VZCZCXRO3352
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBW #0017/01 0091503
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 091503Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0840
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 0001

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 000017 
 
DEPT FOR G/TIP, EUR/SCE 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM PHUM SR
 
SUBJECT: NEW SERBIAN ANTI-TIP COORDINATOR DISCUSSES PLANS 
 
REF: 08 Belgrade 1186 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) Serbia appointed a new Anti-Trafficking Coordinator, Mitar 
Djuraskovic, in November.  Djuraskovic, a police officer with 
anti-trafficking experience, quickly developed a plan for 2009, 
which includes improving the current anti-trafficking institutional 
framework and planning for the next few years.  Djuraskovic said 
challenges in the near-term included lack of funds and lack of good 
statistics on current anti-trafficking investigations and 
prosecutions.  There was positive news from 2008 -- a major 
anti-trafficking trial concluded this year, and police arrested 
dozens of traffickers.  Djuraskovic is enthusiastic, capable, and 
interested in our suggestions.  We look forward to working with him. 
 End Summary. 
 
New Coordinator has Anti-Trafficking Experience 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶2. (U) We met with Mitar Djuraskovic, who was appointed National 
Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Persons on November 19, 
2008, to discuss Serbia's plans for the coming year and 
accomplishments in 2008.  The National Coordinator position was 
vacant for nearly a year when the previous coordinator, Border 
Police Chief Dusan Zlokas, retired and was not replaced. 
Djuraskovic, who is also the head of the Department for Combating 
Cross-border Crime and Criminal Intelligence Affairs in the Border 
Police, has been working anti-TIP issues for many years and 
participated on the Republic Team to Combat Trafficking in Persons. 
 
 
2009 Plan Completed 
------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Djuraskovic said Interior Minister Dacic had instructed him 
immediately to write an action plan for 2009, noting that the Action 
Guide we presented to the government in November (reftel) stated 
Serbia needed one.  Djuraskovic cautioned that it was not yet a 
"real action plan," because he had had little time to draft it and 
had not been able to consult his NGO partners.  According to the 
draft plan, much of the work of the Minister-level Council to Combat 
Trafficking in Persons and working level Republic Team, which have 
not met for several months, would focus on planning and 
institutional strengthening in the first part of 2009.  The Council 
and an Advisory Board including international organization 
representatives would both meet in January.  Meetings of working 
groups on Prevention, Protection of Victims, Prosecution, and 
Trafficking in Children would begin in February, and the Republic 
Team would meet in March.  He planned a two-day workshop in April to 
develop a more robust action plan for 2010-2012.  Djuraskovic 
stressed that he would insist that representatives to these 
multi-ministry bodies be fully committed to the work and not 
representatives in name only. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Although lack of time and budgetary issues would prevent 
complex activities in 2009, Djuraskovic said several activities were 
possible for the year.  For example, he planned to launch an 
anti-trafficking website and better publicize Interior's 
anti-trafficking hotline.  Djuraskovic also planned a round table in 
March to bring in experts from outside the region to discuss the 
links between corruption and trafficking, a subject on which there 
was no regional expertise.  He also planned training in April for 
100 police, prosecutors, and judges on the same topic.  The round 
table and subsequent training would be expensive and require donor 
funds, which he hoped to assemble from UNHCR, UNODC, and IOM 
programs. 
 
Challenges for Anti-Trafficking Work 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶5. (SBU) Djuraskovic said lack of funds could be an obstacle to 
increasing anti-trafficking activity.  The financial crisis and 
difficulties establishing a national budget created uncertainty in 
how much funding would be available for anti-trafficking work in 
¶2009.  Djuraskovic said he was trying to make the point that 
prevention and raising awareness would be more important than ever 
during the economic crisis because people would be more vulnerable 
to exploitation.  In the meantime, several projects were on hold. 
For example, he had an idea for a competition for 20,000 Euros worth 
of NGO projects aimed at reducing demand for "exploitation 
services," but he had no funds.  Serbian government funds programmed 
in 2008 to produce "Modern Slavery," a thirteen-part television 
series on trafficking aimed at young people, had never been 
released, and Djuraskovic said he believed it would be difficult to 
get the funds in 2009. 
 
 
BELGRADE 00000017  002 OF 002 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) Statistics for every phase of law enforcement and 
prosecution were also a challenge, Djuraskovic said.  He noted that, 
without a detailed statistical analysis, it was impossible to 
determine where and how the government needed to improve efforts. 
For example, he knew that there had been 32 charges filed against 
traffickers in 2008 through October, but he did not know how many 
traffickers were involved in each case, how many and what type of 
victims, or what phase of prosecution those cases were now in.  Data 
from the Statistical Agency showed Anti-Trafficking Law convictions 
but not when the original arrests had been made or sentences. 
Interior now had a database funded by the International Center for 
Migration Policy Development to track and cross-reference arrests, 
charges, investigations, trials, appeals, and sentences, and had 
started entering data for new police investigations, but there was 
as yet no data from the Ministry of Justice.  He said he hoped the 
Council in its first meeting would identify a mechanism for sharing 
information to populate the database. 
 
Successes in 2008 
----------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Djuraskovic noted that there had been some progress in 
anti-trafficking efforts in 2008, despite the challenges.  For 
example, the "Jet Set" trial, in which the Novi Pazar deputy public 
prosecutor was arrested and tried, had concluded.  Nine people had 
received sentences ranging from time served to eight years, the 
maximum penalty.  In the first 11 months of 2008, 32 criminal 
charges were filed against 74 persons for trafficking in human 
beings, and 40 victims, mostly Serbian citizens, were identified. 
 
Biographical Note 
----------------- 
 
¶8.  (U) Mitar Djuraskovic was born in 1967 and has spent most of his 
career in law enforcement.  He graduated from the University of 
Belgrade Law Faculty and then worked at the Belgrade District Court 
as an apprentice.  In 1997 Djuraskovic joined the Belgrade police. 
He was first an Inspector for Foreigners and was then assigned to 
the Border Police Directorate.  In May 2002, after the National Team 
to Combat Trafficking was established, he was appointed associate to 
the then-National Coordinator and a member of the Team's advisory 
Board.  Djuraskovic was named Head of the Department for Combating 
Cross-border Crime and Criminal Intelligence Affairs in 2005, a 
position he still holds.  He was appointed Anti-Trafficking 
Coordinator on November 19, 2008.  Djuraskovic speaks some English. 
He has never been to the United States.  In our previous 
interactions with him, he was a helpful and enthusiastic contact. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Djuraskovic is experienced in anti-trafficking work, and he 
has cooperated well with us in the past.  Our NGO contacts also 
praise him for being helpful and cooperative.  He also appears to 
have Dacic's support, and he and Dacic both clearly are interested 
in USG suggestions.  Despite the challenges ahead, Djuraskovic's 
ideas and enthusiasm suggest the government's anti-trafficking 
efforts will increase, although it may take some time for results to 
show.  End Comment. 
 
BRUSH