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RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBW #0591/01 1651801
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 131801Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0050
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0005
RHEHNS/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RXFEAA/AFSOUTH NAPLES IT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 000591 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KPAO SR MW KV
SUBJECT: SERBIA - KOSOVO MINISTRY WAITING CONSTITUTION AND 
GOVERNMENT 
 
REF: BELGRADE 579 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  As Kosovo prepares to enact its new constitution 
on June 15, Serbia's Ministry for Kosovo is cautiously 
watching, but not actively planning any major response to 
the event, and is expecting that little on the ground will 
change in the near term.  Kosovo Minister Slobodan 
Samardzic will travel to North Mitrovica on June 14 in an 
obvious effort to keep the Kosovo issue festering in the 
minds of Serbs during this period of government formation. 
Like the rest of the government, the fate of the Kosovo 
Ministry is uncertain, and the future role of the ministry, 
if any, will be left to the new, most likely pro-European- 
led government.   End Summary. 
 
Constitution:  No Immediate Change Expected 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The Government of Serbia does not expect there to 
be a significant change on the ground with the enactment of 
Kosovo's constitution on June 15, Assistant Minister for 
Kosovo Ljubomir Kljakic told us on June 11. (Since Kosovo's 
February 17 declaration of independence, Post's direct 
access to Minister Samardzic has been severed.  Post 
continues to engage the ministry at the assistant minister 
and special advisor levels.)  Samardzic will be in North 
Mitrovica on June 14 and 15 meeting with local Serb 
officials when the constitution goes into effect, Kljakic 
said.  Despite the implementation of the constitution, 
Serbia would expect UNMIK to continue performing its 
functions after June 15, and that is with whom Serbia would 
continue to engage, said Kljakic.  He admitted, however, 
that afterwards the issues of communication would become 
more complex and "discussions must start between all 
parties to resolve unresolved issues." 
 
Serb Assemblies Will Be in Place By Constitution 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Before the new Kosovo Constitution, all of the new 
local assemblies in the Serb majority municipalities of 
Kosovo will be constituted, Kljakic said.  Although legally 
the political composition of the municipal assemblies 
should be fixed once they are constituted, Kljakic 
acknowledged that it may change after Serbia forms its 
national government.  Ultimately municipal leaders will 
have to work with Belgrade and whomever is in power in the 
central government, Kljakic said.  He said the new 
assemblies would not work with the Kosovar authorities in 
Pristina, but admitted that some "umbrella" mechanism would 
need to be created to resolve the "daily life" problems of 
the Serb communities and the other neighboring 
municipalities. 
 
Ministry Sees Announcement on Property as Hollow Gesture 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Kljakic disregarded a June 11 article in the 
Belgrade-based Vecernje Novosti newspaper which explained 
that the Kosovo Property Agency (KPA) had started to 
deliver the first decisions on property decided by the 
Kosovo Property Claims Commission (KPCC) to Kosovo Serb 
claimants.  According to the article, the first 97 
decisions were recently handed over to Kosovo Serb 
claimants and an additional 400 decisions should be 
delivered by the end of June.  Kljakic said the news was 
merely "political propaganda" from Pristina in a vain 
effort to convince Serbs prior to the constitution that the 
Kosovar government cared about their interests.  (Post 
understands that the resolution of these claims represents 
an important break in a logjam of an estimated 40,000 cases 
awaiting adjudication.  Many other cases have already been 
resolved through the KPA and its predecessor institution, 
however.) 
 
Kosovo Ministry Currently on Hold 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Like most other government offices, the Kosovo 
Ministry remains in limbo under the current technical 
government, and has become increasingly inert since the May 
11 elections.  "Without a full government it is difficult 
 
BELGRADE 00000591  002 OF 002 
 
 
to act as you would wish," Kljakic said.  He expected that 
the state strategy on Kosovo would remain the same 
regardless of whether President Boris Tadic's Democrats 
(DS) or Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic 
Party of Serbia (DSS) formed the next government.  Since 
Serbia's next government will not choose to recognize 
Kosovo's independence, "the politics of the next government 
will be the same except with tactical and rhetorical 
corrections," he said. 
 
Kosovo Ministry:  Should it Stay or Should it Go? 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) If outgoing Prime Minister Kostunica were to 
succeed in forming the new government, the DSS would 
maintain the Kosovo Ministry, Kljakic confirmed to us.  He 
and others were less certain, however, what a government 
led by President Tadic's Democratic Party would chose to do 
with the ministry.  Kljakic said a DS-led government may 
chose to find another venue to handle Kosovo issues, but he 
admitted this was only his speculation at this stage. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Others within the Kosovo Ministry speculated that 
it would be politically difficult for a new DS-led 
government to dismantle the Kosovo Ministry, which has been 
a significant source of nationalist sentiment on the Kosovo 
issue over the past year.  Kosovo Ministry Advisor Stanko 
Blagojevic told us on June 7 that he expected the ministry 
to remain the same size (about 100 people) no matter which 
party formed the next government.  He thought the DS could 
possibly even increase the size of the ministry if they 
came into power, as a way of overcompensating for what he 
described as their "less rigid" Kosovo policy.  He thought 
only a DSS-Radical government with its solid anti-Kosovo 
independence credentials could be in a political position 
to decrease the size of the ministry (i.e. "Nixon to 
China"). The best idea would be to dismantle the ministry 
and create a much smaller special directorate within 
another ministry, political insider and publisher of VIP 
News Report Bratislav Grubacic told us on June 10. 
Socialist Party leader Ivica Dacic also told us on June 10 
that his party did not want to inherit control of the 
ministry in a new DS-led government, since the ministry 
would most likely not be responsible for policy but rather 
just cultural and economic coordination (reftel). 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) While Minister Samardzic continues to find ways 
to stoke the Kosovo issue, the rest of the Kosovo Ministry 
has become increasingly inactive under the technical 
government, awaiting a decision on its future political 
bosses.  In such limbo the Kosovo Ministry has resigned 
itself to promoting the status quo in Kosovo.  End Comment. 
 
 
MUNTER