VZCZCXRO9622
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHVJ #1577/01 2040833
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 230833Z JUL 07 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY SARAJEVO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6660
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUFOAOA/USNIC SARAJEVO

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SARAJEVO 001577 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR (DICARLO), EUR/SCE 
(HOH/FAGAN/STINCHCOMB), AND L/EUR (MANSFIELD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR BK
SUBJECT: BOSNIA - IT IS TIME TO PUT BRCKO BACK ON THE 
POLITICAL AGENDA 
 
REF: A. 06 SARAJEVO 2397 
 
     ¶B. 06 SARAJEVO 2199 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Since the Peace Implementation Council's 
December 2007 decision not to close OHR, our central concern 
regarding Brcko has been the District's disput%&QJkQQ! of Brcko's relationship 
with the 
State (Ref A).  With the ITA dispute behind us, it is time to 
refocus our energies on putting in place the mechanisms that 
would allow the Brcko District Supervisor to notify the 
Tribunal that the conditions of the Final Award have been met 
and the High Representative to recommend to the PIC the 
termination of the Supervisory Regime.  The core elements of 
our strategy remain those issues identified by the Working 
Group on the Status of Brcko District in June 2006, 
particularly adoption by the State-level parliament of the 
amendments to the Law on the Council of Ministers (CoM) and 
the draft Law on the Brcko District.  Since last fall, there 
has been encouraging progress on the former, but we have 
learned after preliminary consultations with political 
leaders that the latter would have to be supplemented by a 
package of constitutional amendments.  Unfortunately, Brcko 
politics have been complicated by the Tribunal's decision to 
issue an Addendum to the Final Award that threatens to derail 
the progress made by the Working Group as well as undercut 
our broader objectives in Bosnia.  We would like to be in a 
position to close out the Supervisory Regime by the end of 
¶2008.  Getting there will require a concerted push on Brcko 
this fall, including another meeting of the Working Group in 
September.  END SUMMARY 
 
Law on the CoM Moving Towards Final Passage 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) The Amendments to the Law on the CoM would provide a 
legal basis for the office of the Coordinator of Brcko 
District in the CoM, which was established in 2005 by a 
political agreement between then PM Adnan Terzic and Brcko 
Mayor Mirsad Djapo.  The Brkco District Office facilitates 
communication between the Council and the District and 
provides much-needed representation to Brcko in the executive 
and legislative branches of government.  The amendments were 
approved by the BiH House of Representatives (HoR) in their 
first reading on July 4, 2007.  We anticipate minor changes 
to them before they are submitted to the HoR for a second 
reading, at which point they would go to the House of Peoples 
for consideration.  An attempt to pass the amendments in 
September 2006 was blocked by the Bosnian Serbs (Ref B), but 
we anticipate no problems this time. 
 
Draft Law and Constitutional Amendments on Brcko 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶3. (SBU) After the Working Group completed its negotiations 
over the draft Law on the Status of Brcko (Ref A), Brcko 
Supervisor Raffi Gregorian met with Bosnian political leaders 
to discuss the importance of regularizing the legal status of 
Brcko's relationship with the State.  At the time, political 
leaders accepted the need to address these issue before 
international supervision of the District could end. 
However, several key political leaders suggested that 
essential provisions of the law, such as those that would 
provide Brcko with access to the Constitutional Court and 
some form of representation in the Bosnian parliament, were 
unconstitional.  These leaders indiciated a willingness to 
consider a modified version of the draft law along with a 
package of constitutional amendments to resolve Brcko's 
status.  In light of these exchanges, OHR-Brcko prepared a 
package of possible constitutional amendments, which it has 
shared with the Embassy in its capacity as Chair of the 
Working Group (Note: We have provided L/EUR with an a copy of 
them via e-mail). 
 
¶4. (SBU) Our assessment is that any constitutional amendments 
should focus on key issues identified from previous exchanges 
within the Working Group, namely providing for a direct 
reference to Brcko in the constitution, providing for Brcko's 
representation in parliament, and ensuring Brcko's access to 
the Constitutional Court. (Note: It will likely be important 
 
SARAJEVO 00001577  002 OF 002 
 
 
that constitutional reference to Brcko describe it as held in 
"condominium by both entities" in order to secure support 
from Republika Srpska MPs. This is the language used in the 
Final Award itself, so it should be acceptable to Brcko and 
Federation MPs. End Note). As was the case with OHR-Brcko's 
proposals for the draft law, their proposed constitutional 
amendments go well beyond these three areas. 
 
Out of the Blue: An Addendum to the Final Award 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶5. (SBU) The Tribunal's decision to isssue an Addendum to the 
Final Award on June 25 has complicated Brcko politics and 
will likely make U.S. efforts to secure political agreement 
on a package of amendments and a modified draft law more 
difficult.  The Addendum approved the OHR-imposed solution to 
Brcko's ITA dispute and terminated the pending proceeding on 
it.  However, it also established Brcko's right to consent to 
any transfer of competencies by the entities to the State, if 
that transfer has the effect of significantly diminishing the 
ability of the District to function as single, unitiary, 
multi-ethnic, democratic government for the Brcko Opstina. 
The ruling presents serious practical political problems. 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) The obvious practical concern is that the Tribunal 
offers no guidance as to who will determine whether a tranfer 
of competency would be detrimental to Brcko in the manner 
identified by the Addendum.  The most likely candidates -- 
the Brcko Supervisor or the Tribunal -- should be disbanded 
by the end of 2008.  The much more serious political problem 
is that the Addendum, by giving Brcko the right to sanction 
any transfer of competencies to the State, appears to make 
Brcko a de facto third entity.  Also, by not making any 
distinction between past and future transfers of competency, 
and the Addendum appears to provide Brcko with an avenue for 
challenging past reforms, such as the High Judicial and 
Prosecutorial Council (HJPC). 
 
¶7. (SBU) Not surprisingly, Brcko officials are quite pleased 
with the Addendum.  It provides them with precisely what they 
were demanding during Working Group negotiations over the 
draft law, a de facto veto on changes to their competencies. 
OHR-Sarajevo was shocked and outraged by the Addendum. 
OHR-Sarajevo's understanding was that there was a political 
agreement to find a satisfactory resolution of Brcko's ITA 
dispute outside the Tribunal.  This would result in dismissal 
of the ITA-related proceedings, which would, in turn, make a 
ruling on the larger question of transfer of competencies 
unnecessary (Note: That was the Embassy's understanding as 
well. End Note).  Representatives from the entities are also 
angry about the Addendum, and according to OHR, they have 
suggested that they are now considering legal challenges to 
provisions of the Final Award itself. 
 
Comments and Recommendations 
---------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) While the fate of the Supervisory Regime and OHR are 
not legally connected, we continue to believe that the 
Supervisory Regime should end at about the same time time OHR 
finally closes.  Therefore, just as we geared up in fall 2006 
to resolve Brcko's status in anticipate of OHR's closure in 
summer 2007, we now need to plan to put Brcko back on the 
political agenda this fall in order to prepare for OHR's 
closure in summer 2008.  We also continue to believe that 
passage of the draft law, now along with constitutional 
amendments, would be insufficient for the Supervisor to 
certify that the conditions of the Final Award have been met. 
 The Supervisor, correctly in our judgment, will want to 
ensure that the law and amendments are implemented.  This 
means securing their passage by early 2008 to allow the 
Supervisor sufficient time to make that judgment.  With this 
in mind, we anticipate that the Working Group will have to 
meet in September to negotiate a final version of the 
amendments and make corresponding changes to the draft law. 
That said, the Tribunal's Addendum has grealty complicated 
the task, and we will need to develop a strategy for 
addressing it and the inevitable political fallout it 
generates once the Bosnian body politic fully grasps its 
significance. 
MCELHANEY