful 
Serb villager -- surrounded by a gaggle of 50 diplomats, 
reporters, security personnel and onlookers -- reported that 
they had moved back into their homes and were experiencing no 
difficulties with their Albanian neighbors.  Unlike the rest 
of the Serbs with whom we subsequently met, they both live 
full-time in their homes.  (NOTE: Others come in on the 
morning train from the nearby municipality of Zvecan, and 
return in the afternoon.  END NOTE.).  The mayor of Zvecan 
has reportedly encouraged Serb returns to Svinjare but the 
same cannot be said of other, more hard-line Serb leaders, 
including those from Belgrade's Coordination Center for 
Kosovo and Metohija. 
 
Serb and Albanian Presentations 
------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) The Russian Head of Mission asked that the Serbs be 
allowed to speak to the Contact Group separately from the 
Albanians.  After the Albanians -- with the notable exception 
of KPC General Rama Rraman and his Chief of Staff -- were 
ushered out, Serbian community spokesman Milorad Radivojevic 
said that only four out of 580 Serbs originally from Svinjare 
are satisfied with security conditions.  Referring to 
previous work on damaged houses, he said that 97 percent of 
his neighbors are dissatisfied with the quality of the work 
performed; he cited poor windows and doors, as well as roof 
beams lacking adequate reinforcement. (NOTE: Although we have 
no basis to make a judgment on the quality of the 
 
PRISTINA 00000653  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
reconstructed housing, it looks quite solid as is; 
comparatively speaking, it is better that some we have seen 
in other locations.  END NOTE).  Radivojevic added that 
deserted houses awaiting completion have been repeatedly 
looted and vandalized. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Another Serb provided a long list of foreign 
dignitaries who had visited Svinjare since the destruction of 
Serb houses; he also went over the KFOR and UNMIK deployments 
in the area.  He summed up by saying "none of you can protect 
us, not the world's most powerful military alliance, not the 
United Nations. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Albanian community spokesman Rrahman Hasani said he 
would welcome the return of his former Serb neighbors, but 
added that the village infrastructure was in dire need of 
repair, particularly its sewage system.  (NOTE: In a brief 
conversation with us, Hasani said that the Serbs did not want 
to come back, strongly implying that this was fine with him. 
The KFOR liaison to the KPC in Svinjare told COM during a 
previous visit there that KPC Commander Rrama had take it 
upon himself to visit the Albanian households in the vicinity 
in order to ward off potential trouble.  END NOTE.) 
 
¶9.  (SBU) The meeting degenerated into an argument when UK 
Liaison Office head David Blunt invited the two communities 
to speak to each other in our presence.  A Serb said that all 
had been well in the village before the UN arrived to plant 
the seeds of discord between the communities.  An Albanian 
villager launched into an angry recitation of genocidal 
crimes against his brethren, and the mutual recriminations 
continued until brought to a close by the CG representatives. 
 
¶10. (SBU) COMMENT: Svinjare's issues cannot yet be solved via 
a construction project.  While the rebuilding of homes and 
outbuildings continues, mutual mistrust remains a significant 
stumbling block to completing this one of the Contact Group 
15 priority items for standards implementation.  One set of 
neighbors burned another set out of their homes.  The 
institutions of Kosovo neither prevented nor halted the 
assault, nor have they brought all the perpetrators to 
justice. At the same time, it is by no means clear that the 
Serbs of Svinjare would want or even be allowed to accept 
"yes" for an answer by their political masters.  We will 
continue to follow events in the community and report on 
progress there. 
 
¶11. (U) U.S. Office Pristina clears this cable for release in 
its entirety to U.N. Special Envoy for Kosovo Martti 
Ahtisaari. 
KAIDANOW