VZCZCXRO3315
OO RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBW #1160/01 2291726
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 171726Z AUG 07
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1331
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 001160 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PBTS PREL PGOV KPAO KV SR
SUBJECT:  KOSOVO WEEKLY: KOSTUNICA TARGETS NATO 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: Serbian leaders generally termed the Kosovo 
Troika's first visit to Belgrade as positive and a new start -- 
leaving behind the Ahtisaari's proposal.  The DSS quickly dismissed 
partition of Kosovo as unacceptable and instead made pronouncements 
alleging that NATO is trying to form a "state" in Europe through 
Kosovo independence.  Deputy PM Djelic made news by hinting at a 
policy change regarding Kosovo debt maintenance that we expect the 
GOS will not implement. End Summary. 
 
GOS "SATISFIED" WITH TROIKA 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) After the August 10 Belgrade meeting of Serbian officials and 
the mediating Troika, President Tadic said in a cabinet statement 
that the new negotiations present an opportunity to find a 
compromise solution on Kosovo.  He underscored that any final status 
decision must come from the UN Security Council.  PM Kostunica noted 
in the same statement that the Ahtisaari plan cannot be the basis of 
the new talks.  FM Jeremic told the press that Belgrade resolutely 
rejects Maarti Ahtisaari's plan and Kosovo independence.  Minister 
for Kosovo Samardzic claimed that the Troika did not mention the 
Ahtisaari plan and called it a good sign.  Samardzic said that 
Serbia was "satisfied" with the visit and the Troika format. 
 
NO PARTITION 
------------ 
 
¶3. (U) The GOS and Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) publicly rejected 
EU Envoy Ischinger's widely publicized suggestion that the Troika 
would not oppose partition (among other things) if both Belgrade and 
Pristina agree to it.  On August 13, a spokesman for Kostunica's DSS 
party told the press that partition was "unacceptable" for Serbia. 
More dramatically, SOC Church Bishop Artemije told Dnevnik that he 
preferred imposed independence to partition because "everything that 
is imposed is temporary."  Artemije also said that an imposed 
solution would be tantamount to occupation and "every 
occupation...ends."  Artemije added that the "offer" of EU 
membership to Serbia does not help "when the EU is the one that is 
ripping apart our national identity." 
 
DSS: NATO WANTS A STATE 
----------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Increasingly, senior DSS officials echoed the political 
theory that NATO is using Kosovo independence to obfuscate an 
intention to create a "NATO state."  Last week, Kostunica advisor 
and UNOSEK negotiator Aleksandar Simic told NIN magazine that some 
in the international community are using Kosovo independence to 
"establish a NATO state."  Simic added that "a careful analysis of 
Ahtisaari's proposal, and especially of provisions in Annex XI, 
raises the issue as to whether the world is faced for the first time 
with the efforts of a military alliance to create its own state 
where civilian institutions would not restrict its military might." 
Simic warned that with NATO would control, without limits, all 
military presence in Kosovo and that "Camp Bondsteel would 
practically be the capital of an 'independent' Kosovo." 
 
¶5. (SBU) Senior DSS officials have built on this theory and 
increasingly targeted NATO (and the USG by thinly veiled 
association) as a scheming force behind Kosovo independence.  On 
August 11, Interior Minister (and deputy DSS head) Dragan Jocic told 
Beta Saturday the U.S. "must give up on its project" to "create a 
NATO state," based on Annex 11 of the Ahtisaari plan.  Jocic called 
on the U.S. to withdraw support for the Ahtisaari plan and to 
support negotiations based on a "strong framework of international 
law and the Serbian constitution."  On August 13, DSS spokesman 
Branislav Ristivojevic told reporters that Serbia is hearing "from 
NATO, and from the country that stands behind NATO, the U.S,...a 
kind of supreme cynicism. If we agree not to discuss their 
intentions, then we can be their allies and partners."  Speaking for 
his party two days later, Ristivojavic told Tanjug news agency that 
Serbia should not join NATO if it must "give up on Kosovo" to do so. 
 
 
¶6. (U) On August 14, Education Minister and senior DSS official 
Zoran Loncar used even stronger terms.  According to wires, Loncar 
said that NATO capitalized on "problems with the ethnic Albanian 
population in Kosovo" to "create its first military puppet state." 
Loncar said NATO "bombed Serbia, brought its troops to Kosovo," and 
is now using Annex 11 of the Ahtisaari plan "to set up a state of 
its own" without limits to military power.  He said "Serbia will 
never allow NATO to create a quasi-state on its territory." 
Finally, on August 15, Kosovo Minister Samardzic added his voice and 
called on the U.S. to abandon the idea of creating "[their] NATO 
state" in the form of independent Kosovo. 
 
¶7. (SBU) In a surprising display of solidarity with DSS cabinet 
members, Labor and Social Policy Minister Ljajic said on August 15 
dismissed the threat of violence in Kosovo as "a bad model for 
solving a political problem" and that Kosovo negotiations should 
have no deadline.  Ljajic, who ran with Tadic's DS party in the 
January 2007 elections, had refrained from such public mimicry of 
 
BELGRADE 00001160  002 OF 002 
 
 
the Kostunica line until now. 
 
 
DJELIC MAKES NEWS ON DEBT, POLICY CHANGE UNLIKELY 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Unsourced news reports this week cited an alleged statement 
in July by Deputy PM Bozidar Djelic that he plans to raise Serbia's 
financing of Kosovo's debt with the World Bank (at the fall meetings 
in Washington). Djelic noted that while Serbia services Kosovo's 
debt, taxes from Kosovo citizens go to UNMIK (actually the PISG). 
Thus, he felt the Bank should not hold Serbia responsible for the 
debt. 
  Thus, he felt the Bank should not hold Serbia responsible for the 
debt.  It does not appear that Djelic's comments have any blessing 
from those with actual authority on Kosovo political and economic 
policy.  (Note: The GOS has refrained from asking the Bank to erase 
Kosovo debt as it would undermine Serbia's sovereignty claim over 
Kosovo. End note.) 
 
¶9. (SBU) Econoff has raised this issue in several introductory 
calls.  At the technocrat level, several contacts admit they would 
like to find a way to get the debt off their books, but each of them 
have commented that any decision would only be made at the highest 
political levels and they did not foresee any change in the current 
policy.  To push the debt off their books would involve signing a 
document that would not fit with the leadership's negotiation 
strategy, and just to stop paying it would restrict Serbia's access 
to future loans.  Post will continue to follow this issue. 
 
 
REPORTED USG STATEMENTS 
----------------------- 
 
¶10. (U) RTS reported on August 15 that U.S Special Envoy for Kosovo 
Frank Wisner telling Serbian VOA service that the framework 
principle of the mediation mission for the Kosovo status talks is 
based on the Contact Group principles but that the Troika is 
prepared to consider all ideas presented by Pristina and Belgrade. 
Wisner reiterated that Ahtisaari's plan is "very much alive" and 
that enjoys support of many countries. 
 
DIPLOMATIC ACTIVITY 
------------------- 
 
¶11. (U) Russia: Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexeyev was quick to 
clarify, in comments to Vercernje Novesti on August 14, that Serbia 
that had not raised partition during or following the visit of the 
Troika.  Alexeyev said that the first official mention was that of 
EU envoy Wolfgang Ischinger. Russia's Troika representative 
Aleksandar Botsan-Kharchenko was quoted in local press on August 15 
as saying that the plan offered by Ahtisaari is not a basis for the 
negotiations and described claims that Kosovo's partition is an 
option as "spurious." 
 
¶12. (U) KFOR: On August 15, B92 cited KFOR Commanding General Roland 
Kather as saying that "the Kosovo situation might reach violence if 
the mediating Contact Group Troika does not persuade the parties to 
arrive at an agreement."  Kather also said that "patience is not 
endless and the decision about Kosovo's future status has to be made 
as soon as possible." Kosovo Ministry State Secretary Dusan 
Prorokovic responded in the press by saying that KFOR is ultimately 
responsible for Kosovo's stability. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶13. (SBU) The DSS has added the specter of a "NATO state" to its 
Kosovo policy campaign to its repertoire of sensationalist 
propaganda for the domestic and international consumption. 
Kostunica and his ministers had been quiet since late June, when 
their anti-U.S. rhetoric culminated into a "battle for Kosovo" 
between the U.S. and Serbia, "between power and justice."  Kostunica 
renewed hard-line rhetoric that still plays well to the 
nationalists.  Kostunica has also seized on a target of opportunity 
to use Kosovo to pry away public support for NATO integration, 
something DS would have publicly protested in the past.  Tadic and 
his DS ministers' silence has spoken for them this time.  End 
Comment. 
 
MUNTER