VZCZCXRO4474
PP RUEHIK
DE RUEHPS #0533/01 3351929
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 011929Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9519
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 1284
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1821
RHFMIUU/AFSOUTH NAPLES IT
RHMFISS/CDR TF FALCON
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEPGEA/CDR650THMIGP SHAPE BE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RUZEJAA/USNIC PRISTINA SR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000533 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/SCE, INL, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR KDEM EAID SR KAWC KV
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: HITMAN'S CONFESSION SHAKES KOSOVO POLITICAL 
ESTABLISHMENT 
 
REF: PRISTINA 518 
 
PRISTINA 00000533  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED Q PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Kosovo's political establishment has been shaken 
following allegations that Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) 
officials were involved in assassination plots during an effort to 
consolidate power from 1999 to 2003.  A Democratic League of 
Dardania (LDD) member of parliament, Gani Geci, first introduced the 
assassination charges on the floor of the Kosovo Assembly on 
November 26, claiming that he had a videotaped confession to the 
killings from a former operative of the Kosovo Information Service 
(SHIK), the PDK's now disbanded intelligence wing.  The former 
operative, according to Geci, had evidence of SHIK involvement in 
assassinations that targeted Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) 
officials. (Note: Geci was once a member of the LDK and was wounded 
in an assassination attempt in 2001.  Two others were killed in the 
same attack. End Note) On November 29, Geci released the video 
confession to the media and identified the purported SHIK operative 
as Nazim Bllaca. 
 
¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY (cont.): Later that day, Bllaca held a press 
conference in front of the Assembly in which he confessed to one 
murder; said that he was involved in 16 additional cases of murder, 
beatings, and torture; and charged that prominent PDK officials 
ordered his criminal acts.  Television outlets have aired Bllaca's 
video in its entirety, and the local media are fixating on the story 
to the near exclusion of any other current event.  On November 30, 
EULEX arrested Bllaca, but not before it came under criticism from 
the government and diplomatic circles, including European Quint 
ambassadors, for responding too slowly.  Bllaca is currently under 
house arrest.  The veracity of Bllaca's claims is not clear, but his 
assertions have reopened old wounds, and the incident is perceived 
as more than just a crime story.  It is a political sensation that 
has rocked a PM already recovering from an ill-fated ploy to kick 
the LDK out of government (reftel).  EULEX's handling of the case is 
also being closely followed as a test of its commitment to go after 
"big fish." END SUMMARY 
 
GECI GRABS THE HEADLINES 
------------------------ 
 
¶3. (SBU) On November 26, Gani Geci, a deputy from the opposition 
Democratic League of Dardania (LDD), interrupted an Assembly debate 
on the European Commission's report on Kosovo to announce that he 
had evidence that senior government and parliamentary officials were 
involved in the attempted and successful assassinations of Kosovo 
Assembly deputies.  He waved a DVD in the air and asked Speaker 
Jakup Krasniqi to play the disk for the Assembly.  Geci is a former 
member of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), and he was making a 
reference to assassination attempts from 2000-2001 against LDK MPs 
that included himself, Adem Salihaj, and Agim Veliu.  The Democratic 
Party of Kosovo (PDK), including Jakup Krasniqi and caucus leader 
Rame Buja, argued against airing the DVD in the Assembly.  LDK 
caucus leader Lutfi Haziri attempted, but failed, to win support for 
forming an ad hoc committee to review the evidence.  Geci's initial 
claim sparked media speculation, but he offered no details to 
substantiate his allegations. 
 
A HIT MAN CONFESSES TO THE PRESS 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) On November 29, Gani Geci and Adem Salihaj, who, like Geci, 
is a current member of LDD who had previously represented LDK in the 
Assembly, held a press conference in the Kosovo Assembly building 
where they distributed to the media copies of the DVD that Geci had 
previously proffered to the Assembly.  The DVD contained the 
confession to murder and other crimes of an individual named Nazim 
Bllaca, who claims that he was once a member of the PDK's shadowy 
intelligence and clandestine operations group, the Kosovo 
Information Service (SHIK), which disbanded in 2008, the day before 
Kosovo's constitution came into force.  Geci and Salihaj invited 
journalists to meet Bllaca in front of the Kosovo Assembly. 
 
¶5. (SBU) During his meeting with the media, Bllaca said that he 
worked for SHIK from 1999 to 2003 and participated in approximately 
 
PRISTINA 00000533  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
17 crimes -- including assassinations, assassination attempts, 
beatings, threats, and blackmail -- at SHIK's direction.  He told 
the media that he worked for PDK presidency member Azem Syla and 
took his direct orders, including the names of people targeted for 
assassination, from Syla's son-in-law, Shpresim Uka.  Bllaca 
explained that he thought he had been acting on behalf of Kosovo and 
targeting traitors and those who had collaborated with Serbian 
authorities, but he said that he later came to believe that factions 
within SHIK were pursuing other agendas. 
 
A MORE DETAILED VIDEO CONFESSION 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Bllaca offers greater detail in his DVD confession, which 
many media outlets broadcast in its entirety.  In addition to Syla, 
he implicates other senior PDK officials, notably: Xhavit Haliti (MP 
and Assembly Presidency member), Fatmir Limaj (Minister of 
Transportation), and Fatmir Xhelili (Deputy Minister of Internal 
Affairs).  During the video confession, Bllaca says that he worked 
in the execution pillar of the SHIK, which assassinated 
"collaborators," LDK officials, and ICTY witnesses.  According to 
Bllaca, SHIK's actions against LDK intensified when former president 
Ibrahim Rugova returned, and SHIK felt it needed to take action 
against "LDK heads" in order to counter his influence.  Bllaca 
offers detailed accounts of events surrounding a number of murders 
and other acts of violence that he attributes primarily to Azem 
Syla.  Among his accounts of crimes and misdeeds, Bllaca also claims 
to have committed one murder himself. 
 
PM, PRESIDENT CALL FOR RESPECT FOR RULE OF LAW 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶7. (SBU) According to our sources, the day after the news broke, 
Prime Minister Thaci met with President Sejdiu (LDK) and tried to 
secure (and failed to get) a joint press appearance to reassure the 
country that Bllaca's claims were spurious.  On November 30, Thaci 
convoked the Quint Ambassadors and noted that the primacy of the 
rule of law was key in this instance and that he supported a full 
investigation of the Bllaca allegations devoid of politics.  After a 
special session of the Kosovo Security Council which Thaci called to 
address the situation, he issued similar statement to the media. 
President Sejdiu, who met with the Charge to discuss the incident 
November 30, also issued a statement to the press, calling for 
respect for the judicial process, as well as for calm among Kosovo's 
citizens.  Sejdiu's private message echoed Thaci's: respect for the 
rule of law is paramount, and the Bllaca case should be turned over 
to law enforcement and judicial institutions for proper, 
non-political investigation. 
 
A DEFINING MOMENT FOR EULEX 
--------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) On November 30, the day after Bllaca's video aired, Thaci 
leaned on EULEX Deputy Head of Mission Roy Reeve to take immediate 
action and arrest Bllaca (EULEX Head Yves de Kermabon was out of the 
country).  He also complained to the Quint that EULEX had prevented 
Kosovo authorities from arresting Bllaca while not moving quickly 
enough itself to deal with the matter.  EULEX did take Bllaca into 
custody on November 30, but EULEX had originally planned to arrest 
Bllaca much later in the week.  Government, public, and diplomatic 
pressure prompted it to act sooner.  At a December 1 Quint meeting, 
European ambassadors (except the French), criticized EULEX's 
handling of the Bllaca case and characterized it as a test of 
EULEX's credibility.  The Italian, German and British heads of 
mission all said it was key for EULEX to be seen as "on the ball" in 
this critical case.  Quint ambassadors called for EULEX to move 
beyond its mantra of technical monitoring, mentoring, and advising 
to a position of "political responsibility" and sensitivity to local 
political developments. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Nazim Bllaca's sensationalist confession has captured 
Kosovo's full attention.  On the day when Kosovo offered its defense 
of the legality of its declaration of independence before the 
 
PRISTINA 00000533  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
International Court of Justice, Kosovo's front pages focused only on 
allegations of political assassinations.  We do not know where the 
truth lies in Nazim Bllaca's yarn, but its immediate impact is 
powerful and negative for a weakened Prime Minister and his PDK 
party, which is still reeling from an ill-advised attempt to dump 
LDK from the coalition.  It confirms a common perception among 
Kosovo citizens that PDK is ruthless and prepared to employ violence 
to achieve its goals, and it does nothing to help PDK as it moves to 
mayoral runoff elections on December 13.  That said, the crisis 
could yet prove to be an opportunity for EULEX and for Kosovo.  If 
EULEX investigates Bllaca's allegations against top PDK officials 
thoroughly, and powerful men are called to account for their 
actions, this incident could help Kosovo to deal with the legacy of 
political violence from the immediate post-conflict period as well 
as persuade citizens that the "the rule of law" is more than just a 
slogan.  For now, a EULEX judge on December 1 ordered Bllaca held 
for 30 days house arrest pending further investigation. 
 
MURPHY