VZCZCXRO5774
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHVJ #0319/01 0440905
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 130905Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY SARAJEVO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5439
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JCS WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUFOAOA/USNIC SARAJEVO PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 SARAJEVO 000319 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
EUR FOR DICARLO, EUR/SCE FOR HOH, FOOKS AND STINCHCOMB, NSC 
FOR BRAUN, JCS FOR FLORY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV BK
SUBJECT: BOSNIA:  THE NEW COUNCIL OF MINISTERS 
 
REF: SARAJEVO 0063 
 
¶1.  (U)  Following is biographic information on the new BiH 
Council of Ministers, confirmed by the BiH House of 
Representatives on February 9.  Details of the parliamentary 
session will be reported septel. 
 
 
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS 
SVEN ALKALAJ (Sven AL-ka-lye), SBiH 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Born November 11, 1948 in Sarajevo, Alkalaj 
graduated from the Sarajevo Faculty of Mechanics in 1974 and 
obtained his Master's degree in 1987 from Sarajevo University 
with a specialization in International Relations and 
Economics.  In 1999, he earned a PhD in Corporate Finance via 
the Executive Development Program at Harvard Business School. 
 Alkalaj began his career as a commercial manager for the 
Petroinvest company in 1975.  In 1985, he was appointed 
regional manager for the Middle and Far East for 
Energoinvest, at that time the biggest company in South-East 
Europe.  From 1988-94 he was Managing Director of 
Energioinvest in Thailand. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Alkalaj probably would have remained a successful 
businessman if he had not met Haris Silajdzic.  Silajdzic 
persuaded Alkalaj to join the fledgling Bosnian Government in 
1994 and appointed him Ambassador to the U.S.  In 1994, 
Alkalaj took up his first diplomatic posting as Bosnian 
Ambassador to the Unites States.  He remained in that 
position until 2000, when he became the Bosnian Ambassador to 
the Organization of American States.  In February 2004, he 
was appointed Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium and Head 
of the Bosnian Mission to NATO. Over the past ten years, 
Alkalaj has proved himself a skilled diplomat.  For many 
years he was the only Jew in the Bosnian MFA. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) During his tenure as Ambassador in Washington, 
Alkalaj established excellent relations with many members of 
Congress and Senators, especially Joe Lieberman, Carl Levin 
and Joseph Biden, with whom he has maintained personal 
friendships.  He is married with two children. 
 
MINISTER OF DEFENSE 
SELMO CIKOTIC (SELL-mow TSEE-ko-tich), SDA 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶5.  (SBU) NOTE:  Although confirmed by the HoR Feburary 9, 
Cikotic will not assume his duties as defense minister until 
April 22, 2007, because of a regulation that three years must 
elapse from his retirement from active military duty before 
he can take up a civilian position in the MoD.  END NOTE. 
General Selmo Cikotic (ret.) was born January 25, 1964 in 
Ivangrad, Montenegro.  He began his military career in the 
former JNA (Yugoslav National Army), graduating from the 
military academy with a specialization in artillery in Zadar 
(Croatia) in 1986.  Cikotic completed English language 
training while in the JNA and obtained a master's degree in 
defense and security studies from Sarajevo University in 
¶2005. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992 
-1995) Cikotic served in the BiH Army in several capacities: 
In 1992 he was the commanding officer of BiH Army units in 
Sarajevo, and worked as the BiH Army Joint Command Liaison 
Officer to UNPROFOR in Sarajevo.  At the end of 1992, he 
transferred to the BiH Army 3rd Corps in Zenica, where he 
worked in the Corps headquarters.  From March 1993 until 
April 1994 he was Commander of Tactical Group West.   From 
April 1994 until December 1994, Cikotic was Deputy Commander 
of the BiH Army 7th Corps, stationed in Travnik.  He was 
promoted to the rank of brigadier general on September 22, 
¶1994.  Following his promotion, Cikotic served as the 
military attache at the Bosnian Embassy in Washington until 
June 1997. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Upon his return to Sarajevo in 1997, Cikotic was 
appointed Federation Army Chief of Department for training, 
education, doctrine and practice.  He remained in that 
position until January 1999.  From January 1999 until April 
2000, Cikotic was Chief of Cabinet for the Deputy Minister of 
Defense in the Federation, after which he served as Deputy 
Commander of the 1st Corps of the Federation Army. 
 
 
SARAJEVO 00000319  002 OF 005 
 
 
¶8.  (SBU) In 2004, Cikotic was selected as a candidate for 
the position of Commander of BiH Army Joint Command (Chairman 
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff).  At the time, allegations that 
Cikotic had participated in war crimes in Bugojno led SFOR to 
prevent his appointment, and Cikotic was forced to retire 
from active duty.  In 2005, following an investigation into 
the war crimes allegations, both ICTY and NATO cleared 
Cikotic.  ICTY and NATO stated that there was no evidence 
that Cikotic was involved in the commission of war crimes and 
ICTY confirmed there was no further ICTY investigation into 
his wartime actions.  As a result, the then-NATO Commander in 
BiH, General Steven Schook, officially rehabilitated Cikotic 
and apologized for having removed him from office.  Cikotic 
is married with two children.  He speaks excellent English, 
and has a basic knowledge of Russian.  His hobbies are 
shooting, swimming, skiing and reading. 
 
MINISTER OF CIVIL AFFAIRS 
SREDOJE NOVIC (SRE-doe-yay NO-vich), SNSD 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Born February 14, 1947 in Donji Detlak, Derventa 
Municipality (Republika Srpska), Novic is a lawyer by 
profession, with a master,s degree.  This pre-war resident 
of Sarajevo now lives in Banja Luka.  Novic is married with 
two grown children.  One of his daughters allegedly works for 
the Serbian intelligence service. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) From October 2002 until his confirmation as 
minister, Novic served as Director of the State Protection 
and Investigation Agency (SIPA), although his reappointment 
to that position in May 2005 was controversial.  While many 
had hoped Novic would use his substantial security sector 
experience to get SIPA up and running quickly and 
effectively, his overall performance was disappointing. 
There were external bureaucratic delays in filling SIPA,s 
ranks, but rumors have circulated that Novic,s political 
backers were not interested in a strong SIPA, which would 
reduce the power of the Republika Srpska police. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Previously, Novic worked as lawyer in Banja Luka 
(June 2001-October 2002), as Minister of the RS Ministry of 
Interior (November 1998-January 2001), as head of the RS 
Intelligence Service (January-November 1998), and as 
commercial director in Unis-Adria Banja Luka, a private food 
production and sales company (1992-1996).  During the same 
period (1992-1996) he worked as a lecturer at the Criminal 
Law and Criminal Sciences School for Internal Affairs of 
Republika Srpska in Banja Luka. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Before the war, Novic was head of intelligence in 
the former Yugoslav Republic of BiH.  At that time this 
function was called "Under Secretary of the Republic of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina State Security Service."  He served in 
that position from 1988 to 1991.  He retired officially in 
1991, when he refused to join the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) 
and support their activities that led to the outbreak of war 
in 1992.  He did move to Banja Luka, but did not participate 
in wartime atrocities committed by Serb security forces.  His 
professional future did not look bright after the war as a 
result.  However, Novic re-emerged after Biljana Plavsic 
became RS president and Milorad Dodik RS PM and Novic was 
named RS Minister of Interior. 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Novic's mandate as RS Minister of Interior ended 
when Mladen Ivanic was elected RS Prime Minister in 2000. 
However, Novic was appointed head of SIPA over the objections 
of Serb member of the BiH Presidency at the time, Zivko 
Radicic, who was swayed by allegations by the RS Chief 
Auditor that Novic had embezzled 3 million KM in connection 
with the construction of the building that houses the RS 
Ministry of Interior.  The case was never brought to trial. 
The former director of the RS Tax Administration (a close 
Ivanic associate), accused Novic of giving legal advice to 
companies involved in money laundering.  There also were 
unsubstantiated media reports that Novic facilitated the 
movement and protection of Radovan Karadzic during his term 
as RS Interior Minister. 
 
MINISTER OF JUSTICE 
BARISA COLAK (BEAR-ee-sa CHO-lak), HDZ-BiH 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶14.  (SBU) Barisa Colak was born January 1, 1956 in Siroki 
Brijeg, West Herzegovina.  He completed high school in 
 
SARAJEVO 00000319  003 OF 005 
 
 
Mostar, where he also completed law school and was admitted 
to the bar.  Colak began his career at the Mostar City Court, 
where he later served as a judge from 1988-92.  When the war 
broke out and Bosnian Croats created the Republic of 
Herzeg-Bosnia in 1992, Colak was appointed its minister of 
justice.  After the 1994 Washington Agreement established 
cantons as sub-state organizational units, Colak was 
appointed Minister of Justice in the newly formed 
Herzegovina-Neretva Canton.  From 1996-1998, he served as the 
cantonal Prime Minister.  At the 1998 general elections, 
Colak was elected to the Federation House of Representatives. 
 After serving only two years of the four year mandate, he 
left the House to become the Federation Minister of Justice. 
 
¶15.  (SBU) From 2000-2002 Colak proved himself to be a loyal 
party soldier, obeying the orders of the HDZ party leadership 
and joining them in a boycott of state-level institutions as 
part of the "Croat Self-Rule" (third entity) movement.  In 
2002, after OHR and the international community removed Ante 
Jelavic as president of the HDZ and barred him from public 
office, Colak, with the support of the powerful Dragan Covic, 
became HDZ president.  Following the 2002 general elections, 
Colak was appointed BiH Minister of Security. He retained his 
position as HDZ President until 2005, when Dragan Covic came 
out of the shadows and officially took over leadership of the 
party.  Far from being upset that Covic took over, Colak 
appeared relieved to be out of the presidency position. 
Colak is not a strong politician, and his tenure as Minister 
of Security was unimpressive.  He seemed to be mostly a 
figurehead as minister, with all of the important work being 
done by his capable assistant minister Vjekoslav Vukovic. 
 
¶16.  (SBU) Colak is quiet and reserved.  Sent as a stand-in 
for Covic to the Dayton Anniversary celebrations in November 
2005 (Covic was under indictment and so not invited), Colak 
was visibly uncomfortable when asked to sign a declaration 
committing to move forward with constitutional reform.  When 
he tried to reach Covic by telephone, Covic was conveniently 
unavailable, leaving Colak hanging and backed into a corner. 
After much prodding by U.S. officials, Colak finally agreed 
to sign the declaration, but only after Croat Tri-Presidency 
member Ivo Miro Jovic (also of HDZ) agreed to sign as well, 
providing the political cover Colak needed.  Colak is married 
with two children.  He does not speak English. 
 
MINISTER OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND REFUGEES 
SAFET HALILOVIC (SAH-fet ha-LEEL-o-vich), SBiH 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶17.  (SBU) Safet Halilovic, most recently the BiH Minister of 
Civil Affairs, replaced SBiH's founder and President Haris 
Silajdzic, at the April 2003 party congress.  He stepped down 
upon Silajdzic's return to politics in early 2006.  Halilovic 
was a member of the SDA during the war, but left the party to 
join Silajdzic in 1996.  For four years, Halilovic was 
secretary general of the party.  He served as minister of 
 
SIPDIS 
education in the Sarajevo Canton government from 1998-2000. 
In 2000, Halilovic became chairman of the collective party 
presidency.  From 2000-02 he served as Federation President 
and Vice-President.  He is a professor at the Faculty of 
Political Science at the Univrsity of Sarajevo. 
 
¶18.  (SBU) Halilovic participated in the U.S. sponsored 
constitutional reform negotiations starting in late 2005. 
He attended the Dayton Anniversary in Washington in November 
2005, and signed the pledge, along with all other party 
leaders, that he and his party would strive to reach 
consensus on changes to the BiH constitution.  Upon his 
return to Sarajevo, however, Halilovic staked out maximalist 
positions, including: BiH without entities, BiH with a single 
president directly elected nationwide from one electoral 
unit, BiH with a single parliament directly elected, no House 
of Peoples, etc.  By the time the parties took up the most 
contentious issue, entity voting, Halilovic had withdrawn 
from the talks and had begun actively undercutting the 
process in the press. 
 
MINISTER OF SECURITY 
TARIK SADOVIC (TAH-reek SAHD-o-vich), SDA 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶19.  (SBU) Tarik Sadovic was born in Trebinje (now part of 
the Republika Srpska) in 1956.  After completing secondary 
school in Trebinje, he pursued a degree at the Faculty of 
Architecture in Sarajevo.  From 1981-92, Sadovic worked in 
 
SARAJEVO 00000319  004 OF 005 
 
 
Trebinje as an engineer, designer, and director of a design 
office.  He also worked part time as a professor in the 
Secondary School of Architecture in Trebinje.  Sadovic 
remained in Sarajevo during the war and afterwards continued 
designing buildings in Sarajevo.  He also worked as head of 
the office for resolving the status problems of refugees and 
displaced persons.  Before the war, Sadovic worked as 
volunteer President of the Council of Local Communities in 
the Municipal Assembly of Trebinje.  An active SDA member, 
Sadovic has maintained a strong presence on the political 
scene in Trebinje and in the RS National Assembly.  Sadovic 
has been member of SDA since 1996.  From 2000-02, he was an 
analyst and political associate in the SDA head-office in 
Sarajevo.  He has been a member of the SDA Main Board since 
2001 and a member of SDA Presidency since 2005. 
 
¶20.  (SBU) From 1997-1999 and from 2000-04 Sadovic was an SDA 
councilor in the local Trebinje Assembly.  From 1998-2006 he 
served as an SDA delegate in the RS National Assembly, and 
from 2003-06 he was Head of the SDA Caucus in RS National 
Assembly.  During his political career in Trebinje as local 
assembly council member, Sadovic showed a significant level 
of courage, especially during his first mandate, when 
Trebinje was an SDS stronghold.  He pressed for the provision 
of security to all citizens, the reconstruction of destroyed 
religious facilities, and the return of property to pre-war 
owners to help the return of the expelled Bosniak community. 
 
¶21.  (SBU) As Head of the Bosniak Caucus in the RSNA, Sadovic 
was active in expressing his views on difficult issues, but 
remained open to discussions with his political opponents. 
Given his SDA role, Sadovic supports the idea of 
Bosnia-Herzegovina as a multi-ethnic home for all citizens 
and is a strong supporter of SDA President Sulejman Tihic. 
Sadovic is married with two children.  He understands English 
well, although he is not comfortable speaking it.  The 
Embassy has enjoyed excellent cooperation with him over many 
years, and sent him on an IVP program in January 2006. 
 
MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS 
BOZO LJUBIC (BO-zho LYOO-bich), HDZ-1990 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶22.  (SBU) Ljubic was born September 30, 1949 and is an 
orthopedist by profession. He currently is a professor at the 
Medical School of Mostar University (West) and the President 
of HDZ 1990.  Ljubic was a member of the Croatian Democratic 
Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH) for many years 
before he came to prominence when in June 2005 he opposed the 
internal election of Dragan Covic to the party presidency, 
claiming election fraud.  In April 2006, the rift between 
Ljubic and party leaders escalated, and he led the formation 
of HDZ 1990. The new party was welcomed by the Roman Catholic 
Church and the president of the Croatian Democratic Union 
(HDZ) (and Croatian PM) Ivo Sanader.   Ljubic was the HDZ 
1990 candidate for the Croat seat in the state 
Tri-Presidency, but came in third with 18 percent of the 
vote, after both Zeljko Komsic of SDP and Ivo Miro Jovic of 
HDZ BiH. 
 
¶23.  (SBU) In 1998, Ljubic was the handpicked choice of HDZ 
President Franjo Tudjman to lead the Bosnian wing of the 
party.  But Ljubic was bested by the "generals' lobby" of the 
HDZ which defied Tudjman and instead elected Ante Jelavic as 
HDZ-BiH president. After the breakdown of the Croat Self-Rule 
(third entity) movement, Ljubic headed an HDZ team tasked 
with negotiating the return of the HDZ officials to 
Federation institutions. 
 
¶24.  (SBU) In 2005, when Ljubic again sought the presidency 
of HDZ but lost to Covic, he filed a complaint with the BiH 
Election Commission alleging the party election was fixed. 
Ljubic and several of his supporters eventually were ejected 
from the party in late 2005. 
 
MINISTER OF FINANCE 
DRAGAN VRANKIC (DRAH-gahn VRAN-kich), HDZ-BiH 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶25.  (SBU) Dragan Vrankic became Minister of Finance and the 
Deputy Prime Minister of the Federation in 2003.  Vrankic was 
selected to fill this post by Dragan Covic, the HDZ 
president.  Covic valued his assistance when he served as the 
cantonal Minister of Finance in Mostar in the late nineties, 
a period during which the HDZ political elite allegedly 
 
SARAJEVO 00000319  005 OF 005 
 
 
conducted many illegal privatization deals. 
 
¶26.  (SBU) Vrankic was born in 1955 in Capljina, Herzegovina. 
 He received a bachelor's degree in economics from the 
University of Dubrovnik.  Before the war, Vrankic worked in 
Energoinvest company's branch office in Capljina.  During the 
war, Vrankic was a municipal official in Capljina, where he 
served under the leadership of Pero Markovic, one of the most 
notorious hardliners in the HDZ.  The Capljina municipality 
was ethnically cleansed of all Bosniaks and Serbs, with many 
detained in Dretelj concentration camp. 
 
¶27.  (SBU) After the war, Vrankic served as Deputy Minister 
of Finance and then as Minister of Finance in the government 
of Herzegovina Neretva Canton (from 1996 to 2000).  Many 
suspicious privatization deals involving the HDZ leadership, 
including the privatization of the Mostar Aluminum plant, 
Eronet mobile network, hotel "Ero" in Mostar and the Soko 
aviation industry, all took place during Vrankic's mandate. 
He claimed that it was all done in accordance with existing 
laws.  He has never faced a formal investigation of his 
activities during that period.  Following the 2000 general 
elections, Vrankic served as Governor of the 
Herzegovina-Neretva Canton and supported the "Croat 
Self-rule" movement of HDZ President Ante Jelavic. 
 
¶28.  (SBU) In 2003, Vrankic became the Federation Minister of 
Finance, officially responsible for the functioning of the 
Federation Financial Police.  Vrankic made no secret of the 
fact that he wanted to overhaul the Financial Police, the 
institution that had investigated his party patron Dragan 
Covic.  Vrankic attempted to effect change by replacing the 
director and chief inspector with party loyalists.  The plan 
did not work, largely because of the strong backing of the 
Financial Police by the USG.  Vrankic does not speak English. 
 
MINISTER OF FOREIGN TRADE 
SLOBODAN PUHALAC (slow-BOW-dahn poo-HALL-ats), SNSD 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶29.  (SBU) Born on November 11, 1941 in Visegrad (now part of 
Republika Srpska), Puhalac completed elementary and high 
school in Visegrad and graduated from the Faculty of 
Agriculture of the University of Sarajevo.  He began his 
career at the "Plantaze" company in Bosanka Gradiska in 1975. 
 From 1979-84, Puhalac worked for the World Bank, advising 
agricultural producers in Yugoslavia.  In 1992, he became 
general manager of the "Poljoexport" company, which went 
public in 2002.  He now is the owner and general manager. 
Puhalac would likely have stayed out of politics altogether 
if he had not been heavily recruited by RS PM Dodik and BiH 
PM Spiric to become minister of foreign trade.  Puhalac lives 
in Laktasi (Dodik's hometown) with his wife and son. 
MCELHANEY