VZCZCXRO9811
OO RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHTRO
DE RUCNDT #0683 2122329
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 302329Z JUL 08
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4712
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 000683 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/25/2018 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KOC SE
SUBJECT: SERBIA FM JEREMIC ON ICJ: "I HAVE NO DISCRETION" 
 
REF: (A) STATE 80111 (B) BELGRADE 770 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Alejandro Wolff for Reasons 1.4 B/D. 
 
¶1. (C) In a July 25 meeting with Ambassador Khalilzad, 
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuc Jeremic insisted that Serbia has 
no choice but to activate a request through the United 
Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for an advisory opinion from 
the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legality of 
Kosovo's declaration of independence.  Jeremic said Serbian 
President Boris Tadic had won the recent Serbian election 
after promising the Serbian public that, if re-elected, he 
would seek an ICJ advisory opinion instead of filing lawsuits 
in the ICJ against states that recognized Kosovo, a course he 
said had been favored by former Serbian Prime Minister 
Vojislav Kostunica.  Inasmuch as Tadic's more moderate line 
prevailed over Kostunica's preference for confrontation, 
Jeremic said Serbia must follow through in the ICJ. 
 
¶2. (C) To the Ambassador's suggestion that an ICJ process 
would be not sit well with the Western states Serbia is 
otherwise actively cultivating (ref A), Jeremic replied, "I 
understand all your points about complicating EU membership 
and Euro-Atlantic integration, but I have no discretion on 
this."  He said he would return to New York in mid-August to 
activate the ICJ request through UNGA. 
 
¶3. (C) Jeremic allowed that an ICJ process might delay 
recognitions of Kosovo by UNGA members and said, "I won't 
pretend to be sorry about that."  He contended, though, that 
Serbia would seek to mitigate the coming confrontation by 
reiterating that, win or lose at the ICJ, Serbia would not 
file lawsuits against individual states over their 
recognition of Kosovo.  Further, he said, Serbia will present 
a straightforward question for referral to the ICJ -- is 
Kosovo's declaration of independence consistent with 
international law --  and would accept the resulting ICJ 
opinion even if ambiguous.  He contended that Serbia would be 
politically more free to work with Kosovo on practical, 
non-status matters with the ICJ case pending or behind them. 
 
¶4. (C) On EULEX deployment, Jeremic said only that express 
Security Council authorization is pre-requisite to Serbia 
acceptance of EULEX on the Kosovo scene.  On the Kovacevic 
consular case (ref B), Jeremic said his government has urged 
him to return voluntarily to the U.S. as being in his 
long-term interest and has fired one involved consular 
employee and will likely fire another.  He added though that 
the Serbian Constitution provides no possibility of 
extradition. 
Khalilzad