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Viewing cable 09BELGRADE276, SERBIA CONTINUES TO DELAY ADOPTION OF VOJVODINA STATUTE

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09BELGRADE276 2009-03-30 15:14 2011-08-26 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Belgrade
VZCZCXRO4114
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBW #0276/01 0891514
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 301514Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1127
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RHEHNS/NSC WASHDC
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0069
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 000276 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/SCE (P. PETERSON) 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM SR
SUBJECT: SERBIA CONTINUES TO DELAY ADOPTION OF VOJVODINA STATUTE 
 
REFS:  A) Belgrade 138, B) 08 Belgrade 1026 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
1.  (SBU) The Vojvodina Statute, the governing legislation for the 
Serbia's only remaining autonomous province (and one of the most 
prosperous parts of the country), remains off the National 
Assembly's agenda.  The statute is foreseen in Serbia's 
Constitution, but nationalist groups continue to criticize the 
statute as a slippery slope to Vojvodina's secession from Serbia. 
While the Democratic Party (DS) has repeatedly promised to make 
minor changes and adopt the Statute "soon," continued delays in 
passing even the prerequisite legislation needed before the Statute 
is adopted call DS's intent into question.  Vojvodina parties are 
concerned about possible changes to the Statute and whether it might 
remain in limbo due to differences between the DS in Vojvodina and 
national level officials in Belgrade.  End Summary. 
 
Statute Still in Limbo 
---------------------- 
 
2.  (SBU) Despite assurances from the government that it would 
complete work by mid-March on the Law of Vojvodina Competencies and 
amendments to the Vojvodina Statute, the governing legislation for 
the autonomous province (Ref A), progress has been slow.  Democratic 
Party (DS) Vice President and Vojvodina Executive Council President 
Bojan Pajtic told us February 25 that the government would complete 
work on the Law on Competencies, a prerequisite for the Statute, 
within a week or two then send it to the National Assembly.  Pajtic 
said that the Vojvodina Assembly would then need to change the 
Statute slightly to conform to the Constitution and the new law, and 
then send it to the National Assembly for confirmation. 
 
3. (SBU) The Law on Competencies Working Group got off to a slow and 
confused start, but there appears to have been some progress 
recently.  Media reported March 26 that the draft Law on 
Competencies had been delivered to Pajtic the day before.  After 
meeting with Pajtic in Novi Sad on March 25, Economy Minister 
Mladjan Dinkic announced that the National Assembly would pass the 
Law on Competencies and confirm the Statute by the end of April. 
Pajtic told the Ambassador on the same day that the amendments were 
minor and the Statute as adopted by the Vojvodina Assembly had been 
purposely overly ambitious, because "if you do not raise 
expectations, then nothing will be done." 
 
Coalition Partners Frustrated 
----------------------------- 
 
4. (SBU) DS's Vojvodina coalition partners have been speaking out 
against the continual delays and at being left out of whatever 
changes DS is making to the Statute.  League of Vojvodina Social 
Democrats (LSV) leader Nenad Canak told us on February 28 that if DS 
changed even one word of the Statute, his party would not vote for 
it, since the Vojvodina version had already represented a compromise 
between the coalition partners.  Both LSV Vice President Bojan 
Kostres Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM) leader Istvan Pasztor 
have complained publicly about delays and rejected any attempt to 
change the text of the Statute.  Privately, Pasztor told us February 
26 he feared the changes would be essential rather than minor.  The 
Hungarian Political Counselor told us March 18 that SVM had 
complained that the DS was not involving its coalition partners at 
all in discussions of the Statute. 
 
Conflict within DS? 
------------------- 
 
5. (SBU) The many delays since the Vojvodina Assembly passed the 
Statute in October (Ref B) call into question whether the Statute 
will be on the National Assembly's agenda in the near future.  Canak 
(LSV) told us he was not sure that President Tadic wanted the 
Statute to pass, because Tadic felt politically threatened by 
Pajtic, who is very popular in Vojvodina.  Since Pajtic had staked 
his reputation in Vojvodina on passing a Statute with greater 
autonomy for the province, Tadic could bring him down by taking no 
action on it, according to Canak.  Our contacts have told us that at 
the March 1 DS Main Board session, however, Tadic supported Pajtic 
on the Statute in the face of opposition from DS Vice President 
Dusan Petrovic and Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic. 
 
Nationalist Rhetoric Continues 
------------------------------ 
 
6. (SBU) Meanwhile opposition parties continue to claim that the 
Statute is separatist and attempt to link it to the loss of Kosovo. 
At a panel discussion on March 1, Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) 
 
BELGRADE 00000276  002 OF 002 
 
 
head Vojislav Kostunica accused the government of "giving up the 
state" by accepting the Ahtisaari Plan for Kosovo and adopting the 
Vojvodina Statute, which would lead to Vojvodina's secession.  On 
the tenth anniversary of the start of the NATO intervention, the DSS 
hung a banner on a Novi Sad bridge reading "1999...bombs then, 
Statute now...2009!!!  The end justifies the means."  DSS spokesman 
Borko Ilic accused the government of bowing to international 
pressure to pass the Statute.  Pajtic told us the attacks were 
baseless and said the issue would completely disappear a week after 
the National Assembly's confirmation of the Statute. 
 
No Secessionists in Vojvodina 
----------------------------- 
 
7. (U) Despite nationalist rhetoric attempting to draw parallels 
between the two former Yugoslav "autonomous provinces," there are 
key differences between Vojvodina and Kosovo's histories and current 
political situations.  Both Vojvodina and Kosovo were given the 
status of autonomous provinces of Serbia in the 1974 Yugoslav 
constitution and enjoyed far greater powers than those provided for 
by the Statute today, including seats in the Yugoslav Collective 
Presidency alongside the six constituent republics.  While 
Vojvodina's autonomy, like Kosovo's, was rescinded by the 1989 
Serbian constitution, Vojvodina had a different and less painful 
fate.  During the late 1980s as Milosevic was moving to consolidate 
power, Belgrade-engineered protests in Vojvodina (the "Yogurt 
Revolution") focused on the "ineptitude" of the provincial 
politicians and bureaucrats and did not have an ethnic component 
that resulted in the tragedies in Kosovo.  There was never violence 
in Vojvodina nor any question in the 1990s that Vojvodina was not 
part of Serbia. 
 
8. (SBU) The ethnic composition of Vojvodina has created a much 
different political dynamic than in Kosovo.  Before it joined the 
Kingdom of Serbia in 1918, Vojvodina was part of the Serbian Empire, 
the Kingdom of Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman 
Empire, among others.  Each ruler encouraged different ethnic groups 
to settle in the area.  This history left Vojvodina with over two 
dozen ethnic groups today, but the province has long been 
predominantly ethnic Serb.  (Experts estimate that the province 
currently has 1.5 million Serbs and only a couple of hundred 
thousand minorities.)  Both the ethnic diversity and large ethnic 
Serb population have prevented identification of the province as a 
whole with any one country outside of Serbia. 
 
9. (SBU) Today, no mainstream political group in Vojvodina calls for 
secession from Serbia or returning to a "motherland."  LSV, the main 
proponent for increased Vojvodina autonomy, is not an ethnic party; 
it wants to return to the level of autonomy Vojvodina enjoyed from 
1974-1988, which LSV argues helped all of Serbia prosper.  LSV links 
the need for greater autonomy to a need for decentralization 
throughout Serbia.  Officials from Vojvodina's Executive Council 
travelled around Serbia in January promoting Vojvodina autonomy as a 
first step in strengthening other regions of Serbia, an idea Pajtic 
said was gaining support. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
10. (SBU) Passage of the Statute is required by the 2006 
Constitution and should have been fairly straightforward, but has 
instead been complicated by internal DS divisions.  DS 
hypersensitivity about exposing itself to nationalist rhetoric has 
given ammunition to the ultra-nationalists by keeping the Statute in 
the public eye so long.  While the issue has no direct impact on 
bilateral relations with the United States -- and it would be 
counterproductive for us to comment publicly -- greater autonomy for 
Vojvodina's institutions would allow them to manage the province 
more efficiently.  I would also be an important step in Serbia's 
efforts to decentralize government, which is not only key for 
enhancing democracy and responsiveness to citizens but is also an 
important precondition for receiving EU structural funds.  End 
Comment. 
 
MUNTER