VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBW #0861/01 2390619
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 260619Z AUG 08
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0330
INFO RUEHVJ/AMEMBASSY SARAJEVO 0014
RUEHPS/AMEMBASSY PRISTINA 0005

UNCLAS BELGRADE 000861 
 
EUR/SCE FOR PETERSON AND KOKTA, EUR/ACE FOR KEETON, H FOR CHARTRAND 
AND CARTER 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL SR
SUBJECT: SERBIA:  STAFFDEL DESAI'S AUGUST 14 - 17 VISIT 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) During an August 14-17 visit to Serbia, a staff delegation 
from the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on State, 
Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (HACFO) heard about the 
benefits and importance of U.S. assistance from a wide variety of 
Serbian interlocutors and delivered a consistent message that Serbia 
needed to put its best foot forward in order to remain competitive 
in the battle for shrinking assistance funds.  End Summary. 
 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) The HACFO staff delegation consisted of Nisha Desai-Biswal 
and Clelia Alvarado from the majority and Anne Marie Chotvacs and 
Mike Ringler from the minority.  On August 15 the delegation met in 
Belgrade with the Country Team, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 
Ministry of Defense, political analysts, multilateral donors, and 
civil society representatives and also attended a reception for 
exchange alumni, journalists, MPs, bilateral donors, and USAID 
partners.  The group traveled to Southern Serbia on August 16 for 
meetings with the leadership of Vranje and for site visits to the 
American Corner, Animated Film School, and USAID projects Natural 
Food and Fontana Dairy. 
 
¶3. (SBU) During the meeting with Dragana Filipovic, Director of the 
MFA's Americas Division, Desai underscored the difficulty of 
continuing to appropriate assistance funds when Serbia projects an 
image of not wanting to engage with the United States through such 
acts as the February 21 attack on Embassy Belgrade, the 
Kosovo-related contact policy preventing high-level dialogue, and 
the failure of Miladin Kovacevic to return to the U.S. to stand 
trial in the May 4 assault on Amcit Bryan Steinhauer. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Filipovic said that Serbia would return Ambassador Ivan 
Vujacic to Washington soon, possibly in September, to finish his 
mandate; he then would be replaced with someone who could establish 
a new dialogue with the new U.S. administration.  After first 
arguing that the USG was blowing the Kovacevic case out of 
proportion, Filipovic took the delegation's point regarding its harm 
to bilateral relations and Serbia's image abroad.  She promised to 
work toward resolution of that case and the other bilateral 
irritants in order to facilitate more frequent, higher-level 
dialogue between the Serbian and U.S. governments.  She added that 
the remaining Hague indictees would be arrested, "the sooner the 
better." 
 
Ministry of Defense 
------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) The Chief of the Military Cooperation Department in the 
Ministry of Defense, General (ret) Milorad Peric, stressed the 
importance of maintaining a full normal relationship between the 
United States and Serbia.  He explained that the priorities for 
military-to-military cooperation with the United States were 
increased education and advanced studies of Serbian Armed Forces 
members, expanded cooperation within the State Partnership program 
with Ohio, and greater participation in foreign military sales. 
General Peric mentioned the likelihood of Serbia opening a mission 
to NATO at the beginning of 2009 and stressed good cooperation with 
KFOR at the technical level. 
 
Political Analyst Goran Svilanovic 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Former Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic bluntly told the 
staffdel that the United States no longer was able to affect 
day-to-day events in Serbia, because U.S. power was on the wane.  EU 
influence in Serbia was far greater, he said, and as a result, 
Serbian-U.S. relations now need to "go through Brussels." Svilanovic 
stated that the EU and the United States should speak with one voice 
and focus Serbia on the EU accession process through an approach he 
termed "Copenhagen Minus and SAA Plus Plus."  This would entail 
extending candidate status to Serbia at the soonest possible date, 
while foreseeing an extensive and intensive negotiating process that 
would preoccupy politicians and prevent them from playing up 
nationalism. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Svilanovic added that Kosovo and the Kovacevic case were 
obstacles to deeper ties, but that Serbia could not allow itself to 
drift away from the West or become the heart of anti-U.S. and 
anti-Western sentiment in Europe.  Svilanovic commented that Foreign 
Minister Jeremic's recent visits to Malaysia and Iran raised the 
question of where Serbia's interests lay, acknowledging that such 
actions did not send a pro-Western message. 
 
¶8. (SBU) He characterized the situation in the Western Balkans as 
"still a mess."  He expressed concern about the deteriorating 
political climate in Bosnia-Herzegovina since the failure of the 
April 2006 constitutional reform package. If Bosnia breaks up into 
two separate states, Milosevic would "win from the grave," an 
eventuality which the United States and the EU must prevent by 
asserting in no uncertain terms that no more states would be created 
in the region.  Regarding Kosovo, Svilanovic criticized the lack of 
communication between Belgrade, Pristina, UNMIK, EULEX, and NATO. 
He raised the possibility that Belgrade might be able to engage 
EULEX through the UN. 
 
International Donor Community 
----------------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Representatives from the World Bank, the European Bank for 
Reconstruction and Development, the Organization for Security and 
Cooperation in Europe, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees 
emphasized the importance of success in Serbia for a stable future 
for the Western Balkans.  All of the donors underlined the 
importance of U.S. assistance to Serbia and stated that it 
complemented well their own programs and those of the European 
Union.  Whereas assistance from the EU tended to be targeted to 
legislative benchmarks needed for EU membership, U.S. assistance had 
been able to delve deeper into technical areas and gain the trust of 
GOS counterparts.  This has allowed donors to work together on 
fundamental issues such as pension reform, securities and capital 
market reform, and development in Southern Serbia.  The donors 
emphasized that continued USG assistance to Serbia was needed to 
support success, not just prevent failure. 
 
¶10. (SBU) The staffdel emphasized that Serbia needed to understand 
that "the clock is running" on U.S. assistance, that Serbia had 
limited time to make good use of assistance, and that given budget 
deficits, a slowing economy, and competing demands for U.S. 
assistance in other parts of the world, it was uncertain how much 
longer U.S. assistance to the Balkans could be sustained. 
 
Round Table on Civil Society and Rule of Law 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) The staffdel met with leaders of five Serbian NGOs -- the 
Center for Free Elections and Democracy, the Faculty of Political 
Science's Center for U.S. Studies, the Belgrade Center for Human 
Rights, Fraktal, and Civic Initiatives.  During a meeting held at 
the American Corner in Belgrade, the NGOs told the delegation that 
the United States and the EU had different priorities for assistance 
with democratization:  the United States focused on helping people 
become active citizens, while the EU focused more on democratizing 
institutions.  U.S. funding was faster and more flexible, making it 
crucial for responding to urgent situations, while EU funding was 
devoted to projects which may take years to complete.  The NGOs 
agreed that as such the need for U.S. assistance remained great. 
 
Visit to South Serbia 
--------------------- 
 
¶12. (SBU) In Vranje, the delegation met with Mayor Miroljub Stojcic 
(Socialist Party of Serbia), Assembly Speaker Slobodan Stamenkovic 
(Democratic Party) and their deputies.  Mayor Stojcic expressed 
gratitude for Vranje's participation in the USAID Municipal Economic 
Growth Activity (MEGA) program and for past U.S. assistance to the 
municipality.  He deemed cooperation with the Embassy, and USAID in 
particular, a success and said he hoped that this cooperation will 
be maintained in the future. 
 
¶13. (SBU) The delegation made site visits to two beneficiaries of 
the Security Contingency Planning and Economic Security (SCoPES) 
program, the Natural Food mushroom processing company and the 
Fontana Dairy.  Oliver Varagic, owner of Natural Food, explained how 
U.S. assistance would allow him to expand production over the next 
five years.  At the Fontana Dairy, a small ethnic Albanian-owned 
family business in Presevo, the staffdel heard about the importance 
of U.S. assistance in developing one of the most economically 
depressed regions of Serbia.  Zeinulla Ibrahimi, Fontana's owner, 
stated that he had received no support from the central and local 
government; USAID was the only organization that had offered 
assistance to his company, which indirectly supports 600 Serb and 
Albanian families. 
 
¶14. (SBU) The delegation met with several prominent Serb and 
Albanian politicians from the Presevo Valley.  Shaip Kamberi (Party 
for Democratic Action-PDA) and Stojanca Arsic (Serb citizens group), 
the current and former mayors of Bujanovac, agreed that U.S. 
assistance played an indispensable role following armed conflict in 
the region in 2000-2001.  Arsic stated emphatically that the future 
of Serbia was in Europe and that continued assistance was needed to 
pursue this goal.  Riza Halimi, Albanian MP and head of the PDA, 
contrasted the lack of interest by the national government in 
developing South Serbia with the positive role played by the United 
States.  He stated that he and the other minorities in the 
Parliament did not support the current government's Kosovo contact 
policy. 
 
¶15. (SBU) The delegation also visited the American Corner in Vranje 
and the Animated Film School, a past aid recipient, where there was 
an opportunity to meet with American Corner staff, exchange alumni, 
and some of the children involved in an upcoming cross-cultural 
workshop. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶16.  (SBU) Embassy Belgrade very much welcomes the Staffdel Desai 
visit.  Though we had been delivering the same message to our 
Serbian counterparts -- that their image in Washington was that of 
non-cooperation and assistance was finite -- hearing the message 
come directly from Congress was invaluable.  Embassy thanks Staffdel 
Desai for their interest in Serbia and looks forward to more such 
visits in the future.  End Comment. 
 
¶17. (U) This cable has been cleared by the staff delegation. 
 
MUNTER