VZCZCXRO4416
OO RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHPS #0630/01 2320807
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 200807Z AUG 07
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7621
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC PRIORITY
RHFMISS/AFSOUTH NAPLES IT PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR TF FALCON PRIORITY
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000630 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/SCE 
NSC FOR BRAUN 
USOSCE FOR STEGER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/29/2016 
TAGS: PGOV ASEC PREL KV
SUBJECT: STRPCE'S ANTIPODE:  NORTHERNMOST ALBANIAN VILLAGES 
IN KOSOVO 
 
Classified By: CDA Alex Laskaris for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary: Albanians in Kosovo's Leposavic Municipality 
are concerned about their security and worried about the long 
term prospects for their three villages.  They eke out a 
modest living from agriculture and livestock, and are 
isolated from Pristina, UNMIK, Mitrovica and Leposavic.  They 
believe that mines placed on the single access road to their 
villages were designed to ensure that they made no effort to 
defy the parallel Serb structures that govern the north or to 
drive them from their homes.  We said that we had come to 
make sure that the villagers understood that we were aware of 
their existence and that -- as far as we are concerned -- 
Albanians in the north of Kosovo deserve the same protections 
and rights as Serbs in the southern enclaves.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  (U) Charge and two LES colleagues (POL/ECON and USAID) 
met in Bistrica with representatives of three villages: 
Bistrica, Seraya and Kosutova.  The three communities are 
some 10 kilometers east, and 800 meters above, Leposavic 
town.  In the late 1980s, the total population was 1,600; 
today there are some 300.  The villagers worked in the mines 
of northern Kosovo until 1990, when they were expelled from 
their jobs.  All three villages were destroyed in 1999 and 
the populations were driven out of their homes.  Today, most 
of the former residents live in south Mitrovica; many occupy 
the homes of Kosovo Serbs. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Charge opened the meeting by saying that we wanted 
to come up to demonstrate to the local residents that the USG 
is aware that there are Albanian communities north of the 
Ibar.  He added that just as we are concerned about the 
safety and viability of Serb communities in the south, the 
same applies to the seven Albanian villages in the 
Serb-majority municipalities of Leposavic, Zvecan and Zubin 
Potok.  He said that the US was committed to both the Contact 
Group's guiding principle of no division of Kosovo and the 
Ahtisaari plan's vision of a unitary state with decentralized 
local government. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Local representatives laid out two main concerns: 
their safety and their inability to secure funds from 
Leposavic earmarked for them by Pristina.  Most claimed that 
recent mines laid on the one access road into the villages 
had been placed to ensure that they understood that the Serb 
parallel structures governed the north.  Others said it was 
an attempt to get them to abandon the valley and the river 
that runs through it. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The villagers complained about lack of jobs and the 
difficulty of getting to and from Mitrovica, particularly in 
case of a medical emergency.  Most of the villagers raise 
livestock for sale in either Mitrovica or Vushtrri.  They 
have a relatively well-appointed primary school serving the 
three villages, but resign themselves to the fact that they 
will either terminate their children's education or send them 
away for school when they move on to the next level.  KFOR 
built them a rudimentary clinic and the PISG gave them two 
former UNMIK Toyota Forerunners.  Despite their poverty, they 
are hooked into the Serbian power system and have what they 
described as better electricity than any Albanian in Kosovo. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) They get daily UNMIK civpol patrols and twice-daily 
drive-bys from Serb KPS officers.  There is a French KFOR 
communications station on a hill above Seraya the villagers 
spoke highly of French KFOR's maintenance of the dirt road 
and the once-a-week visit by a French military doctor.  Their 
main security request to us was to have Albanian KPS officers 
participate in the patrolling of the area. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The villagers complained that they had been unable 
to access funds earmarked for them by Pristina and sent to 
the Leposavic Municipal authorities.  They added that they 
had lost the ability to implement several UNMIK projects 
because the municipality had not moved to accept the funding. 
 Charge said that he understood their predicament as it was 
similar to what is going on in Zvecan with the Albanian 
villages of Zhazha, Lipa and Boletin.  He said that the Serb 
 
PRISTINA 00000630  002 OF 002 
 
 
municipalities of the north had frozen cooperation with 
Pristina except insofar as the Albanian villages were 
concerned, adding that they should be able to go into 
Leposavic -- not as beggars - but as citizens securing what 
is theirs.  Charge said he would raise the issue in Pristina. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Taking advantage of the gathered VIPs at the August 
16 farewell for the German COM, Charge discussed the plight 
of the villagers with President Sejdiu, Prime Minister Ceku 
and PDSRSG Schook.  Ceku was delighted that we had visited, 
saying that he had family connections to Bistrica and knew 
the area well.  He said he would speak to Deputy PM and 
Minister of Local Government Haziri to see what could be 
done.  Ceku said that he had intervened in the cases of 
Zhazha, Lipa and Boletin and would do so again for the Zvecan 
villagers.  Schook said that he would raise the issue with 
UNMIK administrator for northern Kosovo Gallucci. 
 
¶9.  (C) Comment:  We will follow up to see if we can unblock 
financial transfers to these communities.  Like Serbs south 
of the Ibar, these villagers are canaries in the coal mine; 
they also share unique vulnerabilities and a common interest 
in decentralization per the Ahtisaari plan.  Like southern 
Serbs, these northern Albanians can either be the 
beneficiaries or the casualties of Kosovo-related diplomacy. 
LASKARIS