VZCZCXRO6589
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBW #1343/01 3650728
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 300728Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0822
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RHEHNS/NSC WASHDC
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0036

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 001343 
 
STATE FOR TODD BUCHWALD (L) AND AMB WILLIAMSON (S/WCI) 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL MARR SR KV
SUBJECT: SERBIAN AUTHORITIES ARREST NINE SERBIAN-CITIZEN ALBANIANS 
SUSPECTED OF KOSOVO WAR CRIMES 
 
REF:  BELGRADE 1059 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) On December 26 in southern Serbia's Presevo Valley, 
authorities arrested nine Serbian-citizen Albanians on allegations 
of war crimes committed against Serbs in neighboring Kosovo in 1999. 
 Police are searching for an additional eight suspects while 
judicial proceedings have begun in Belgrade.  Serbia's Albanians 
have protested the high profile way in which the arrests were 
carried out and the situation remains calm but tense.  While the 
Government insists that the arrests were not politically motivated, 
the high-profile arrests certainly will factor into Serbia's case 
against Kosovo independence with the International Court of Justice 
(reftel).  This case renews the urgency of preparing a convincing 
case for Kosovo's independence as Serbia attempts to win in the 
court of public opinion.  End Summary. 
 
 
Nine Ethnic Albanians Arrested 
------------------------------ 
 
¶2.  (U) In coordinated raids in Presevo Valley on December 26, 
Serbian special police anti-terrorist units and gendarmerie, acting 
on the  orders of Serbia's War Crime Prosecutor, arrested nine 
Serbian-citizen Albanians accused of war crimes stemming from the 
1999 Kosovo conflict, government and media sources report.  Minister 
of Interior Ivica Dacic and Minister for Local Self Government Milan 
Markovic were on the scene in south Serbia overseeing the police 
action.  The suspects were brought to Belgrade where they were 
questioned by an investigating judge of the War Crimes Chamber and 
placed in pre-trial detention for 30 days.  The nine are accused of 
being former members of the Foreign Legion branch of the Kosovo 
Liberation Army (KLA) and of involvement in the kidnappings of 159 
Serb civilians and the murder, torture and rape of at least 51 
persons in the area of Gnjilane, Kosovo from June to October 1999. 
 
 
 
Government:  Operation Not Political 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶3.  (SBU) In a December 26 meeting with Contact Group ambassadors 
(Quint plus Russia), Serbian Ministry for Foreign Affairs Political 
Director Borko Stefanovic said the action was not political, but 
rather a legal process.  Stefanovic said the police action had been 
coordinated under the auspices of War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir 
Vukcevic.  According to media reports, Dacic called on Albanians in 
South Serbia to remain peaceful, insisting that the police actions 
were not directed against Albanians, but rather against alleged war 
criminals.  "Serbia, naturally, participates in investigations of 
war crimes in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.  We think that 
the whole world should learn what kinds of crimes were committed 
against the people of former Yugoslavia, especially in Kosovo," 
Dacic told B92 media on December 27. 
 
 
Vukcevic Describes Evidence 
--------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) In a December 29 meeting, Vukcevic told us that the 
investigation hinged on the cooperation of a local informant, now in 
witness protection, who had been a member of the KLA's "Gnjilane 
group" and who had provided explicit details about the war crimes 
carried out in 1999 as well as the present whereabouts of the 
perpetrators.  After investigating 17 individuals for several 
months, the Prosecutor's office decided to act now because several 
of the suspects had come to Presevo for the New Year's holiday; 
Vukcevic also said that concern for the informant's safety was a 
factor in the timing.  Nine had been apprehended and transferred to 
Belgrade; Serbia will seek Interpol warrants for the remaining eight 
individuals, four of whom are "well-known Kosovo Albanian criminals 
who are feared by the local population," according to Vukcevic. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Reading to us from the criminal charges, Vukcevic detailed 
the crimes the group was alleged to have committed, including 
dismembering a Serbian woman by tying her arms and legs to cars, and 
torturing and killing several individuals in a basement and then 
chopping up their remains.  Vukcevic told us that the defendants had 
already corroborated the details of the events in Gnjilane during 
questioning, but each had denied personal involvement.  The 
informant had identified 52 victims from photo albums f missing 
persons, and prosecutors had already questioned an additional 15 
potential witnesses who were tortured and released in Gnjilane, 
 
BELGRADE 00001343  002 OF 002 
 
 
according to Vukcevic. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Photos of the defendants in KLA uniforms, heavy weaponry 
such as machine guns, and explosive materials were found in their 
houses during the raids, Vukcevic said, adding that anti-terrorism 
officials had begun the case but he had assumed jurisdiction when 
the war crimes allegations surfaced.  Vukcevic also told us that 
Minister of Interior Dacic's decision to go to Presevo and 
personally announce the arrests came as a surprise, as Dacic has 
minimized the role of his Ministry in previous war crimes-related 
arrests such as Radovan Karadzic.   Vukcevic told us that it was 
Dacic who decided to allow the press to film the defendants being 
led into custody in Belgrade, a step he did not agree with and which 
angered many Presevo Albanians.  Missing persons' activist Natasa 
Kandic told us that such a public display of police power was 
unnecessary and evidence of political pressure to demonstrate that 
Albanians committed war crimes.  She also confirmed that at least 80 
Serbs were killed, 35 of whom remain missing, in Gnjilane, and 
expressed hope that the Serbian authorities had arrested the right 
people for the crimes. 
 
 
Extensive Media Coverage in Serbia 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Serbian press has spared no ink in detailing the alleged 
gruesome details of the crimes, including the dismemberment, but 
also allegations that the accused killed their victims in as 
time-consuming a fashion as possible to drag out the suffering. 
(These are similar, if not identical, de-humanizing tactics used by 
the Milosevic-controlled media to justify Serbian aggression, not 
just in Kosovo, but also in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia.) 
 
 
South Serbia Peaceful but Tense 
------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Albanians in southern Serbia protested the arrests and the 
supposed harsh police tactics used in the operation.  On December 
26, the sole ethnic Albanian Member of Parliament Riza Halimi told 
us the situation was calm but said there were allegations of police 
mistreatment during the arrests.  On December 28, a crowd estimated 
by embassy sources at between 1,000 to 1,500 persons peacefully 
demonstrated in Presevo, calling for the release of the accused and 
condemning the alleged police brutality.  Protesters carried 
Albanian flags and banners that read, "KLA warriors don't belong in 
jail," "We want freedom in our areas," "Stop with searches," and 
"NATO in Presevo Valley."  OSCE Mission staff based in South Serbia 
told us on December 29 that local leaders demanded the release of 
the suspects by January 5 or daily protests would begin. 
 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) War Crimes Prosecutor Vukcevic has proven himself in the 
past to be a serious professional who prosecutes with vigor, 
regardless of ethnicity, and with great risk to his own personal 
safety.  Nevertheless the timing and drama of the arrest belie 
assertions that the Presevo operation was apolitical.  As Dacic's 
comments and actions show, the government is intent upon shining a 
spotlight on these alleged crimes as further evidence that Serbs 
were the primary victims in Kosovo in the 1990's.  Embassy once more 
renews its request that the U.S. argument for the legality of 
Kosovo's independence at the ICJ spare no effort in detailing 
Serbian actions, from revocation of Kosovo autonomy in 1988, 
repression of Kosovo's Albanians throughout the 1990's, through 
Serbian atrocities leading up to the NATO bombing.  By the lurid 
nature of these arrests and the surrounding publicity, Serbia is 
quite clearly building its case as the victim.  End Comment. 
 
BRUSH